Last week we ran a web meeting titled The Limitations of Systems Thinking. We had an interesting and diverse group on the call and a few people new to our monthly web meetings. There was some interesting discussion and this post will review this experience and add some new perspectives. It’s hoped that this post can continue some of the … Read More
Best Practices Just Waiting to Happen
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
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
The Pressure to ‘Figure Everything Out’
The more I work with organizations the more I see people in pain, stress, angst and shame over not being able to ‘figure out’ what’s going on in their roles, their work relationships and their organizations. Adding to this is the constant messaging that we should be able to figure everything out if we are smart and determined enough. We … Read More
What Came First – The Interaction or the System?
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
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
Outward and Broader – Two Things We Do
In our last post we reflected on our experience at the OD Network conference in Seattle in October. One of the key reflections was that we think it would be of value for OD practitioners to go outward and broader in their efforts to improve performance in the work they do to offset the much more common inner and deeper … Read More
Reflections on the OD Network Conference – Seattle 2009
Two weeks ago my colleague and I attended and presented at the OD Network conference. It was an interesting time with lots of conversation, chances to meet new and interesting people and then to reflect on the experience and see what emerged. Perhaps the first thing that stands out for me was that the people who I met there and conversed … Read More
Flocking to Seattle – Sounds like ‘Simple Rules’
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
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