I spoke recently for the New York Chapter of the OD Network. The membership comprises fine people, both internal and external practitioners, and I am a rather apt choice as a speaker, being an organization development consultant myself.
Yet, I’m not an “OD” person. I’m a consultant who has worked in organization development (a very broad field, which is why it is so alluring for me) and who uses a wide variety of models, processes, and common sense to assist clients. I feel no kinship to an “OD” community, but rather to the consulting profession.
When I was asked by one participant what I thought the future of the OD profession was, I told her that there is no future because there is no OD profession. It’s like talking about the training profession, or the facilitator profession, or the motorcycle cop profession. (Does anyone really want to be a motorcycle cop for their entire career, or prefer to learn nothing else about police work than how to handle the bike?)
OD is in danger of becoming some kind of cult (it already has its icons, like the husband and wife team, the Seashores) no less than quality “black belts” or those who refuse to eat food with any fat content at all. Approaching a line manager with an OD solution is like approaching me with “a grain and protein combination augmented by dairy,” instead of the cheeseburger I’m looking for. (And I’m leaving aside the loonier aspects of OD, which embrace nutso crazes and academics’ conceptual wanderings.)
I don’t think one is an “OD person” but rather a consultant who utilizes OD as a tool for change and improvement. That’s why I really don’t think there is a training profession (or shouldn’t be), because the real issue is individual performance improvement, which can be assisted through training, coaching, therapy, career development, etc.
The organizer of the event told me she is a human resources consultant who often is asked to speak on “the future of human resources.” I told her I imagined it was a very brief speech.
The future is about results and outcomes. Outstanding professional services providers are able to synthesize a diverse offering of tools and processes to gain those results. They are partners with line managers and executives, or with individual professionals and entrepreneurs. The future is not about tasks and inputs. Specialists will always have a role, but as learned people who are part of a larger profession. The last time I looked, heart surgeons were doctors, prosecutors were lawyers, tax experts were accountants, and so on. Yet coaches, trainers, OD people and others seem to believe they can exist sui generis, and not as part of a comprehensive profession.
They are wrong, as wrong as Nehru jackets, midi-skirts, and quadraphonic sound. Yet the OD people can’t seem to divine that. And that’s what’s so odd about OD.

© Alan Weiss 2004 All rights reserved

Alan Weiss, Ph.D.is a regular contributor to HR.com and the author of 23 books appearing in six languages, including the 12-year best-seller, Million Dollar Consulting. Contact him at http://www.summitconsulting.com. You can join his international destination for professionals and entrepreneurs at http://www.AlansForums.com.