For over forty years Carl L. Jennings has worked as an organization and management development specialist providing consulting and leadership development services nationally and internationally to business, educational and governmental organizations. He is founder of INFOSPAN, LLC, High Context Multimedia, the Virtual Organizational Development Forum (VODF), and Quantum Advisory Services (QaS).
The dominant themes in Carl’s work since 2011 have been art and science. The focus on these two areas grew out of his background in music and aesthetics and his collaborative work (with Caleen Sinnette Jennings) in producing a documentary based on a dramatic work commissioned for St. Mary’s Honors College in 2011. This project combined organization development (OD), theater arts and multimedia for a one of a kind collaborative project to examine what it’s like to be a student of color on St. Mary’s campus. This project combined multimedia with the earlier adoption of virtual tools for providing consulting services that began in 1997.
Carl’s interest in expanding practice and knowledge through the exploration and use of digital tools, for doing OD and applied behavioral science (ABS) work virtually, led to the creation of the VODF in 2008. The VODF is an invitation only community for professionals in OD and the ABSs who have a minimum of fifteen years experience. The organization is committed to defining the next steps and new directions in OD and the ABSs through the utilization of virtual and other digital tools in its work across the boundaries of culture, time, geography, gender and age.
In addition to his efforts with the VODF, working with organizational leaders on strategic planning and management, further highlighted the need to strongly emphasize the importance of first steps in identifying and clarifying an organization’s direction and the role that core data ( critical strategic elements) plays in that process. Having and knowing what these strategic elements are, and being able to get organizational members to behave in a manner consistent with them, is essential for developing strategy and clarifying the important steps a leader must spearhead on the journey to establishing a culture that ensures mission accomplishment. Among these elements, purpose, and the ability to differentiate it from values, vision and mission plays an important role. Helping leaders understand this difference and clarifying these elements, led to the founding of Quantum Advisory Services (QaS), which is dedicated to the development of leaders by providing them with coaching and mentoring services.
Carl received his MS in Education from City College New York and his B.A. magna cum laude as an honors interdisciplinary major in culture and philosophy (aesthetics) from Queens College New York. Other training includes extensive professional development in clinical counseling, supervision, and management at the New York State Department of Substance Abuse Services. Further professional development was acquired at the Yale University Division of Training and Consultation in the Medical School’s Department of Psychiatry where he learned how to optimize service provision through combining the NTL and Tavistock Group Relations approach in his consulting practice. He is a member of the NTL Institute for Applied Behavioral Science, and is a pioneer in the adapting of virtual and digital tools for the practice and advancement of OD and the ABSs.
Through the use of a Pre-diagnostic Assessment, Infospan focuses on crafting and developing mission critical strategies, processes and structures that are unique to each client organization, and that supports the fulfillment of purpose through the achievement of targeted goals and objectives. Infospan’s consulting strategy is at the intersection of art and creativity, behavioral science, science, technology and multimedia. The work is best described as Human and Technological Systems Development (HTSD). A comprehensive listing of services provided by Infospan can be found on its website Services page, which also serves as a point of access to the other three Infospan subsidiaries mentioned above.
Given the increasing role that technology and science plays in our personal and professional lives, the ability to respond to emerging circumstances challenging organizations today, demand that OD/ABS specialists are both creative and systematic in the use of any available tools and resources that help improve leadership and functioning at all organizational levels. Sustaining viable and productive organizations demands fully functioning and integration of the three critical sub systems that supports and promulgates an organizations distinctive competence, which are: people, technology and money. Depending on the range of expertise a consulting project requires, if and when needed, Infospan has the requisite strategic relationships with leading individuals and businesses in technology and finance.
When originally conceived, the VODF’s senior membership was governed by OD/ABS professionals exclusively, with other categories of forums available to professionals and emerging professionals (gen Xers and millennials) as well. Since the VODF’s relaunch in 2019, participation by senior level professionals in technology and finance have been added amongst the advisory members.
Since the transformation from Jennings & Jennings to INFOSPAN, LLC in 1997, Infospan is the first OD/ABS firm to explicitly declare that, from its inception, it has been dedicated to augmenting the delivery and provision of OD/ABS services through the selective use of virtual and other digital tools where and when they can be made use of effectively to support the accomplishment of an organization’s mission. Technology is not intended to be a replacement for person-to-person (p2p) relations, which is the highest level of human communication.
One of the results of using virtual tools to do OD/ABS work has led to alternative service delivery options that can minimize costs for clients by 25% to as much as 40%. The resulting outcome is that clients have the option to decide if it is better for them to minimize costs by determining when p2p meetings are necessary, due to the availability of reliable and secure tools that can facilitate virtual f2f communications and interaction. In this way, Infospan helps clients better manage their people, money, technology and capacity through discovering and defining the ways that are best suited to managing their organizations in ways that are critical for sustainable Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) success in today’s unpredictable global environment.
With over 40 years of experience Infospan, through its innovative on and offline intervention strategy, is dedicated to helping organizations discover their unique path to achieving their place in an emerging global environment characterized by unpredictable and accelerating change.
Information about the Infospan consulting process is made available to interested prospective clients. References are only made available to same upon request, due to the confidential and proprietary nature of Infospan’s client base.