The George S. May International Company 2009 Annual Executive Meeting was held on Saturday, January 3 and Sunday, January 4, 2009 at the corporate headquarters in Park Ridge.

The two-day agenda began with opening comments and an introduction by GSMIC President Israel Kushnir to frame the workplan and objectives for the meeting. Managing Director Paul J. Rauseo then gave an overview of the firm’s forecast goals and projected metrics targets for 2009. Each Divisional Manager and Chief Executive presented their area’s comprehensive metrics forecast review of 2008, which was followed with a charge by Messrs. Kushnir and Rauseo to innovatively embrace continuously quality improvement in every area of the company in 2009. Each executive was also exhorted to be diligent concerning follow-through and follow-up communications with employees in the field.

After the usual corporate business had concluded, GSMIC corporate executives participated in an exciting yet intense integrated performance workshop designed to drive improvement efforts at the individual, group, and organizational levels. A facilitator from Human Synergistics International, Dee McGee introduced a series of self-assessments to all members of the executive team. Human Synergistics International has developed various research-based assessments that can be administered to individuals, teams, and organizational working groups. Human Synergistics has an office in Chicago.

Assessments GSMIC executives completed included a Life Styles Inventory — a self-description of individual thinking and behavioral styles; a Group Problem-Solving and Decision-Making assessment; and a small group Survival Simulation exercise.

The Life Styles individual self-assessment gauged each person’s constructive (as opposed to defensive) interaction style. Through use of the very thorough assessment and its subsequent scoring method, executives rated themselves in three main areas: Constructive, Passive/Defensive, and Aggressive/Defensive Styles. Subcategories of those three areas are Achievement-oriented, Self-Actualizing, Humanistic-Encouraging, Affiliative, Approval-oriented, Conventional, Dependent, Avoidance, Oppositional, Power-oriented, Competitive, and Perfectionstic. The scoring process uncovered each person’s behavioral tendencies in every major and minor category.

The Reef Survival Simulation exercise required that Executives work together in cross-functional work groups and rank the relative importance of a number of salvaged items and reach consensus.

Participants were encouraged to reflect on their Life Styles self-assessment and its expression during the group exercise. In the corporate debriefing of the activity, interesting discoveries were made about group dynamics compared to each person’s behavioral traits. As you may imagine, simulation groups expressed a representation of the same characteristics as individuals within the group. Considerable discussion ensued about the ramifications of people’s individual behavior and it’s impact on the group’s survival, whether positive or negative impact.

The final session on Sunday included a discussion on the integration of the findings and discoveries, as well as their application during the workday. All members of the executive team gave glowing evaluations of the annual meeting, which because of the Human Synergistics workshop had been a complete diversion from the past formats. As a result of the workshop, we expect continued organizational effectiveness and performance throughout 2009 and into future decades of GSMIC.

Agenda

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