It’s Time to Share

Even though the concept is not fully developed, I feel like it’s time to share some thoughts about my book project.

The idea for writing a book started with a feeling I had after completing my doctoral dissertation. I felt like most of what I was reading in textbooks and articles about organization development seemed out-of-sync with the way I envisioned the field. I felt like there was something missing.

Those feelings kept growing and over the past few months my book concept has started taking shape. I’ve continued to refine my ideas and draft bite-sized pieces of content that are helpful to me in formulating the how I want the book to progress.

I’ve also made the decision that this book will be aimed at a general audience of people working in organizations of all kinds, in other words, not just for OD people or an academic audience. This will require a shift in vocabulary and the tone of my writing, including dropping the jargon and other tropes that academics use to signal their intelligence to each other.

This shift to a public, non-academic audience also means the book will be about organization development, but not about organization development. It’s about new ways to understand organizations – I call it my brand of organization development – helping organizations create value through culture, creativity, innovation and change.

Writing about value creation and stakeholders is very timely and there aren’t a lot of people doing it. There is also a general movement toward more human workplaces that fits into this genre as well. What I like most about this approach is that it will be great for telling the kind of stories I like to tell, making observations in the world around me, and connecting the dots in new and unusual ways.

I’m excited for opportunities that may come my way as this project continues. I will provide updates on my progress – the highlights and lowlights – here in my posts. Wish me luck!