Here are some notes from Ken Wessel’s group from our last meeting. Good stuff here! Thanks Ken. More items will be posted as received.
CHALLENGES TO THE OD PROFESSION
I studied the Copenhagen Consensus as background for responding to the 9/9/08 meeting request to identify challenges we face as OD professionals.
My reaction to information provided by the Copenhagen group was that they used terms whose meaning did not match their usage and that structure of their work was not logical. So I went about revising the structure of their work, without changing their words, beginning with an operational definition of “challenge.”
“A call to engage in a test of ones abilities or resources in a demanding, stimulating, and worthwhile undertaking.” (A summons to action.)
Next, I developed a framework to place challenge in relationship with other elements of Copenhagen material.
Strategies that reconcile
Challenge and issues
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V
Decision to engage the challenge Issues that restrain progress
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In their own words the Copenhagen challenge is; “What would be the best way of advancing global welfare and particularly the welfare of developing countries, given $75B in available resources for an initial 4 year period?”
They identified and force ranked a number of issues including; disease, global warming and air pollution.
A sample strategy to resolve issue of disease included; micronutrient supplements and fortification and school nutrition programs.
Using this approach I drafted:
A CHALLENGE TO OD
“To employ our intellectual powers of logic, reason and objective observation as activating force for change.”
ISSUES WE FACE IN ACCEPTING THIS CHALLENGE
• Imprecise use of language and automatic use of terms that are in vogue
• Stereotypes of OD profession as “detached from real world, bound to academia, hypersensitive to feelings, HR based, passive…”
• Low level of understanding how the mind works, generation of thought, process of thinking.”
• Unsustainable efforts toward development in situations that lack coherent design
• Partnering with others based on mutual comfort vs. challenging potential leaders to step up
POSSIBLE STRATEGIES
• Increase functional skill in use of functional frameworks to improve quality of thinking
• Focus on quality of thinking as critical success factor in any undertaking
This is intended as a draft to be further developed by the network.
Ken Wessel: 9/11/08
