Questions and Answers of Organization Development

Under what circumstances do you think that it would be legitimate for an OD professional to separate from an organization?
Under what circumstances do you think that it would be legitimate for a client organization to separate from an OD professional?
Under what circumstances might a Separation phase actually lead back into the ARM cycle?
Consider the dilemma stories presented in this chapter. How would you have decided or acted in the same situation? On what basis did you make that decision?
Think about a decision that you had to make that you found to be a difficult one from an ethical perspective. On what basis did you make your decision? In retrospect, would you have made a different
Do you believe that there should be one common set of ethical statements for the field of OD, or is the field better served with multiple statements? Why?
Do you believe that codes of ethics should be guidelines or enforceable standards? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each approach?
One way to ensure that codes of ethics are enforceable is to require OD professionals to be licensed by the state, as psychologists are. Do you support this position or not? Why?
Why is it important to have competencies that address all three areas of knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs)?
How might you personally use competency lists designed for OD professional?
Complete the self-assessment contained in Appendix 16.1.Discuss any competencies that you do not understand. Describe what you might do to close the gaps that are the largest for you between
Compare the future competencies with the list of present competencies.What do you see as the major differences between these two lists? How might you begin to prepare for the future competencies?
Select several of the issues that intrigue you most. Discuss how you think the OD field should respond to the issues identified, along with your rationale.
Describe your vision for what you would like for the future of OD.
What is your realistic vision of what you think the future of OD is?
Compare your ideal and realistic visions for the future of OD.Are they different? If so, why? What will be required to match the two visions?
Discuss the list of advantages that OD offers to an organization.Do you think they are realistic? Why or why not? Suggest others that may be missing.
Is the list you made of positive experiences in your selected organization while reading this chapter longer than the negative experiences, or vice versa? What is there about that organization that
Which definition of OD do you prefer? Why?
Do you think it makes a difference if OD is viewed as a standalone field or as a subset of another field? Why?
Describe an example of change in an organization that does not follow OD principles. What is it about that example that is not consistent with OD principles?
Pick an organization of which you are a member. Would you rather work with an internal or an external OD consultant?Why?
From your perspective, is it important to have recognized credentials for OD consultants? Why?
Why do you think there are so few credentialing organizations?Why is the existing credentialing process not more rigorous?
Why do you think that appreciative inquiry consultants might have a difficult time in selling the concept to clients? What arguments might be used to make the concept acceptable?
How do you think the OD Principles of Practice would influence how an OD consultant does his or her job? Discuss whether you believe that following the OD Principles of Practice statement will add
With which of the marketing methods do you feel most comfortable?Why?
With which of the marketing methods do you feel the least comfortable? Why?
What do you think you could do to overcome your lack of comfort with the methods identified in question 2?
Why is it important for an internal OD professional to market him- or herself?
Why do you think it is important to determine the client’s readiness for change before entering into a contract?
What are some of the factors that you think would discourage a client from entering into a contract with a potential OD professional?
What are some of the factors that you think would discourage an OD professional from entering into a contract with a potential client?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of each of oral and written agreements?
Other than the items included in this chapter, what are other factors that might be included in a contract?
Is it important for an internal OD professional to have an agreement with the internal client? Why?
Why is it important to work with a steering committee rather than simply moving forward in doing the work for which you have been professionally trained?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of working with an internal person who is different in demographics from you as an OD professional?
What things do you think need to be done in the start-up phase other than those things suggested in this chapter?
How might systems thinking affect the actions taken during the Start-up phase?
Share an example from your organizational experience about when systems thinking was ignored. What was the impact on the organization?
Conduct an interview role play conducted in pairs based on real working situations.
Form a small group and conduct an affinity diagram process for a survey to determine the culture of a class or a workplace.
Write several survey items, and then critique them with a partner.
Add additional advantages and disadvantages to the tables provided in this chapter.
Describe how a triangulation process might work for you in an assessment process.
Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of providing feedback to all members of the participant group rather than just to the Start-up team and senior management.
Does our organization use assessments and diagnostics to help make data-based organizational decisions? If not, how can I build an appreciation among clients of the importance of understanding the
What capabilities does my client organization(s) need? What differentiates them strategically from their competitors? How might the use of capabilities (stated as design criteria) help them make
What design frameworks do my clients use when they make organizational changes? Where could they benefit from a more disciplined and comprehensive approach and process?
Do we have an organization design capability in our HR team? Where do we need to invest—conceptual understanding, common tools and methodology, and/or consulting skills?
How do generalists and specialists on our HR team work together to deliver organization design solutions to our clients? What do we need to do to improve how we deliver complex consulting seamlessly?
How would I rate myself against the competencies of a good organization designer? What development activities could I do to build on my strengths? Who can I partner with to develop areas where I have
How can OD practices and professionals be used in a transformational merger or acquisition?
How can OD practitioners gain access to organizations planning or engaged in M&A?
In what ways can OD enhance the M&A success rate?
What are the latest developments in using OD to make mergers and acquisitions work?
What do you see as the similarities and differences between OD and CM?
What strengths do you see each discipline bringing to the conversation?
How can each be leveraged to advance change success?
When and where do OD and CM add unique value?
In what ways can the positive deviance continuum be a helpful framework to your own work?
How can you ensure virtuous performance in your own work and within your organization?
How can you become a positive energizer to those around you?
Have you seen heliotropism in your own work? If so, how can you take advantage of it?
How can positive organizational scholarship provide a new approach for leading organizational change?
When discussing OD, is the topic of ethics considered an area for ongoing advancement?Why or why not?
If a firm is interested in pursuing organizational ethical development, does management focus largely on the prevention of unethical activity, as compared to building ethical strength? What can OD
When moving to align ethics with strategic planning and performance targets and their associated metrics, are moral competency development and individual ethics objectives and their associated
When a firm is largely driven by a shareholder philosophy, what might attract them to a more broadly defined ethical identity?
How do organizations undergoing rapid expansion stay true to their ethical identity? In the case of mergers and acquisitions, how does a firm honor the character strengths of an acquired firm, while
Please reflect upon your own learning experiences. Which ones were the most powerful for you, and what made them so?
Did your most powerful learning experiences occur in a social setting, that is, in the presence of other people, or when you've been alone?
What role do you think other people play in learning lessons about yourself and your impact on others?
To what extent could you be comfortable in a learning environment that was mostly unstructured and unplanned, but still governed by principles supporting personal growth and managed by a trained and
Are there individuals or groups in your organization that get joined more? Judged more?What actions are you taking to help others feel joined?
How can practitioners and leaders provide the sense of safety necessary for people to speak up, make problems visible, and lean into discomfort?
How might listening as an ally facilitate your efforts to create a sense of “we” in the teams with which you work?
How might the language of notions, stakes, boulders, and tombstones clarify intent and facilitate decision making in your team?
In the next meeting you attend, imagine all the street corners that could be of value to the topic at hand. Then look around the room. Who should be at the meeting but is absent? Who is in attendance
How might you and others listen as an ally and leverage different street corners to create breakthroughs?
How is OD perceived in the host nation? How will I be perceived, and what is expected of me? Are the clients expecting a facilitator, or an expert? Does the client know of OD?
How am I to be perceived by the client as an OD consultant?
What are the client organization's values as reflected in a particular country's culture? Are they compatible with my OD values?
What is the nature of the political system?
What is the appropriate OD process? What interventions are appropriate and what needs to be modified?
In what ways are HRM and OD different?
In what ways are HRM and OD similar?
What is the justification for believing that HRM and OD are converging?
Do you have a clear idea of what your power bases are—operating either as an internal or an external OD practitioner? Name them.
How deliberate have you been in channeling your power bases into power strategies to accomplish what you set out to do for the client system? Share a story.
In your diagnostic work, how often do you diagnose the power terrain of the client system?Once you have the data, what do you use them for in your change work?
As an interventionist, how conscious and intentional have you been in designing interventions that will minimize the power differential and encouraging cross-rank and cross-border collaboration?
On a continuum of 0 to 10, where 0 means you never deliberately use power and politics to support change work and 10 means you deliberately use power and politics all the time in change work, where
If you gave a short introductory workshop for OD novices on power and politics, what key points would you include in your workshop outline?
Network connections are generally trust-based; hierarchical connections are generally authority-based. How would you use this framework to construct a research design for the study of heterarchies?
Can you identify historical geopolitical conflicts and deconstruct their outcome in terms of heterarchical governance or the lack thereof?
What industries are most likely to organize themselves as heterarchies and why?
Have you observed heterarchical structure in your own work or research? If so, can you describe specific examples of the management or mismanagement of heterarchy?
How can the concept of heterarchy provide insight and new directions for OD practitioners?

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