From The Editor
By John Vogelsang,
Managing Editor, ODN Publications
Vol 41, No 3 (2009)
This issue of the OD Practitioner offers practices and strategies to tap the potential of people and organizations. Included here are ways to use Appreciative Inquiry in turbulent times, a feedback and organizational coaching process, two methods to assist organizational learning, ways to initiate controversial change, and a four phase model for innovation. There is also a study of the OD Network's own potential to be a leader in a virtual OD future and an article on barriers to workplace learning. This issue's case history focuses on working with resistance in a CEO transition.
Does Appreciative Inquiry have relevance during a downsizing, after an organizational tragedy, or as part of conflict resolution and reconciliation? David Bright discusses how Appreciative Inquiry can be an especially relevant and powerful tool during turbulent times to create stronger, more sustaina-ble organizations.
Claudy Jules describes how practitioners interested in coaching leaders to meet today's business challenges can benefit from using both organization development and the integrative body of knowledge described as Gestalt Organization & Systems Development. He includes a case study to illustrate how the Unit of Work, a Gestalt OSD conceptual frame, was used to design and facilitate a feedback and organizational coaching process.
Mindfulness is an age old practice used to overcome the tendency to “sleep walk” repetitively through our lives. Practicing mindfulness enhances mental and physical health, creativity, and contextual learning. Bauback Yeganeh and David Kolb explore mindfulness as a tool to assist learners in un-locking their full learning potential in organizations.
The way people normally experience and make sense of each other creates the need for organizational learning. Gervase Bushe defines organizational learning as an inquiry into our patterns of organizing that leads to a positive change in those patterns. Bushe describes a method he has developed, the “organizational learning conversation,” that creates genuine organizational learning, one conversation at a time.
Leading controversial change in organizations is a difficult and politically dangerous balancing act. John Austin offers some general observations for initiating controversial strategic change from a position of power within an organization. Austin advises that a controversial change of any kind will have greater likelihood of success if it is carefully framed and planned to fit within the existing value structures of the organization and its environment.
Tom Graf posits that the OD Network is well-positioned to lead the growth of OD into the virtual future. Yet the OD Network is currently experiencing its own growing pains adjusting to the virtual workplace. Graf presents the results of his virtual organizational needs assessment and an implementation plan for integrating new products and services for the OD Network.
Stephen Pick discusses a four-phase model of innovation that professionals inside or outside the intelligence community can employ at their workplaces without a budget, supervisory authority, or compromising security requirements. Pick argues that applying innovation concepts and techniques will lead to more thorough, effective analysis and decision making.
According to Jesse Sostrin, the ability to successfully resolve issues related to barriers relies exclusively on our ability to accurately identify the barrier and its root causes, as well as its interdependent parts. Sostrin presents a summary of his research to identify and organize a wide range of barriers to workplace learning and performance into a conceptual framework that illuminates this phenomenon in the context of the changing demands of today's work environment.
Finally, how does a consultant deal with an aging Founder/CEO who refuses to let go? Homer Johnson and Anthony Colantoni offer a case study of a CEO transition that has stalled. Three experts, Sherry Camden-Anders, Ross Tartell, and Tracy Lenzen offer their analysis and suggestions.
I look forward to receiving articles about applied research, theory and evidence based practice, innovative approaches, and case studies. E-mail your proposals and articles to me at jvogelsang@odnetwork.org.
~ John Vogelsang