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Change and Group Participation are in the Way

We were cheered recently by a trend we think we see in the Organization Development (OD) field to question some of the field’s automatic assumptions and universal remedies. Following are six things we would like to see change in the change profession:

1. It’s time to let go of our delusions of grandeur as reflected in terms like Total System Change and even Culture Change.  We need to realize that OD’s potential contribution to organization performance is limited and transient.  Besides, every solution we come up with has within it seeds of problems.

2. Also, reduce the amount of arm-waving we do about changing people.  People aren't born into their organizations; most have lived at least a couple of decades before they get there and have been shaped by their genes and experiences.  Think more about accepting existing behaviors and making use of them in creative ways.

3. Get rid of the old concept of managing change.  For instance try this: The core competency of OD is not so much planning change, but rather, facilitating human interaction around a targeted effort, within an ever-changing universe.

4. Our interventions need to focus more on encouraging quick recognition of changes and developing effective structures and processes for responding to them.  Since change is a constant 'given' it is probably dysfunctional to focus on designing an "ideal vision" of the future.

5. OD intervention theory should focus more on facilitating means for adaptation and balancing as organizations and individuals, like surfers, "ride the waves."

6. Recognize that the favorite philosophies and solutions of the field (e.g. Egalitarianism, participation, all-inclusive communication) are useful sometimes in some circumstances and their opposites are sometimes more useful in some circumstances.  We need to expand our perspectives.  For instance, pay more attention and give more respect to 'superior' individuals.  Group consensus does not invariably produce the best answers.

For the most part we ought to be in the 'remodeling' business rather than the 'new construction' business.  First, we ought to think about our theories and models (and ourselves) more modestly.  OD seldom, if ever, can offer an organization a revolutionary new system that will convert it from ugly duckling to beautiful swan.  Our first step, in our view, would better be to learn the existing systems and processes of the organization and where the important blockages to its effective operation are.  Then, we ought to focus in on those few most important problems and try to work on clearing the obstacles.  Only rarely should we be proclaiming 'whole-system-change.’