As OD practitioners we must be comfortable with tension. We are the organisational ‘wierdos’ the lovers of change, ambiguity, disruption – the VUCA warriors! Whilst leaders and organisations struggle to anticipate, make sense, plan and inspire – we should by rights be in our element – and in demand!!!
We have talked about the need to reposition OD into its rightful place but that isn’t just me or my colleagues on a VUCA ego trip – we recognise that our unique set of skills and experience – our ‘’step back-ability’ is crucial to support and challenge organisations to thrive and ultimately achieve their bottom line.
The Mega’s – there are 3 key mega trends out there at the moment; Globalisation, Technology and Demographics.
Globalisation, except for cyber security and corporate integration the world is actually moving away from globalisation. Recent events has seen the world leaders ‘hunker down’ to protect and champion personal agendas and interests. Barack Obama recently spoke on his worry about the ‘winner takes all’ mind-set that feeds the political trends we are seeing. These political trends invariably influence business and life. The consequence of such mindsets is resulting in huge swathes of people feeling ‘left behind’ – sound familiar? I can think of teams, departments and organisations whose staff and at times customer base can and do often feel ‘left behind’
Technology; The internet was supposed to deliver connectivity for good but often it delivers a much darker message. The digital revolution does not have any boundaries. DQ is now running alongside IQ and EQ but in truth is possibly racing ahead with little regard to its I and E cousins. Digital and technology are huge growth areas with 51% of CEOs investing in significant changes in tech. New technology means we have x44 more data than we did 11 years ago. What does that mean for us in OD? For our clients? All that additional requirement around data, judgement, analysis, wellbeing! To put it into perspective by 2020 there will be x7 more connected devices on the planet than people.
Demographics; it’s not just the technology that is ‘evolving’ so is our workforce! By 2020 50% of the workforce will be millennials and for the first time we have 4 generations in the workplace – as Linbert Spencer Director of Centre for Inclusive Leadership said ‘Inclusion must be the answer’
The millennial expectation around work is far removed from the way traditional organisations are structured with many millennials having a desire to travel, work abroad, have multiple jobs, careers, work ‘experiences’
How do we motivate people from different backgrounds, ages, expectations with variety of ‘purpose’? How do OD support, challenge and position themselves to prepare organisations for this landscape – to ensure that organisations don’t just survive abut proactively, deliberately, purposefully thrive - It’s our time
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