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The Craft of Professional Work:

The Development of a Higher-Order Workstyle

Today’s dynamic business environment is punctuated by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. To

excel and outperform the competition and not simply cope with the rate of changing conditions, the inability to

know and predict, the enormous amount of unfiltered information that have a causal bearing on a given situation,

and the inability to understand what is happening requires an elevated pool of talent with a new set of talent

competencies. Being adequate or good enough simply doesn’t work anymore. Organizations that fail to develop

their talent suffer high costs from the malaise of adequacy. Talented and trustworthy people are a critical

intangible resource that reduces uncertainty and provides a high level of confidence and resilience in a dynamic

environment.

Our challenge is to develop the talent competencies that provide individuals with the ability to anticipate changing

conditions, to make sense and understand the consequences of issues and actions, to appreciate the

interdependence of variables, to prepare for alternatives and challenges, and to innovate and not merely imitate.

To reach for, attain, and sustain high-performance at the individual level and optimal performance at the group

and organizational level, requires us to transcend our current concept of “work” and orient ourselves toward a new

model of work.

The goal of this seminar is to help individuals edit, re-orient, and think differently about their work. It’s the

development of a higher-order workstyle that results in high-performance at the individual level and optimal

performance at the group and organizational levels. We will add professional work to their talent equation to assist

them in entering the rarified air of high-performance. At this level, individuals develop the peripheral knowledge

and situational adaptability to prepare to be curious, ask the open-ended questions, see the big picture, and apply

new and novel ways of thinking to solve the wicked problems that can’t be analyzed in conventional ways.

We will examine the development of unique personal talent. We will present and codify the unconscious into a

framework of eight dimensions of conscious professional practice. This framework is a new type of work model for

the development of a constructive culture in a mature, collegial, collaborative work environment. It is an

environment for the self-motivated, autonomous work of talented colleagues in which optimal performance is

attained and sustained. This framework generates dynamic organizational capabilities and becomes a sustainable

competitive advantage that is renewable and scalable. We will show how professional work delivers high-

performance, is developed, and maintained within a work organization. We will fill-in that missing piece in our

work that will give people a level of certainty and confidence in what they are doing is right and will have a positive

impact. In a nutshell, we will scientifically answer the question… What separates the professional from the novice

and the amateur?

To assess the current performance of your work group or team, an assessment link is provided below that will

help you determine the performance of your work group or team. A score will be provided at the end of the 5-10

minute survey.

http://surveys.coolwerx.com/s3/Step-1-Workstyle-Assessment

Seminar Format

This seminar is an active learning format that is modeled and very similar but not as intense to those experienced

in a PhD program. It is participant led and instructor guided/facilitated. This seminar is a process of: preparation,

guidance, presentation, questioning, discovery, and active learning grounded in real world application. To

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participate in this type of active learning requires preparation on the participant’s part prior to the seminar. The

seminar is centered on the book, Professionalism 101: Optimal Performance Within the Work Organization written

by Dennis Heinrich and is available on Amazon.com for examination and purchase. Each participant will act as a

discussion leader and present and advance concepts for their assigned topic. Discussion members will prepare to

discuss the concepts in each of the topics.

This seminar is a two day seminar comprised of sixteen total hours and limited to twenty-five individuals.

Dennis Heinrich is a work management consultant and social scientist who specializes in high-performance talent

development. He has been a member of two extreme organizational cultures. Extreme in the sense that members

form bonds so strong that they readily sacrifice their life for others. It is based on high trust where a successful

outcome allows little room or no margin of error.

Firefighter for the City of Davenport, Iowa (24 years)

Active and reserve combat military veteran retiring after serving in Afghanistan in 2002 where he was

Chief, Close Air Support Operations Center at Bagram Air Base (30 years)

Dennis has also been a member of two somewhat unique organizational cultures. Unique in the sense of the level

of work autonomy and collegial work environment afforded these occupations.

Educator at the secondary education level and at the university level

Researcher at the University of Iowa studying high-performance work organization systems

PhD Candidate at the University of Iowa studying organizations, occupations, work, and social

psychology

Below is a link for the introduction of the seminar in an abbreviated form to accompany this seminar

information sheet. This introduction video is for individuals desiring a general overview of where the

seminar will take the participants. It is provided in YouTube for online viewing.

Seminar Introduction_abbreviated_ The Craft of Professional Work: The

Development of a Higher-Order Workstyle

YouTube Link

Below is a link for the full introduction of the seminar. This introduction video is for the seminar

participants and for those desiring a more in-depth view of the seminar. Again, it is provided in

YouTube for online viewing.

Seminar Introduction_ The Craft of Professional Work: The Development of a

Higher-Order Workstyle

YouTube Link