Volume 9, Issue 4, Year 09
Practicing OD focuses on practice. Short, easy-to-read articles give you great ideas you can use tomorrow! Share your own best practices by submitting an article for possible publication. Full access to this bi-monthly e-zine is one of the many benefits of membership in the OD Network.
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What Lessons Can Organizational Development Practitioners Learn From Sports and/or Athletes? Part 2 of 2
Mike LaRhette and Perry Alter
In this issue, Mike LaRhette and Perry Alter continue their series on valuable lessons for OD practitioners from the sports world. While Part 1 focused on applications for day-to-day work, this article’s lessons have longer term implications. These lessons include, don’t expect everyone to agree on what "success" looks like; people learn through experience, and we should expect and support this learning; talent is subtle, and not always recognized; and manage the talent pipeline.
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Apps Come to the Office: Social Media and Organization Development, Part 1
Barry Dornfeld
Web 2.0 technologies, such as social networking websites, have created new opportunities for organizations to engage their workforce and communities in powerful ways. In the first of two articles, Barry Dornfeld describes how these tools are becoming a large part of organizational life and the potential benefits and risks they bring. To help OD practitioners navigate through these technologies in their work, he provides a framework for understanding these different tools with examples of how to apply them.
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I’m On LinkedIn…Now What?
Expert Advise about Using Technology to Stay Ahead of the Curve
Mary Beth Deans
Mary Beth Deans also explores web-based technologies, but with a focus on how they can enhance your OD practice. With the vast amounts of information freely available on the internet, it can be challenging to systematically access or share what’s most relevant for your work. Whether you want to stay updated on the latest developments in the field or to establish yourself as a subject matter expert, she explains how to easily and effectively use RSS feeds, tags, blogs, shared content websites, and social bookmarking to overcome this challenge.
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