The Wordle image above captures the essence of notes taken during the OD retreat of April 9 2011 at WIPRO Bangalore.
What a fantastic tribute to our time spent together.
Proceedings at the OD Retreat
9th April, 2011
(WIPRO, Sarjapur Road, Bangalore)
Prepared By:
Deboleena Roy, and Vijayalakshmi,
IBS Bangalore
Edited by : Dr. Vivekanand (IBS) ; Dr. Joseph George A; Vishy Shankara (WIPRO)
Purpose of the meeting: To converse amongst those interested in OD in India, the potential and possibilities of associating with each other in a group in face to face mode so as to get first impressions of its core values, identity and purpose.
Venue: WIPRO, Leadership Centre, Sarjapur Road, Bangalore.
Participants*:
Name | Organisation |
1. Aparna Devagiri | 3M |
2. Suvas Mahapatra | TCS |
3. Dr. Harald Patrick | Christ University |
4. Glady Jacob | Christ University |
5. Dr. Pallab B | Citrix |
6. Naga Siddharth | Citrix |
7. Dr. Kalpana Sampath | EFIL Educational Services |
8. Dr. JM Sampath | Arpitha Associates |
9. Dr. Randhir Pushpa | Unisys |
10. Dr. Mary Mathew | IISc |
11. Archana Arcot | Infosys BPO |
12. Sushma Sharma | Resonate Consulting |
13. Nisha Ninan | Nokia |
14. Vishwanath G | O&A |
15. Dr. Gopal Mahapatra | Oracle |
16. Dr. Rupande Padaki | P&P |
17. Dr. Vijai Padaki | P&P |
18. Bikramjit Maitra | Independent Consultant |
19. Sudheesh Venkatesh | Azim Premji Foundation |
20. Rev. Dr. James Kannanthanam | St. Claret |
21. Rev. Dr. Thomas T | St. Claret |
22. Dr. C Balaji | Symphony |
23. Dr. T.V Rao | T.V. Rao Learning Systems |
24. Mrs. Nandini Chawla | T.V. Rao Learning Systems |
25. Kartikeyan V | Vistas Consulting |
26. Dr. Joseph George | Wipro |
27. Hrishi Mohan | Wipro |
28. Vishy Shankara | Wipro |
29. Rev. Fr. Abraham E, SJ | XLRI |
30. Kushal Ghosh | Azim Premji Foundation |
31. Dr. Vivekanand | IBS Bangalore |
32. Deboleena Roy | IBS Bangalore |
33. B. Vijayalakhsmi | IBS Bangalore |
*Briefly present – Abhijit Bhaduri, Chief Learning Officer, WIPRO; Nayana Prabhu and Dr. Vishal Shah, members of Corporate HRD, WIPRO.
The gathering paid tribute to all the great souls who had contributed to the research and practice of OD in India, by observing a 2 minute silence at the start of deliberations. This request was especially in memory of Ranjan Acharya, Senior Vice President Corporate Human Resources Development, WIPRO and Dr. Udai Pareek, the legendary OD and HRD proponent in India.
Rev. Dr. Tom T CMF, welcomed the gathering, explained the context and set the ball rolling. In his inaugural address, he stated that HRD is a function and OD is a process, as had been stated by Dr. TV Rao recently. He shared with the group Dr. T.V Rao’s support for the setting up of an OD Network for India, suited to the country’s conditions and useful for its development.
Dr. Tom T requested everyone to focus on:
· Building a relationship
· Some task with the understanding that our common values would help in creating an identity for the group.
Dr. Tom quoted St. Francis of Assissi “Start with what is necessary, do what is essential and then the impossible will happen.”
Subsequently, Dr. Joseph shared with the group good wishes from a few eminent practitioners of OD who were not able to travel to the gathering and requested the assembly to introduce themselves, their work and also state what brought them to the meeting.
While some views of this nature are not attended to exhaustively in this report, suffice it to say, that the outpouring around reasons for being present included the following:
1. What one could ‘get’ from the group to apply to one’s situation- whether from line HR, Consulting or the world of publishing – academic or practitioner variety
2. The history of OD in India and its contemporariness. ATIRA-Michigan Western continental and Tavistock traditions – the Calico Mills experiment, AK Rice, Stanley Seashore and Ravi Mathai’s work of building institutions around people, in the Western regions of India; the faith of Kasturbhai Lalbhai the business leader in humanistic approaches to institution building
3. The weaving from history into the roots of the group’s identity – e.g. Mohan Nadkarni, Suresh Srivastva, Udai Pareek
4. The need or desire to overcome personal barriers in collaboration
5. The transition in OD from conceptual rigor of a Systems perspective to a bag of tricks and tools that had partial and localised impact
6. The amorphous boundary of effectiveness – from single unit organisations to networks of organisations in institutional form
7. Theory Building for the Indian context
8. Technology and it’s impact to the meaning of work itself in what may be called Organisation 3.0, and early fatigue from such pilot projects implying the need to question fundamentals in organisational science
9. The evolving and transitory shared understanding of the OD professional’s job description
10. Science, Productivity and the role of the human being in the tension between adoption and generation of processes and knowledge
11. Emergence, generativist perspectives, and the thriving on chaos of complex adaptive systems of perpetual learning in the inter-cultural space of the global world
12. Clarity in the foundation of organisational concepts, so as to foster a symbol of excellence as the lasting images of NTL or Tavistock grounded in India
13. Self as instrument of Change as the core of the organisation is the person
14. The space of Science as from ‘God’ or a spiritual base on which OD can work
15. OD as ART form – Applied Learning, Research and Theorisation as also an adventure as such
Such being the variety in outpouring, the ground was set to explore the potential that the group so unleashed for itself.
The rest of the meeting veered around two dominant themes. – Who are WE? And WHAT should we do? It appeared that the apparition of a label for the group or nomencalture for what the group represents would be immediate confirmation of WHO we are, and yet, by some chaotic miracle, and the love for exploration, the name eluded the group.
The conversational nature of the Open Space was the first symptom in which ‘change’ was experienced. The first intervention was that of the many ‘interveners’ as attendees opening up to a space that they wished to hold together, tenuously holding a peace within themselves. They held their own to accommodate the wisdom and perspective others from diverse backgrounds could influence the proceedings with. The recording below, will we hope rekindle that value as the group reflects its next actionables, dutifully recorded by the youngest members in this gathering.
As a building block of a rapport that was yet to be fully realised, the group was a mixture of maturity and child-like eagerness, potent as it is in combination to engage each other in a commitment that outdoes the personal space that each could envisage at this moment of engagement and exploration. The first change welcomed by the self-styled community was that of breaking from the published agenda to work in a circle of open space conversations.
Hence the report below is more of a recall of the themes that emerged than ‘who’ held the view. The idea is to register the WHAT over the WHO. In this process, if any issues got left out, the fault is entirely that of the authors of this record. They take refuge in the inclusiveness of the internet as they welcome other attendees to add in comment form or direct into blog-space to complement this effort.
Hence, the notes are a mixture of notations, bullet-points and notions, than a declarative set of propositions that people alluded to. Thus a note of caution is in order. AND a note of HOPE.
First the CAUTION : Terms used here may not be intelligible to all who attended, given the varying experiences and backgrounds from which the dreamers, realists and philosophers arrived to this conversation.
The HOPE – One of the main unifiers in the group seems to be the value for sharing and learning. The incompleteness of this report is but a reflection of the group’s emerging identity. We’re work- in-process, as much as work in progress.
The group had the benefit of a Mind-Map in which inputs from 13 people were arranged under two maps. One was for WHAT THE GROUP SHOULD BE LIKE; and the other on WHAT THE GROUP SHOULD NOT BE LIKE. The inputs were shown to the gathering through a projector onto a screen. The gathering split into small groups to assemble again around themes that they thought aligned with expressions they read.
WHAT THE GROUP SHOULD BE LIKE included- Research Publications – Advocate Theory; opportunities for research; arrive at a balance between research and action
- Network – A spirit of inclusion, Support and Encourage, Connect and reconnect,
- Education – Platform for learning, Internship for OD, Educational Workshops on OD
- Values – Integrative values, Spiritual explorations; Metaphoric expressions – Indianness; based on actualities (empiricism?) and eclectic
- Nature of membership – of individuals, and not of Organisations / Institutions
WHAT THE GROUP SHOULD NOT BE LIKE included
- Not too structured, non-hierarchical;
- Not a consulting body; Not overly a profiteering body with an excess of commercialism;
- Not Exclusive to the point of being elitist, Not to be on a membership drive
- Not region oriented or affiliated to strangulating holds of other associations
- Not to over-design the nature of the association
This summary facilitation from Kartik and Vishwanath gave the group an opportunity to opine further from the depth of their experiences and the desires they came to the moments with. Some of them are mentioned below.
- Polarities of Formality and Informality lingered through the day, where formality resembled need for control of a functional nature; whereas informality resembled a desire to escape the tyranny of the reminders of previous associations with groups that had a similar notion.
- The issues of Scale of the group’s efforts and the source of satiation and fulfilment recursively crept back at turning points in the group’s exploration. All the same, effective collaboration to achieve purposes to be understood mutually by members came in as a desired intervention of statement and intent.
- When a suggestion was made on an area of ‘First’ focus – e.g. employee contract between the disillusioned and cynical employee and the distant and formal employer; a suggestion on scale of effort was offered.
- Need for groups and dysfunctions of previous groups; burden of past perceptions – whether ISISD, NHRDN or otherwise. What can association keep as ‘excitable’ or ‘connection’ with? The heterogeneity of membership and homogeneity of purpose or need fulfillment seemed a paradoxical union to be embraced for the acceptance of the group.
- The Language for hope shone through the ambiguous messy space of content – e.g. a Space – in which like-minded people of multi-faceted needs to embrace the multi-dimensionality of organisation. Space allows conversation, as a natural, human art; rather than the burden of being assessed and held to restricted charters. Space – for answers, and to frame the right questions. Yearning for a kind of liberation from restricting frames of the mind in the Indian context seemed a hidden desire that spoke like a Collective Unconscious of the group. e.g. Resourcefulness for Collaboration, Togetherness for networking
- Mental models of – organizations, role-taking – some of which is colluded with in the past by members in the group – connotations that we created….the danger of a new Utopia
- Volunteering for the happiness principle – or fun of participating or joy of participating (akin to ‘flow’ that Mihaly C writes about?)
- Space has a boundary – a structure; and to check the non-boundedness of a non-physical world that gives rise to escapist notions, a realist grounding was required.
- Core – of walking the talk – a life-space to build and live with – deal with that was not dealt with so as not to recreate failed structures or unfulfilled spaces
- The dissipative potential of initial energy is the metaphor from Physics that reminds us of how we may calibrate the pace and energy that we carry along.
- Metaphor – of aangan, a courtyard seemed apt for the Indian context.
- Space for search – for novelty, new discovery or to uncover something
- 'Converse as you organize and organize as you converse' as a canon for our work
- Title can emerge. The undercurrent of identity – shadow of unformed personal identities?
- The antecedent of experience for judgments in history – the dangers of collusions in that identity Who are we to judge the past?
- What energy attracts all of or some of us? The book of presence – Host as structure –and commonality of change
- Members’ expressed need and felt need – the utility of a space or network or association
- The role of content in the group in defining identity seemed just as inviting and unexplored in dynamics.
- There are multiple ways of connecting, perhaps not all are formally addressed or capable of being so addressed. Yet, the yearning for it being present is a reason for this group to converse about it.
- The expectation of flow- as a hidden agenda of great potential – for the sheer delight of experiencing flow.
- What brought us together apart from the host’s email invitation? What are we there for?
- Basis of need – a lot happening in different sectors in the country – efforts and results – as lessons that we could use
- To pass on lessons on education e.g. why OD did not work in NGOs – the language of shared-renewal – need to share and need to learn – the completion that OD lends to the largeness and comprehensiveness of organisational life.
- OD is larger in definition – compared to HRD; for it is more comprehensive in its techniques and richer in it’s processes.
- An immediate activity that can fulfill the needs of a larger community could perhaps relieve the tension of unformed identity.
- Needs of those present and those with whom we are connected – articulate the need around which an activity can be arranged
- Give and Get Value as a re-affirmation of the Polarity of breath in life – Inhale and Exhale
- Don’t be in a hurry to formalize – breathe awhile.
- The sentient organization and the relative power of the individual
- Presuppositions in the WHYs of existence. Simon Sinek’s work of recent times. Learn share, evolve as a work ethic for the group? The Newtonic space of a Ladder of inference based on different pre-suppositions of logic; as against the latticework of the HOWs of process.
- Potential of Individual and Group – the power of a forum or group – that allows learning that formalizes knowledge – validation, supplementation – being more than a mere conglomerate
- People disseminate meaning relevant to its time
- Synergy through knowledge can satisfy search for meaning
- Self as the unit of change – and organization as an abstract or removed entity from individual
- Philosophical change form mechanistic to humanistic – respecting another's point of view – as the prompt for OD in the West
- Is it possible that OD has served its purpose and we need another way of looking at organization wellness? Would that be a frontier exploration? Or do we restrict ourselves only to intervention experiences?
- Seeking movement forward in units of social systems at different levels – individual, group, organizations, country – what are we moving forward? OD / change Management?
- The freedom from singularity – singularity and co-existence – as polarities of another kind
- Globalization has precipitated the need for Indianness
- The specificity of who we are versus the space in which to relate to this identity. E.g. a Westerner coming from his/her space entering an Indian space
- The Need for expansion of opportunities, capacities requires support groups
- The restrictiveness of a project group – how can that thinking include non-project thinking?
- India - The Superpower that has not actualized its potential as a binding force for this group as well?
- Restlessness of non- action – the restlessness of the elusive ground on what we stand? And the paradox of apparent hope
- The giving and receiving of strokes to edify the purpose of a group – support and encourage as drivers of a body of people like this
- Self as instrument of Change – as a founding principle for membership behaviors in the group of OD affiliates.
- Balance-sheet of successes and failures – change at slower rate than could have been. Corporates score over government led or government supported systems. E.g. Survey feedback – where has it worked? How did it relate to OD? Reduction of survey to a public relations tool. What conditions lead to such outcomes? Which OD principles were not used or neglected? So also for Transactional analysis as intervention techniques. LSIP, as visited by proponents from the WEST and practitioners in India
- Facilitating the coming together of minds. A documentation is required for validation of efforts
- MDI brought out a directory of OD practitioners around 10-15 years ago. Groundwork as this requires a forum, for there is work that individuals cannot accomplish alone
- What is with the nature of commitment in an interest group? What will hold it together?
- 6 or 7 points of connection, said in different ways – enough for closure. Over and Done – OD
- Distance from the ideal – a general good feel – to where do we go from here? The role of our favorite whys may come into the picture.
- Go back to a 1 or 2 small doable agenda. Make a success of 1 doable agenda and let the larger forum
- Sharing and receiving – core to the process. A deepening of the space necessary – essentially for getting to know each other through one’s work
- Knowledge Managers meet on a monthly basis – would it be practical for a hosting of the forum on similar lines?
- Proposals of listing down of all OD interventions in the last 10-15 years; 3 months
- Step 1 - List just 2 opportunities – 1. Success – 1 – failure – where you got your fingers burnt
- Step 2 – a forum, rather than an individual compiles e.g. XLRI can volunteer and some of us can volunteer; OR owned by this forum with resources from XLRI. Gopal, Mary to create a template for the group on qualification of cases / caselets
- Anchor for full nation OR commence with experiences of those currently stationed in Bangalore although experiences could have been in say NOIDA
- Qualification of Cases or caselets – building on a bibliography of what is already there from secondary sources – Archana, Balaji – technology – copyrights, annotation
- To be or not to be – to the OD Rose – as by any other name – it smells as sweet
- The sensitivity to observe and state the silence of the listeners. Goodness of the group as the reason for silence?
- Need for rapport through sharing and getting beyond strangers in diversity; need for practicality through manageable small groups around expertise areas
- Definitions of OD? Speed, scope, boundaries of OD. The regularity with which a Back to Basics session is taken up at the ODN’s Annual Conferences in USA. To meet the tensions of the field through what we bring through in cases and caselets.
- Professional Practice Guidelines through ethical dimensions
- Intervention as ethical responsibility in intervening in a living system
- Work towards Core Values – imbibe in competency outwardly and subject it to a larger interpersonal space than in one-on-one alone
- Being in the right profession vs practicing the profession right. What do we owe ourselves? how do we support each other in this journey of ethical dimensions?
- As long as our good soul is alive – this community – how do we take it forward?
- Professionals versus Practitioners - the nascent stage of the OD profession in India
- Maybe the neutralization of OD itself is taking place – e.g. OD for accent training – a call for standards or guidelines that differentiate or legitimize the field
- Tools in unfreezing abound, tools of refreezing are rarer. Hence the job-hopping that follows such a trend and a vicious cycle of ethics. Going back to process rather than technique is required Also, to learn from social symptoms as the Hippocrates oath in the medical profession. Or the politician who takes oath under the constitution. The generation of a discussion is itself indication of the significance of the need for dialogue and conformance to ethics.
- Look at the flux in the field as opportunity to create something for India in OD
- ODIN – Norse God – threshold – myth and symbolism of purpose
- Space deriving from Open Space
The initiatives identified by the group:
I. Rev. Dr. Tom T took the responsibility of circulating a set of workable Core Values for the group on OD practice
II. Dr. JM Sampath took the responsibility for organizing a 3 day retreat. Kartikeyan will work with Dr. JM Sampath on this.
III. Fr. Abraham SJ suggested creating websites, blogs and asked all the 30 members present in the meeting to contribute 2 cases each towards the blogs and websites. The idea of submitting two cases (one success and one failure) was initially put forth by Dr. Vijai Padaki.
IV. Dr. Mary Mathew, Dr. Gopal Mahapatra took the responsibility of compiling a caselet history for learning more deeply about our work and to know each toher better through our work and experience.
V. Dr. Rupa Padaki and Dr. Sampath took the initiative for creating a database of OD Practitioners.
VI. Vishy and Nag took the responsibility of forming a blog / group as a space for communication and exchange of views
VII. Dr. C Balaji and Dr. Archana Arcot took the initiative of compiling a bibliography on OD.
As a fitting finale for the day long conclave, P.S .Narayan who is part of Eco-Eye – Wipro’s Sustainability initiative – gave a thought stimulating and wonderful presentation on ‘Sustainability and Business Strategy’ and the agenda of the presentation was:
- Defining the sustainability problem
- Business and Sustainability
- Wipro’s vision and approach
- Some burning questions
Some of the key point of the presenation were Exponential economic progress growth after the industrial revolution
a. Number of planets needed to sustain the whole world at the existing level of different national consumption. For example, if the world’s consumption level equaled that of the US, we would need 5 planets.
b. Presented the world ecologist debt day calendar
c. Humanity’s conundrum
d. What does business owe to society and the planet
e. The spectrum of approaches by WIPRO
f. People and wealth creation
g. Relationship of business and sustainability is no longer a troubled relationship
h. The connection between competitive advantage and social issues by Michael Porter
i. WIPRO’s journey towards being a responsible Global Corporation,
j. WIPRO’s Sustainability framework
k. Initiatives for good citizenship at WIPRO
l. GHG reductions Goals vs targets, water efficiency at WIPRO,
m. Biodiversity in WIPRO Campuses,
n. Employees: agents of positive change,
o. Lifecycle responsibility: the Wipro PC case.
Most importantly, the neurological import from Daniel Goleman’s book Ecological Intelligence indicated that mankind is ill-prepared to tackle the humongous size of the ecological imbalance. We are likely to take a short-term flight syndrome than grapple with the problem in a collaborative, problem solving manner – typical of OD future challenges.
JG the host of the day, thanked the gathering. The meeting was adjourned by Fr. Tom at 5:50 pm on 9th April, 2011.
The members departed with the hope of meeting each other in the next meet . They left taking away memories in their heart of that beautiful day which they had devoted towards the beginning of a great idea that needed to be transformed into reality by its implementation. Contributing towards the development of OD and to fulfill the individual needs as well as the need of the nation is an idea larger than the individual - or so it seemed.
