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; [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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.  [...]

Bark, Skin and Cedar – The Land as Teacher

In just a few days now I will head off with my son to the midOntariowilderness.  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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]