For many of us there is a different energy in the air this time of year as ‘back to school’ activities begin to happen. Perhaps it’s finding some cool new back to school clothes, wondering if your best friend will be in your class, and as we get older perhaps wondering what life will be like as we go to … Read More
Content Addiction
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
A Change of Preference
In the past few weeks I’ve had the chance to work with a bunch of really great people. A lot of this work was focused on one of our assessments; the Team Management Profile (TMP). Some of the people I worked with had taken the assessment for a second time, after a number of years since their initial use. And some … Read More
Preference Assessments – Test Retest Reliability
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?
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
Bark, Skin and Cedar – The Land as Teacher
In just a few days now I will head off with my son to the mid Ontario wilderness. We will spend a week paddling, portaging, sweating, swimming, being amazed and being bitten by bugs. But right now I’m writing this blog post and beside me is the book, Bark, Skin and Cedar – Exploring the Canoe in Canadian Experience by … Read More
Endings and Beginnings – Being Present to Both
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
Adding Value by Getting Out of the Way
As OD professionals we typically are asked to work with individuals and groups to improve performance. It is assumed we have and can impart some type of expertise that will be one of the causal factors of this improved performance. In doing this we would be adding value and in our proof driven organizations this means we need to find … Read More
Love Songs, Truth, Ideology, and Wonder
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
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