Deep OD

One of the strongest tools the manager of a nonprofit humanistic organization can have is a deep, professional-level of knowledge about Organizational Development (OD).

OD is a collection of planned organizational and individual self-actualizations built on social justice spiritual roots that seeks to evolve individual and organizational co-creativity and effectiveness, ultimately transforming the community.

The OD vision embraces human and organizational growth, collaborative and participative processes, and a spirit of self and organizational inquiry.

Deep OD embraces the invisible spiritual roots underlying the visible practice, and teaches others to visibilize the roots, entwining them around their practice, and allowing them to become the lens through which they view their work, their clients, their community.

Deep OD is built upon the principles embedded within integral humanism.

Integral humanism is the embracing conceptual framework Mounier (1938) describes as:

"By civilization in the strict sense we mean the coherent process of man’s biological and social adaptation to his body and his environment. By culture we mean the enlargement of his consciousness, the ease he acquires in the exercising of his spirit, his participation in a certain way of reacting and of thinking—all of this as peculiar to an epoch and a group even while tending to universality. By spirituality we mean the unfolding of the deeper life of his person. We have therewith defined the three ascending levels of an integral humanism." (p. 7, italics in original)

Humanistic Organizations

Humanistic organizations are not separate entities, though they appear to be. They act as elements in a complex organizational community, grown from spiritual roots and the mission driven mental model that defines them, hardwired for self-actualization.

The humanistic organizational community co-creatively evolves, based on spiritually defined values and directs itself upward.

Humanistic organizational communities are, at one level, composed of other humanistic organizations and the individuals within the organizations. They both influence the nature of their whole community. They can both play an active role in creating their dual future and become co-created entities, self-actualizing groups engaged in evolving metalogues.

OD Professionals

As OD has evolved and the acceptance of a deeper humanism permeate its work, a core challenge is, as Cummings & Worley (2005) note:

"OD professionals face serious challenges in simultaneously pursuing greater humanism and organizational effectiveness. More practitioners are experiencing situations in which there is a conflict between employee’s needs for greater meaning and the organization’s need for more effective and efficient use of its resources." (p. 57)

For an OD professional, this will not be seen as a challenge, as the need for greater meaning usually trumps efficiency; but the challenge will be in helping the organizations owners—driven by the need for efficient—see the value of reaching for greater meaning.

The consultant emphasizes collaboration and self-help, grounded in the underlying spiritual values of OD efforts.

Within the forest of organized life there are many trees rooted in the dark earth, reaching to heaven. Each tree has a clearly lighted path through the dark forest to its ground, inviting the traveler. Seeing the lighted path our organization makes in the dark is our initial task. Helping others see it is our next.

References

Cummings, T. G. & Worley, C. G. (2005). Organization development and change (8th ed.). Mason, Ohio: Thomson Southwestern.
Mounier, E. (1938). A personalist manifesto. New York: Longmans, Green and Co.