Best Practices Just Waiting to Happen

Tom GibbonsOrganization Development1 Comment

Just a while ago I was meeting with my colleague and a new acquaintance that we’ll be working with and it was a lively and interesting conversation.  At one point Laurie told us a story about how she had taken some time to look at the work she had been doing over the past couple of years and reflecting on … 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

What Came First – The Interaction or the System?

Tom GibbonsOrganization Development, Strategy3 Comments

Unlike the classic causality question about the chicken and the egg, the above question has a definitive answer.  Interaction always precedes a system.  It comes first. One definition of a system taken from an on-line dictionary is: A group of interacting, interrelated, or interdependent elements forming a complex whole.  While there are many definitions of ‘system’ out there, this one … Read More

Talk Matters – By Lynée Brown

Tom GibbonsGuest Author, Organization Development2 Comments

We are very fortunate to have the following post by guest author Lynée Brown.  We met Lynée at the OD Network Conference and she had been asked to attend the conference and do an article on her impressions and thoughts of her experience.  This is the article. By Lynée Brown writing for the Pacific Northwest Organizational Development Network in Seattle, Washington, ©2009, www.pnodn.org  Used … Read More

Flocking to Seattle – Sounds like ‘Simple Rules’

Tom GibbonsOrganization Development2 Comments

The OD Network conference in Seattle, Washington this week is using the phrase ‘flocking to Seattle’ as a catchphrase for the large group of OD people and others that will come together to learn and converse together about various and diverse topics that concern the world of organization development. I don’t know the actual reason why this phrase is being … Read More

The Hero With A Thousand Deaths

Tom GibbonsLeadership, Organization DevelopmentLeave a Comment

Earlier this September, Network Member Steve Boehlke http://www.sfbassociates.com/ was in Johannesburg, South Africa working with a group of young African entrepreneurs in conjunction with the African Leadership Academy http://www.africanleadershipacademy.org/site .  On one of the days there he tweeted that the group was testing the hero’s journey and linked us to an article by Candace Allen that talked about the hero’s … Read More