Enhancing Organizational Change: A Conversation with Dr. Sharon Varney and John Hovell
How might we translate the humanistic values and methods of Organization Development to community building?
On this episode of the Cohere podcast, Bill Johnston and Dr. Lauren Vargas discuss Organizational Development (OD) with returning guests Dr. Sharon Varney and John Hovell.
They explore the importance of OD, evolving dynamics, and curating OD Top Tips aimed at 'landing change with people'. They address the changing conversation around OD and highlight the potential for applying OD principles to community and network development, especially in combating misinformation in the digital age.
The discussion also touches on engaging skeptics of OD within organizations, underscoring the significance of technology and social media in shaping organizational and community dynamics.
“OD (Organizational Development) has humanistic values in its roots. That makes it different from change management, which is instrumental. Change management came from project management and program management- it doesn’t have humanistic values.
That’s not to say the individual change managers, leaders, and program managers don’t have those values. Just that change management doesn’t. Organization development absolutely does. Its birth after the Second World War in the late 1940s was absolutely a reaction to how can people in groups do such unspeakable things to other people in groups.
So that unashamedly humanistic stance was there from the very beginning. And now I would say, in your average sort of business, you want to be business-focused? Absolutely. It’s not humanistic at the expense of business, but it’s definitely not business at the expense of humans.
OD is human, it’s humanistic, it’s about human beings, humanity, and that’s where the success and the effectiveness comes from. ”
Key moments in the episode include:
[00:00] Episode introduction
[01:40] Welcoming Sharon and John
[07:10] Introducing the concept of OD
[22:50] Discussing the curation of the OD Top Tips
[29:27] Building Networks and Communities Beyond Organizations
[38:34] Navigating Community Challenges with OD Principles
[43:13] Where to find Sharon and John
Mentioned in this episode: Links to relevant materials mentioned during the episode
‘Leadership in Complexity and Change: For a world in constant motion’ by Dr Sharon Varney
‘Creating Conversational Leadership’ by John Hovell
About our guests:
Twitter: @DrSharonVarney
LinkedIn: Dr Sharon Varney
LinkedIn: John Hovell
Website: STRATactical
Website: spaceforlearning.com
Call-to-Action(s):
If you liked this episode, check out: Leadership in the Midst of Constant Change with Dr. Sharon Varney and Exploring Conversational Leadership With John Hovell
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