Content Addiction

Tom GibbonsLearning, Organization Development1 Comment

This post is about what seems to be a very common addiction in organizational learning.  That addiction is to content.  The scenario can be described like this:  There is a set period of time put aside where some kind of developmental learning is supposed to happen.  It might be about leadership, maybe change, perhaps communication; something deemed important.  Then whoever … Read More

Preference Assessments – Test Retest Reliability

Tom GibbonsLearning, Preference Assessments, Social Construction2 Comments

In follow up to our last post Preference Assessments – What Are They Measuring we’re going to take a quick look at one source of contention when you land on the side of seeing preference as primarily a nature phenomenon as compared to a nurture one.  That point of contention is test retest reliability. Test retest reliability for any assessment … Read More

Preference Assessments – What Are They Measuring?

Tom GibbonsLearning, Preference Assessments, Presence, Social Construction3 Comments

There often is quite heated debate about what preference assessments are actually measuring.  It tends to be a variation of the nature vs. nurture argument with passionate positions being taken on either side.  For us we don’t take so much a nature vs. nurture perspective as trying to balance a psychological and social constructionist perspective.  As an example, below is … Read More

Endings and Beginnings – Being Present to Both

Tom GibbonsChange, Learning, Organization Development, Presence, Social Construction1 Comment

Back in August of 2010 I wrote the post Kids, Parents, Organizations, Models and Understanding It had to do with a conversation with my son, using our model of organizations, as he left for his last year as a hockey player in an elite amateur league here in Canada. While the message was mostly about ways of understanding organizations, let’s fast … Read More

Love Songs, Truth, Ideology, and Wonder

Tom GibbonsChange, LearningLeave a Comment

Hard to Concentrate by the Red Hot Chili Peppers – http://youtu.be/8jnRcM8Qf1A – is the best love song ever written.  The lyrics are both beautiful and edgy, the music just makes you want to move and you just feel like you should just give this song to someone. WHAT!  You have a different best love song ever written?!?  Well, have you … Read More

Blame and the Pressure to Figure Everything Out

Tom GibbonsLearning, Organization DevelopmentLeave a Comment

In follow-up to our last post – http://bit.ly/9opSG3 – I wanted to focus on a specific example of what this pressure to figure everything out can produce.  In a post by Chris Mowles on the Complexity and Management Centre blog titled “Wishful thinking combined with hubris” – http://bit.ly/bfXCm0 – Chris discusses some of the ideas and thinking behind Ralph Stacey’s newest publication; Complexity and … Read More