🌿🧭🌳 OD19: 5 key competencies of OD professionals ∙ Org design principles ∙ OD Goodies
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1. 5 key competencies of OD professionals
We imagine a future where all those that are leading organizations become OD practitioners, intentionally developing organizations for a better future and not only managing their current functioning.
As Organization Development (OD, OrgDev) is a profession that is often recognized by name, but still poorly understood, we are sharing an overview of the 5 key OD competencies, as defined by the Organization Development Network (ODN).
Org design principles
Naomi Stanford has recently shared a list of organization design principles that we resonated with:
1. Using collaborative strategies with multi-disciplinary teams
2. Practicing holistic and systems thinking rather than linear or mono-dimensional thinking
3. Redefining ‘success’ as no longer doing things in the right order, but rather doing enough of the right things at the same time.
4. Identifying the many possible entry points for interventions, launching multiple parallel interventions and learning in ‘real time’ to ensure the appropriate sequence and mix of activities.
5. Accepting that outcomes are not right or wrong. They are simply better/worse or good enough/not good enough. (The determination of outcome quality is not objective.)
There are many organizations that are currently exploring how to adapt their organizational setup (strategy, capabilities, processes, systems, roles, structure etc) to perform better given the changing circumstances created by the pandemic.
Linked to the principles above, we believe that cross-functional teams that:
make use of the diversity of experiences and expertise in the team
make sense together of what’s happening and what could happen
collaborate effectively
are able to lead multiple explorations in parallel
are able to continuously learn what’s working or not and adapt accordingly
Are best suited for the challenging task of adapting organizational setups and helping organizations navigate through what’s coming next.
Read more in dr. Stanford’s post:
OD Goodies
Curious about more resources on leading organizations?
Here’s a section with very short descriptions and links.
As we're constantly seeing VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) around us, might be worth checking out BANI (Brittle, Anxious, Nonlinear, Incomprehensible) proposed by Jamais Cascio.
Change Management Review did a good job covering the seven stages of vertical development (first 15 minutes of this podcast) and about how upgrading how we think has a great impact when leading transformation efforts.
Recently found a list of 100+ visual templates for different use cases in the world of work. Even if it’s a bit overwhelming to study, you might find something useful while scrolling through it.
Ong Kar Jin wrote an insightful essay about the mirage of flat organizations, scaling self-organization and “structurelessness” by analyzing Valve (see also Glassdoor reviews).
The OrgDev newsletter is curated by Raluca and Bülent Duagi, the team behind Sense & Change. We work as OD Advisers to high performing cross-functional teams, guiding strategy execution and increasing team effectiveness in complex and uncertain contexts.