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OD Values

A Summary of the September 8th Meeting: Advocating Values in Our OD Practices

Reported by Linda Hawk

The session was opened by Amy Herman, Executive Director, of National OD Network and facilitated by Matt Minahan. Their goal is to visit as many local chapter as possible to compile their thoughts on the definition of Organizational Development. They will present the results at the National Conference in Vancouver on November 10-14, 2002.

To start the program, we were asked three questions:

Question 1

What characteristics make OD unique? How does OD's technology differ from other similar methodologies? Should change management, organization effectiveness and performance improvement be considered OD? Why or why not?

Responses: OD evaluates the process rather than the solution; practitioners become coaches;clients own their solutions; work is uniquely comprehensive. Sometimes we need to call OD something else (such as change management) in order to justify the need and expenditures to our clients. Such topics are all part of OD and we sometimes need to wear whatever title will help our clients.

Question 2

What do you believe the practice of OD needs to pay attention to in the future?

Responses: Technology is driving change; work-life balance; measurements

Question 3

What values must be considered at all times, if work is to be considered OD? Are there values that are antithetical to the practice ofOD?

Responses: Definition of client; serving theorganization by serving the people; meeting the values set by organizations;personal decisions; creating your own values for buy-in; knowing when engaging in a struggle is not worthwhile; awareness of your values and knowledge of your client's values.

Group Discussion of Specific Situations: Presented with situations requiring value assessments, we discussed the specifics and then brought together common themes of all: Emotion, creating vision, determining process, personal values.

The flavors observed were: religion - beliefs, disagreement, passion, energy, interaction. Most of the situations were discussed in depth and there was a mix of feelings on how hard or easy the solutions were to reach.

Visit the OD Network or this site to stay on top of these results and all upcoming events. The more actively we network, the closer we will come to answering the questions posed.