The Importance of Peers In Our Organization Development Work

“We have all known the long loneliness, and we have found that the answer is community.”

Dorothy Day

As #OrganizationDevelopment (OD) professionals working with peers is one of the most important factors leading to our success.  Helping our organizations succeed is a team sport and the ideas and support we receive from our fellow OD colleagues is invaluable.  I have been a sole provider of OD consulting at several organizations.  The freedom to design and deliver interventions that I deem to be the best is empowering.  However, I will take an OD partner to collaborate with any day.

As we start our careers, most of us learn the field of OD from our peers.  This was certainly the case of my career path.  I learned a great deal about the theories of organizations in my Doctorate program.  However, I became adept at actually doing OD work early in my career by spending countless hours with my OD teams discussing business challenges, designing solutions and co-leading interventions.  The powerful and unique viewpoints and techniques that each of us brought to the table was my true school of OD.

I focused on industrial organizational design as part of my academic program and early application work.  My peers steeped in the psychological world of OD opened up for me the importance of coaching, teams and culture.  Working with talented colleagues I observed first-hand how to navigate the “soft” side of our work.  I learned a great deal from them and it motivated me to become a well-rounded consultant just as prepared to take on an organizational design or process project, as a teaming or culture challenge.

Once we have found our footing as an OD professional, we are looking to hone our ability to provide even more impactful work.  At this stage in our careers there is no substitute for the clashing of ideas that professionals steeped in various aspects of organization provides.  I can clearly recall a heated discussion where each member of our OD team saw a business problem from a completely different perspective.  Each of us made a case that the root cause of the problem at hand stemmed from people, process, structure and even technology challenges!  In the end, our solution encapsulated each of these aspects of organization and was much more effective than addressing a single root cause.

I would be remiss if I did not mention that in addition to success, OD colleagues provide a deep level of satisfaction in carrying out our work.  I experience this on a daily basis with my current OD peers.    Together we share the highlights when things go well with a client, as well support each other through the challenges and disappointments.

As OD consultants we help our clients work through challenges.  But who helps us when we run up against road blocks?  The answer is simple, it is our peers who provide us with the community that allows us to carry out powerful, fulfilling work.

As OD consultants we help our clients work through challenges.  But who helps us when we run up against road blocks?  The answer is clearly our peers.  At a recent MN Organizational Development Network (http://www.mnodn.org)  meeting some of the founders of the OD practice in the 1970s cited the community of practitioners as being one of the keys to putting our field on the map.  That has not changed over time. It is our peers who provide us with the community that allows us to carry out powerful, fulfilling work.

Note: The content of this blog does not reflect the views of my employer.