How legitimate is your customer care?
We don’t talk about OD anymore. Organisational Development is now OCD – Organisational Change and Development. Why?
Because we know things are definitely changing and we’ve decided we can’t leave the Change factor out of the equation (although we often try a tame version in the hope of maintaining status quo!)
I like OCD as a definition of what I do – it reminds me of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. I enjoy the play of meaning: it matches the passion and highly energised compulsion I feel for my work and the ‘disordering’ unlearning and chaos which is a necessary aspect.
When it comes to OCD, I am OCD – I engage with the dynamics and implications of organisational shifts in a continuous stream of consciousness which translates everything in my life through its lenses.
I can loop simultaneously through multiple stories, examples, theories, philosophies and random throw-away comments, at the same time translating information and patterns, sometimes wrapping it up in an analogy, metaphorical story or key word (I love my work!) I’m not sharing this to bombard you with the intricate, creative assault of being inside my head. Rather, I’m confessing publically that I have an OCD need to facilitate intensive, radical organisational change in a way that is harmonic, successful and sustainable. I repetitively return to thinking and strategizing about it.
For me, everything relates to change, everything shares information – what are the deepest truths? What are the principles we can apply? How can we let go of all the excess litter and walk purposeful paths through effective shifts?
And why am I so OCD about OCD? Probably because I’m absolutely convinced that this is where the change must happen next: for each of us and for our planet.
Organisational Culture is a fundamental influencing principle in our lives - responsible for values, actions and controls that have profound, wide-ranging effects. It can and does reach into the private lives of individuals, even affecting intimate aspects of personal dreams and relationships; it influences people to act, based on non-personal values; it impacts the environment; guides the decisions of politicians. It’s an authority that moves and defines our world at both macro and micro level. Organisational Culture is powerful and life-changing.
And I think it needs Change.