This community development project is connected to DYNM 629: Organization Development Proseminar. The Mantua Cares project is a local chapter of the Adopt A Neighborhood Development (A.N.D.) program whose mission is to foster the self development of communities while serving as an advocate for community leaders and their importance to society. Mantua Cares involves the redesign and development of Mantua, a residential community on the border of the University of Pennsylvania. Helping to supervise students is Dr. Russ Ackoff, Distinguished and Emeritus Professor of Management Science and Dr. Jason Magidson former Director of Innovation Processes for GlaxoSmithKline and now a partner at Wildfire Commerce. The Executive Director of Mantua Cares is Mr. E. Darnell Ryans

Student participants become familiar with Ackoff's theory and methodology for change through interactive planning and organizational redesign and will work directly with members of the community as they design their own future. Interactive Planning is and has been used worldwide in corporations of every size and type including GSK; by governments including the US White House; NGOs and other nonprofit settings, as well as in communities and cities including Paris.

This research project is designed to help build organizational and executive coaching into a professional academic discipline by (a) identifying and entering into a global coaching resource website all academic institutions (worldwide) that offer graduate-level programs in organizational and executive coaching, and (b) engaging leadership of these programs in a peer-review of a proposed graduate coaching curriculum.

In February 2008, in honor of the 89th birthday of Professor Russell Ackoff, Distinguished Affiliate Faculty in Organizational Dynamics and Anheuser Busch Professor Emeritus of Management Science in the Wharton School, the Russell Lincoln Ackoff Systems Thinking Library and Archive was established: The library is used regularly for meetings, presentations, and holds Professor Ackoff’s academic books, papers, manuscripts, photos, books written by students and colleagues who attribute thanks to him, and his personal library. This project involves establishing within this resource the world’s largest systems thinking portal.

The project also includes establishing the Marvin Weisbord Archive, an online video library holding original interviews and discussions gathered by Marv Weisbord with the leaders of systems thinking and organization development and change theory and practice over the past 50 years.

The United Kingdom National Health Service (NHS) and the Manchester City Council have joined forces in a joint venture to form the Points4Life project which has a mission to improve health and tackle health inequalities in Manchester, a city with the worst health in England, including one of the lowest life expectancy in the country. It will work in the same way as many of the well-known point schemes in the airline and other markets. Members of the public will join the scheme and will earn points when they engage in healthy behaviors. They will then be able to redeem those points for healthy products and services. Outcomes include increasing physical activity, eating healthy diet, maintaining healthy weight, stopping smoking, limiting alcohol consumption, and increasing health screening.

Our project will be the US pilot project and will have two components: First, to what degree can a version of Points4Life be enacted in one or more Philadelphia-area communities? Second, when enacted, to what degree can we measure similar outcomes?

The Penn Coaching Program at CHOP was designed to assist The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) in its efforts to develop and sustain a coaching culture within its healthcare system. Five Senior Organizational Dynamics coaching graduate students have provided faculty-supervised coaching to middle managers of CHOP between January and October, 2008. The coaches followed guidelines established in the Organizational Coaching coursework, built on the principles of client-centered coaching and using a comprehensive methodology that assisted the clients in establishing a career enhancing development goal, gathering data, developing and implementing an action plan. Outcomes are reflected in the following comments from Madeline Bell, COO, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia:

"The true measure of success of our coaching program is in the outcome, and I can say that I am overwhelmed by the outcome! If you recall, we were initially unsure if we should include one of the candidates, but we took a chance by allowing one of the Penn coaches to work with the person, and did it pay off! Now this person is a high performer and slated for accelerated development in our leadership development talent mapping. Another case was a person on an accelerated development path. I do not believe that promotion would have been in the cards without the coaching support. So, from my vantage point, the Penn Coaching Program at CHOP has been a tremendous success. Coaching is very much a part of our leadership development plan and I hope that we can continue the Penn relationship."