Chapter 2: A New View of Organization Development and Change Competencies: The Engage and Learn Model

Is there anything more irrelevant and anachronistic than applying change models developed in the 1950s to the development challenges facing organizations today? Despite a world where change, uncertainty, and discontinuity are common, organizations continue to employ traditional change models and emphasize traditional skill sets. These models depend on top-down executive leadership and focus, detailed risk analysis and mitigation, carefully planned and controlled communication, play-books that are “rolled out,” tools and scripts to ensure common understanding, training people to behave differently, and transition structures to govern the execution of work streams according to Gantt charts and detailed plans.

The world is demanding more nimble and agile organizations, yet most organizations treat change like a project to be managed instead of seeing it as one of the core processes driving effectiveness in organizations. Moreover, organizations, business schools, and professional associations continue to develop and train organization development (OD) and change management professionals in the same skills and competencies demanded by these old models. These groups churn out graduates who build their professional standing based on which templates, tools, and sometimes-faddish interventions they follow. Certifications in these templates and frameworks often substitute for the development of true organization development competencies.