O.D. Institute Newsletter

May 2010

A Conference To Be Remembered!

I have been talking about the conference in every issue of the Newsletter because it is truly important that we have a good turn out this.  Remember it is FREE.   We want you there because we need to talk about the future of the OD Institute and what role it should play in the future. 

The face-to-face meetings are always exciting and engaging.    Over the many years I have been associated with the OD Institute and attending its many conferences I have always taken something important away.  I learn a lot when I go to other conference as well – especially the Academy of Management and OD Net related activities, but at the ODI conference there is always something afoot.  Somehow I always get pushed beyond my comfort zone and end up rethinking why I do what I do, take on yet another challenge like working in Poland, South Africa, Ethiopia, Gahanna, help create another Special Issue of the ODJ or ed up volunteering to work on a local community action project. 

What make these conferences so interesting are the people who attend.  Some times we have a large turn out and sometimes it a rather small one.    I’ve enjoyed all of them. -- large and small.   

This year I am especially looking forward to the Information Exchange, because we have a lot of work to get done.

Last year at the Academy of Management Annual Meeting Bob Golembiewski, in a meeting held by the OD and C Division, warned that OD was at a critical juncture.  In it’s development.    The OD Institute is not alone in insuring the field continues, but we do need to play a part.  Bob warned that often as field or disciplines age they lose their vitality.  Part of this is due to the fact that younger people are not mentored soon enough to take on the emerging leadership roles.  This happens for a variety of reasons depending on the field, but whatever the reason the results can be devastating to a field.

At the OD Institute we need to decide just what role the Institute is to play in the future.  Should we continue on our current path or should we move in new directions?  

Because of Don’s health the last several years the Information Exchange had been cancelled.  The board decided that we had to have this meeting to bring folks together to discern what our future role will be.    We do plan on continuing with our traditional meeting and run it in its familiar format – no changes there.    Also, like always, there will be plenty time for informal discussions.    It has always been in those informal sessions around a campfire, during communal meals, sitting on the dock looking at the moon or in a brief interlude between sessions that the work of the Institute gets accomplished.   

The OD Institute’s meetings are far more verbal than a Quaker meeting, but I am always surprised at how in both Quaker Meetings and OD Institute Meetings solutions to emerge and new directions and special projects take on a life of their own with no apparent concrete leadership.   The Quakers talking about how “leadings” emerge from a given situation; they don’t talk about Leadership or Leaders. Traditionalists have sometimes thought that there was an ” invisible hand” behind the process.  Some have wanted that power for themselves assuming that Don somehow was controlling everything from behind scenes.    Those of us who have been involved in the OD Institute for years can understand how that might have been perceived, but we know that it is just too informal for that.  It really is a unique institution – one endowed with very few resources, but somehow always find s a way to move forward on crucial but often controversial issues.

We look for ward to seeing you at the conference and discovering the emerging Institute together