From The Editor
By John Vogelsang,
Managing Editor, ODN Publications
Vol 42, No 1 (2010)
Welcome to the winter issue of the OD Practitioner: Succeeding in Times of Dynamic Change. This issue features a redesign process for transforming a school district’s paradigm of working; wisdom from the experience of “second generation” women OD consultants; a way to reinvent boards to deal effectively with change; a process for fostering change when people are suffering from change fatigue; a case study on how to increase the impact of a change intervention through combining OD principles and business analysis; the two 2009 Student Paper and Presentation winners; and an interview with the chair of the organizing committee for the upcoming OD world summit on c0- creatinga new world of organizations and communities. The case history focuses on a six-sigma quality initiative.
Srikanth C. Gopalakrishnan describes how a school district reframed a significant financial crisis into an opportunity for deep organizational change. Through a redesign process the district leaders were able to choose a “gift story” of community and possibility over a “firestorm story” of division and fragmentation.
Drawing upon her research on what the journey was like for “second generation” women OD practitioners, Kathryn Kaplan shares the wisdom she learned from these practitioners that has been helpful for her and others in times of career challenges.
Many boards are not trained to provide the leadership needed to help organizations through periods of dynamic change. Don D. Warrick and Jens Mueller provide a process for reinventing boards so that they may be effective partners in building successful organizations.
Wendy Ace and Sharon Parker describe how to roll-out an employee engagement process in an organization where many of the staff are experiencing change fatigue.
Nancy L. Harrower examines how a planning project to improve an organization’s marketing activities and grow its revenues could have been more successful if she had combined OD intervention processes with business analysis.
The first of the two 2009 Student Paper and Presentation winners, Nicole Stragalas, explores how John Kotter’s comprehensive change implementation model can be used to increase the effectiveness of change initiatives.
The second winner, Helen Starkweather, shows how the combination of the theoretical frameworks of ableism and Queer Theory can provide new insights on frequently invisible workplace minorities and encourage organizations to value and engage all employees, including those with disabilities, in order to develop the flexibility necessary for transformational change.
In August, 2010, the OD World Summit will take place in Budapest, Hungary. Tamás Avar interviews the chair of the summit’s organizing committee, Imre Lövey, who describes the development of the vision for the summit, the hoped for outcomes, and the three key ideas informing this effort: cross-fertilization, global and social impact, and non-conventional organizations.
Finally, in John Nicholas and Homer H. Johnson’s case history a hospital lab director launches a six-sigma quality initiate to deal with quality problems in the pathology laboratory only to encounter resistance from the pathologists. Dorie Ellzey Blesoff, Jay Morris, and Marilyn Blair offer analysis and suggestions.
The theme for the spring issue of the ODP is: In Our Own Voices: The Contribution and Challenges of OD Practitioners of Color. Cathy Royal is the guest editor. Next fall, David Jamieson and Judy Vogel will guest edit an issue on Organization Development and Human Resources. In the winter 2011 issue, guest edited by Maurice Monette, we will feature papers generated by the OD World Summit in Budapest, Hungary.
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