How can OD practitioners discover intercultural factors and how do these affect our practice?

Our May 21 meeting, led was lead by Jaime Wurzel of The Intercultural Resource Corporation and Salem State College, was on “Applying Intercultural Concepts to Positive Organizational Change”. Via interactive discussion and a case study, we learned about how hidden cultural factors influence how organizations act and how awareness of these factors is important in promoting organizational change.

For our Question of the Month, we’ve posed the question of we can be aware of such factors and how they impact our work. Perhaps, too, members would like to provide some examples of the impact of intercultural factors in organizations.

Jim Murphy

Leadership and OD

As to "What is role of OD practitioners in leadership development?" - is this a trick question?

OD and LD - simply that leadership development is a subset of organizational development. Successful OD turns on the commitment of the leadership of the formal leader and any substantial OD leap by an organization will likely be attended by development of the leader, too, for he or she moves with the system to the system's new place.I was struck by Brian McDonald's "be, do, have" switch from the traditional "have, do, be" in his April 24 presentation . His order embodies action learning. The other thing it does for me is invite the learner, let's say the leader learner, to shift focus from how do I get to be like THAT leader (some idealized form, if one could even settle on one) to "what leaderly action can I take now that will continue my leadership journey." For romantics like me it transforms leadership from destination to journey. Hey, I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance back then.

Jim Dezieck