If you were wondering about the inspiration for my video it comes from wanting to explain, simply, how a range of differing elements of organisational development interact with each other, as a system.
Deliberately seeking a simple model it emerged from me pondering "How might I make explaining organisational performance elements simpler - so anyone can 'get it'?".
I'm conscious the OD profession can generate some terrible jargon and complexity. Most of us in OD love 'a model' - if I can get this into a four box grid or a psychometric profiling tool I'll have a book/fortune in the making. Few of our key decision makers seem to fully share that appetite and having watched a few of mine glaze over from my conversations I wanted something like 'an Ikea model of OD'! Simple, clear, human scaled, using illustrations that gets us to the right end result - outcomes!
The active support and understanding (i.e. commitment/buy in) of those key people is what we always need, I felt exploring something a little more accessible for them might be useful?
A phrase I've heard repeatedly was 'leveraging change' and that was what really got me thinking. Applying the full might of my secondary school CSE Physics to this, I started considering what did that really mean when we said it? How was that played out then in a complex system like an organisation? What was involved?
Can people, behaviours, agendas, organisations outcomes really be 'levered'? Sure a few of you are writing your own jokes at this point.
I'd fully accept the limits of a simple mechanical model in the complexity of delivering transformational change in our people business, please bear with me. I found this simplest of little systems started to illuminate some complexity, that as I share and develop it, I hope will be helpful for you.
I'll expand on each of the differing elements (they are of course best introduced in the video on my home page) and share a little more of my thinking behind each one, over the coming blogs.
Their interaction, co-dependency or weak spots will serve to highlight some key issues for any organisation, in every sector.
I'll focus a blog on each - share some thoughts and hopefully lets generate some comments and a dialogue.
Please pop me questions, provide a little challenge and lets generate some mutual inquiry along the way, I'd like test the mechanics (i.e. validity) of this as we go.
OK?