Whether it’s a skater or skier or snowboarder or other, everyone who won a Gold Medal in Vancouver recently is a role model for us all. Practice, patience, persistence, and passion – the 4 P’s of Olympic Gold – are likely mantras for all these winners. Shaun White, in particular, is a true living example of exactly what every senior executive and business leader should be focused on creating in their organizations – not because he won gold on the half pipe, but because he won gold after winning gold on the half pipe!

That’s right.  Shaun White was standing at the top of his second and final run when the results came in, and he found out that he already won the gold medal without even completing his last run. In that very moment, he had a choice- walk down the mountain a victor with snowboard in hand or deliver what he came to deliver for the crowd. After a 2-minute pep talk with his coaches that seemed to last forever, he did exactly that. Deliver!

Shaun White was not just in it to win it. He was in it to bring it! Winning the gold almost seemed to be an unnecessary bonus for him as he stuck the landing on his final trick. Click on the following video to watch this incredible “double gold” performance.

Link to NBC Footage of Shaun White’s 2010 Olympic Performance

So what can we learn from Shaun White and all the other Olympic Gold Medalists this year?  The following 4 P’s of Olympic Gold are critical for anyone to be successful in fulfilling their dreams and achieving their objectives in today’s fiercely competitive business marketplace:

1. Patience – Gold medal performances don’t come overnight. Be patient and remain focused on your end goal.
2. Persistence – As a follow-up to #1, success requires long-term and unwavering commitment. Don’t give up even if you hit a few road bumps along the way.
3. Practice – Practice, practice, practice… Gold medals only come from taking risks, reaching beyond your comfort zone, and learning new skills over time.
4. Passion – And finally, passion! As Jim Collins writes in his best-seller Good To Great, you can achieve anything you set your mind to if you are passionate about it. Without passion, you are far more likely to throw in the towel on the 1^st 3 P’s before you achieve your objectives.

If you are interested in engaging in a powerful and stimulating conversation about how best to groom the next generation of Gold Medalists in your organization, join us and the OD in LA MeetUp group next Tuesday, March 23^rd at 6:30pm. Plus Delta’s President and CEO Samantha and Jeremy Lurey will be hosting a World Café forum to discuss this very subject with some of LA’s finest organizational consultants. Click here for more info.

Should the profession of Organization Development (OD) require professional certification or licensing for practitioners to practice?

As we look to the future of OD, some questions come to mind :

-  Should anyone wanting to “hang out a shingle” as an OD practitioner be allowed to do so?

-  Should there be minimum educational requirements?  If so, what should they be?

-  Should OD practitioners be licensed through a formal licensing or certification process?

-  How would a governing body for licensing or certification be “selected”?

-  What risks to the OD profession are posed if licensing or certification is required?

-  How do you market your practice to differentiate and distinguish yourself?

Having practiced in the field for 30 years, now, I have seen OD grow to encompass a broad range of “specialty” areas beyond its origins in the area of “group dynamics”, “human relations research”, and “action research” back in the 1940’s and 50’s.  (See the Wikipedia article on OD here). Over the past nearly 60 years, the field of OD has grown and expanded to include a multitude of “sub-disciplines”, including organization design, change management, executive coaching and development, team building, appreciative inquiry (AI), future search, systems theory, employee engagement, organizational culture/climate, employee surveys, performance improvement, process improvement, strategic planning–the list goes on and on.

As with any field – whether it be medicine, law, chemistry, biology, engineering, etc. – this trend toward increased specialization affords exciting opportunities for people practicing in these fields to deepen their skills and knowledge in areas that are valued by society.  Just as deepening the field of medicine in, say, the specialization of oncology, can lead to new and more effective treatments for cancer, so can deepening the field of OD in, say, the specialization of organization design, can lead to new and more effective organizational forms.

But imagine that you are a potential client for a project that requires you to hire an OD consultant, and that project is going to cost your business $500K for the next 6 months.  You put out a request for proposal (RFP) stating your requirements, wait for the proposals to come in, and then interview the top finalists.  How do you, the somewhat uninformed client, know how to identify the right consultant or consulting firm?  They all claim to be OD consultants.  They all claim to have the right experience.  Each one of them tells you a different story about your problem, one saying that it’s a “performance management” problem, another saying that it’s a “reengineering problem”, and yet another saying that your executive team needs team-building or executive coaching.  How do you, as a client, know how to sort through the inevitable “BS” and make an informed buying decision?

Now, imagine that you’re the OD consultant!  How do you avoid being a “Johnny-one-note” with a “pet solution” designed to fit every problem?  (In other words, a hammer in search of a nail!)  Or how do you differentiate yourself from “OD wannabees” who have had little to no formal education or training in OD without sounding arrogant or prideful?  Or how do you market yourself so that you demonstrate depth in key (hopefully marketable) areas, without becoming so narrowly specialized that you miss out on potentially interesting and profitable consulting opportunities?

Paradigm shifts aside, for now let’s consider the future of OD as a cohesive “field”: OD “purists” and those who teach in academic institutions continually emphasize the need for empirical research and scientific methods in the field of OD to establish the validity of OD interventions and give the profession its due credibility in the business world.  But as a seasoned OD practitioner, how often are you asked for scientific evidence for your recommendations, or for the statistical validation of the efficacy of your group facilitation techniques?  I would imagine, however, that you have been asked to share specific examples of where your efforts have led to measurable improvements in business results and/or increased employee engagement. I am eager to hear from other professionals and engage in a debate on these matters!

(We encourage public comments! Private comments may be sent to Chagen_at_PlusDelta_dot_net)

Here is an excerpt of a recent discussion about the Best Recognition and Rewards Programs for the Post-Recession Economy:

[Jeremy Lurey]: A couple weeks ago, I facilitated a great session with a local NHRA (National Human Resources Association) chapter. The topic was Recognition and Rewards programs, and we used a World Cafe (see www.theworldcafe.com) format to bring everyone – and their richly diverse perspectives – into the room. During the World Cafe rounds, groups were asked the following 3 questions:

1. What are the top three MONETARY recognition and rewards approaches that you use in your company?
2. What are the top three NON-MONETARY recognition and rewards approaches that you use in your company?
3. What are the underlying assumptions of your recognition and rewards system, and does the absence of receiving a reward equate to PUNISHMENT?

Provided below are some of the key themes that emerged from the group. I’m curious if this is in line with your experiences or if you have other “best programs” you would recommend.

- MONETARY programs included spot bonuses, spot awards of all denominations, sales incentives, and structured commissions for sales people. Some of the best suggestions actually included having the program guidelines approved by management but then having the awards themselves appointed by others without management intervention.

- NON-MONETARY programs included everything from hand-written Thank You cards from senior leadership to deserving employees to more visible Employee of the Month/Year awards to more individualized service pins and other tokens of recognition, including honorary parking spots. Some of the best recommendations were actually based on assigning special project tasks (i.e., Tiger Team assignments) to people to recognize their abilities and unique contributions.

- Some of the final thoughts about PUNISHMENT may have been most interesting of all. A significant number of participants remarked on how many rewards were removed in 2009 due to the economy and how this simple act of cost-cutting was experienced by many as punishment. So the resounding recommendation of the group was to not implement something that may not be sustainable, because any improvements in organizational culture and performance that may have been gained initially surely would be lost – and then some! – as soon as those rewards were taken away.

[Future of OD Member]: This sound[s] like it would have been [a] fascinating meeting. I couldn’t agree more with the final comments. Once the bar has been set, anything that lowers the bar is experienced as either punishment or taking something away. We create the expectation of recognition when we initiate a recognition program. If we, for any reason, have to stop that program, we then fail to meet the expectations that we have created. This gives us a very fine line to walk, but it’s worth it if we can find our way.

[Jeremy Lurey]: Thanks (Member). It really was a great meeting. Not often, we as professionals get a chance to focus on knowledge transfer and learning in this type of intimate group forum. And the ideas that came out of the discussion were powerful and tremendously rich. Everyone very much agreed with what you just described which is the basic tenet of “Don’t do it if you aren’t serious long-term” and “Fight to keep it once it’s already in place.”

So what are your thoughts about recognition and rewards for the post-recession economy? As you can see, we are blogging about a discussion that is now taking place online even though it originally formed from the ideas discussed in a separate in-person group. Help us continue the conversation here via this communication media by commenting below. Or better yet, take an excerpt of this blog post and start another discussion in yet another form. We welcome it!

Entertainment.  It’s all around us.  The late night talk show wars between Jay, Conan, and Dave.  The new TV season is starting with American Idol and 24, and SuperBowl Weekend is just on the perceivable horizon.  I don’t know about you, but we live in exciting times!

Really?  Really?  What have we become?  Does Hollywood really dominate our attention so much as to dull our senses about what is going on in the world around us?  Have we become so numb to our world that we let “The Tonight Show” shenanigans take precedence over what happened in Haiti these past weeks?  Or to take precedence over what’s going on in our own homes with our spouse and children?

We are deluged daily, not only with entertainment, world news of disasters, war, and economic turmoil, but we are “attacked” with e-mails (let’s start a contest to see who gets more than 500 e-mails a day!), and overwhelmed with requests for our time to attend meetings and teleconferences.  Where do we draw the line?  When do we start to get control over our lives and our time?  How do we start to manage our commitments and keep a focus on the important relationships in our lives to make a statement about what is important to us?  How do we dig out of everything that gets piled on top of us so that we can breathe fresh air and regain a sense of balance that will both sustain us and energize our efforts to lead more productive and fulfilling lives?  Is this all too much to ask?  Is it pure fantasy that we can actually achieve this?A little over 25 years ago, I had the fortunate opportunity to participate in a program that truly changed my life and that provided me with the foundational tools and experiences to launch a career in OD.  The program was called the HRD Intern program, and it was conducted by the brilliant staff of consultants at University Associates (UA).  The program was expertly designed and elegantly facilitated so that upon completion, I (and other participants) left with a much clearer sense of “self” and “purpose” that would enable us to more effectively operate as a catalyst for positive change in organizations.

Oh, getting my Masters degree in Counseling was a great foundation, too.  But the UA Intern program was not about “book” learning where theories and concepts were king.  The Intern program was about getting centered on who I was as a person.  It was about getting clear on my values….on what was important in my life, and on what I needed to do to be “on purpose” in all of my interactions with clients, colleagues, family, and friends.  It was about having access to, and learning from some of the great thought leaders in the field of OD including John Jones, Phyliss Cooke, Will Schutz, Warner Burke, Len Goodstein, Paul Hersey, and Bill Pfeiffer.

The Intern program was designed to enable an experience of personal growth, as each of us learned to struggle with our own idiosyncrasies, our own interpersonal needs and issues, our own values and beliefs, and our own weirdness.  But it also enabled us to integrate our very personal learning with our professional development.  We learned that if we are to be instruments of positive change in organizations that we must first learn to change ourselves and thus become more positive role models to those we are encouraging to change.

So what did I learn?  It’s difficult to capture in words, because so much of the learning took place on an experiential level.  And experiential learning is, by very nature, transformational as it causes learning to occur on not just a cognitive level, but on a physical and emotional level as well.  But if I were to capture a few key points about what I learned to be more “centered” and “on purpose”:

• I am “on purpose” when my thoughts, intentions, words, and actions are focused on jointly optimizing my client organization’s needs and objectives with those of the employees working there.  In other words, I use myself as an “instrument” or “catalyst” for positive change by applying my knowledge of people and organizations to design and implement new systems, processes, structures, and roles to help companies become more profitable and to help employees feel more fully engaged.

• Through various structured activities, personal growth group experiences, and intensive self-examination and assessment, I learned how to become more “centered” and “comfortable in my own skin”.  I learned more about who I was (values, beliefs, strengths, weaknesses, needs, drives, etc.) so that I could become a more effective human being in interpersonal and group situations where people look to me to offer helpful insights, counsel, and advice on how to improve leadership and organizational effectiveness.

Looking back on that period, I realize that it was my experience in the HRD Intern program, and my fortunate opportunity to work as an employee at UA for nearly four years, that caused me to shift my career focus from becoming a Counselor to a Consultant in OD.

If you are an OD professional, what foundational experiences led you to choose OD as your career of choice?  What are you doing, or what have you done, to develop yourself for a career in OD? For all professionals, how do you stay “centered” and “on purpose” amidst the onslaught of information overload and the demands of competing priorities?

As for me, I try to attend at least one major conference a year (Linkage and/or OD Network) to “recharge my batteries” and expose myself to new thinking.  And I try to do at least one “retreat” a year where I commune with nature and some good friends or family in the peaceful surroundings of the Sierra Nevada, but I confess that these things get harder to do amidst all of my other commitments.

So, back to my opening comments on entertainment…… I confess to be an addict to “24” and “American Idol”, and I have them set to “record” on my DVR.  (We all need our “guilty pleasures”.)  And I wish that I could apply some sweat and muscle to rebuilding Haiti, but since I can’t I will donate money so that others can.  But I do hit the “delete” button on more and more e-mails, and I am continually striving to keep my priorities clear and in focus.  (I need to make more time for my hobbies of playing guitar and photography for sure).  But I am curious to hear what you do to make (and keep) yourself the best “instrument of change” that you can in whatever you do.

Click here for larger video, a full transcript, discussions, and extra information. This link will be provided again at the end of this entry.

Have you ever considered the possibility that the language we use in organizations can have a direct impact on the experience of an individual worker or larger group? How many times have you seen individuals or work groups that seem to exude a culture that undermines either their own stated goals or those of the organization as a whole? In what ways do they speak of themselves, their co-workers, and the work itself, and how has this correlated with their success?

Alternatively, have you seen individuals or groups within organizations that seem to “get it?” How do they speak about themselves and others, and what culture tends to form around them and spread to other parts of a larger organization?

Tribal Leadership, written by Dave Logan, John King, and Halee Fischer-Wright, provides a framework from which to understand the various “tribes” in an organization and the cultural stages in which they reside. One of their goals is to educate leaders on how to take a tribe (or set of tribes, if in a larger organization) from one cultural stage to the next, until they align around core values and a noble cause. This is achieved both through providing specific coaching tips and through addressing how a leader and an employee can speak about themselves and others.

In the video above, Dave Logan discusses the various cultural stages. Does the following expression sound familiar? “I’m great… and you’re not” Well, in Dave’s “cultural stage” model that’s a classic “stage 3” cultural expression that often leads to people attempting to outperform one another. And while healthy, good-natured competition in organizations is generally a good thing, unhealthy competition can breed negative consequences.

The authors provide concrete steps to lead groups from stage 3 to stage 4 behaviors that focus on more positive, healthy work relationships, and emphasize a project focus that is bigger than one person can do alone. Substituting “we” language instead of “I” language can have enormous impact. It allows a stage 3 individual to focus on the success of the team. The authors write that “The essence of tribal leadership is building the “we,” and as a person does this, his [or her] influence, respect, and power increase[s].” They also emphasize that a tribal leader’s goal is to find those core values and noble causes that unite the tribe. How many of you have attempted to do this in your own workplace or as a consultant, or witnessed it being done?

If you’re an outside consultant using Appreciative Inquiry or other models that utilize the consultant-as-partner perspective rather than the consultant-as-expert, then you’re already working within a stage 4 culture framework.

Stage 4 can produce extraordinary results. Take a look at the success of Zappos.com! Is it coincidence that they’ve chosen to give away the audio version of Tribal Leadership for free?  Zappos is an organization that has the potential to reach stage 5, and perhaps they have done just that. Stage 5 is exceedingly rare. The authors of Tribal Leadership believe stage 5 is “the future of business,” however it happens in limited bursts in the corporate setting. Its expression is “life is great,” and the people tend to form boundless networks of those who share their dream.

Stage 5 culture provides a level of performance that can make history. Have you seen this up close? It’s characterized by the unlocking of boundless potential and committing to something larger than the group would imagine is possible. We’ve seen it with Olympic teams and the authors’ research has uncovered it at times within business organizations. But they are committed to stabilizing business organizations at level 5!

For a moment let’s think beyond the level of any one organization. Given that we, as human beings, must take decisive collective action toward such complex matters as reducing global climate change and the stabilization of our global economic recovery, can we afford to wait for fleeting moments of stage 5 culture or shall we work toward it now? Recently CNN highlighted individuals who were called “Heroes” for their unwavering commitment to making a difference on this level. They think from Stage 5.

Many of you work with or work inside of large organizations. What are your experiences, both positive and negative, of the culture of your “tribe” or your organization, and what can you see as possible?

Link to video of Dave Logan explaining Tribal Leadership

]]> http://www.plusdelta.net/2009/12/dave-logan-gives-ted-talk-on-tribal-leadership/feed/ 7 http://www.plusdelta.net/2009/11/unconference-interview-with-juliette-powell-09-part-ii/ http://www.plusdelta.net/2009/11/unconference-interview-with-juliette-powell-09-part-ii/#comments Wed, 04 Nov 2009 04:04:34 +0000 Michael Liskin http://www.plusdelta.net/?p=1165 As promised in part I of my Interview with Juliette Powell, in the video below Juliette discusses the future of conferences. If there was any misconception about the nature of the “unconference” versus the “conference” arising from her keynote address, or about the future of how people will interact in such settings, this video will bring clarity to that and might inspire you to go to an unconference in your city this year. I also asked Juliette to discuss more about the Leadership Engine and how that was created. We are looking forward to our next collaboration with Juliette!

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I recently had the honor and privilege of sitting down with Geoff Bellman and Kathleen Ryan, co-authors of the new book Extraordinary Groups: How Ordinary Teams Achieve Amazing Results. What a treat!  Geoff has been a personal idol of mine ever since I started my doctoral program more than 15 years ago, and Kathleen may now be my newest favorite OD consultant. Whether I’ve known them long or short, both are tremendously caring and generous souls who are ever-so-graciously giving back to the field of OD these days just as they have given to their local Seattle community for many, many years.

So why do you, our blog readers, care about Geoff and Kathleen? Because they are two leading team performance experts who just published an eye-opening book……that clearly demonstrates why some groups just come and go while others produce that “wow” experience that inspires us to achieve exceptional results. According to their Group Needs Model, anyone (yes, I said ANYONE!) can create extraordinary group experiences and produce greater results. Listed below are the 6 common needs people have when they join groups, and as Geoff and Kathleen discussed in our interview, groups can achieve remarkable outcomes even if only 2 of these 6 needs are met.

• Acceptance of Self while moving toward One’s Potential
• A Bond with Others that grows while pursuing a Common Purpose
• Understanding the Reality of the World while collectively Making an Impact

Please read their book! It’s written for everyone – project managers, senior executives, group facilitators, and trainers, and really anyone who leads or participates in professional or social community groups. This short video clip about the Group Needs Model was just a snip-it of our extensive interview together. We’ll be sharing a complete transcript of the entire interview very soon so you too can find out how to create extraordinary group experiences that produce outstanding team results.

Edie Seashore (left) and Laura Horwitz (right)

As organizational psychologists, we look at human interactions as comprised of content and process. The OD Network conference was certainly chock full of great content, sessions that re-explored foundational theories, highlighted innovations, and introduced new applications at the boundaries of the field. And, with 800 participants, including many of organizational development’s leading theorists and practitioners, the conference offered a rare chance to connect with others who share my interests and values. Yet, as I reflect on my time in Seattle, what stands out about my first OD Network conference is not so much what I learned or who I met, but how I engaged with the content and process… through Twitter.

Now, as a recent adopter of this technology, I can imagine the skepticism of some non-tweeters as to how Twitter might apply to the work of OD professionals and what if any place tweeting has at a conference, one of the few face-to-face forums left in our increasingly virtual workplaces. For me tweeting at the OD Network Conference underscored the theories and values that drew me to OD in the first place. We are in the business of enabling individuals, groups, and organizations to better connect with one another so as to more effectively meet their goals. Relationships – whether forming new ones, enhancing existing ones, or untangling dysfunctional ones – lie at the heart of our work and the belief that relationships are foundational to change is, to me, one of the central values of our field.

Twitter, a tool that allows users to share brief thoughts with others in real-time, can be used for nothing more than navel-gazing and minutiae, but can also be harnessed to build dynamic and meaningful relationships with likeminded and geographically dispersed individuals. Twitter and other web 2.0 tools expand information access by minimizing the role of “expert” gatekeepers and empowering users to collaborate in the creation and spread of information in a self-organized way. These technologies embody many values central to organizational development, such as collaboration, transparency, and bottom-up engagement, and seem aligned with several theories and practices highlighted at the 2009 OD Network Conference, including Marshak and Bushe’s dialogic approach to organizational development, and those practices, like Liberating Structures and Positive Deviance, that draw on complexity theory.

I started a Twitter account (@ODforNonprofits) a couple months ago at the urging of my brother, a 2nd grade teacher, who uses his account (@globalrams) to connect with other educators and classrooms worldwide and incorporates tweeting into his teaching. Soon thereafter, I attended the National Conference on Citizenship at which participants were asked to “turn their cell phones on” and encouraged to tweet throughout the day. The conference organizers went so far as to take questions from Twitter, an approach that powerfully displayed the potential of web 2.0 tools to expand participation.

So when I learned about Flocking to Seattle, an action research project that aimed to explore the value of and influence the conversation over Twitter at the OD Network Conference, I was excited to continue my experiment with Twitter. I had two questions I hoped to answer by actively tweeting throughout the conference. First, I wondered if Twitter would prove a distraction or an enhancement to my conference experience. Second, I was curious as to whether tweeting would isolate me from or help me connect with other conference goers.
Linda Stone’s work on continuous partial attention points out the opportunities and pitfalls of a hyper-connected, information rich world. Stone explains that “in our effort not to miss anything” we fail to be fully present in our here and now lives, and also suggests that we can make strategic choices as to when partial attention is useful and/or desirable.

In my use of Twitter at the conference, I wanted to benefit from the connective potential of Twitter while maintain a “here and now” presence. I tried to accomplish this by approaching Twitter as a tool for taking notes in the sessions I attended. Doing so allowed me to stay focused on the content of the keynote speeches and sessions and benefit from the memory enhancing effects of note-taking, but also meant that my Twitter persona was one of providing information rather than connecting to outside content or with or among other users. As I learned from Rachel Lyn Rumson (@CosmoGenisis), there are developmental stages of tweeting behavior: initially, users generate content by telling what they are doing or hearing; next, users begin to point to resources elsewhere that connect to what they are experiencing; then, users connect other users to one another and connect across streams of thoughts by re-tweeting content and asking questions.

As far as the use of Twitter as isolating or connective, I found that my experience was “both/and.” Conference goers who tweeted were a small subset of mostly young professionals. Tweeting was a great way to get to know this peer group and allowed me to attend the conference as an individual but gain the benefits group association, such as splitting up for sessions and reporting back, and reflecting with others on the conference as a whole. At the same time, the twittering-conference-goers illustrated existing generational divides in the OD Network, and provided a bridge between tweeters and non-tweeters and among generations. Twitter served as a conversation piece that gave me, as a young professional and first-time attendee, a unique role and entry to conversations with experience practitioners that may not have otherwise been possible. Moreover, tweeting allowed me to feel that I was provided an important service to people who couldn’t attend the conference but hoped to follow what was happening.

In all, my online participation enhanced my offline experience and visa versa. My Twitter experiment at the OD Network Conference reaffirms my sense that the power of Twitter and other web 2.0 technologies lie in identifying and leveraging the nexus between online and offline connections. As Edie Seashore reminded us, Twitter is just a new tool for developing the support systems we consider foundational to personal and organizational transformation.

Laura Horwitz is a nonprofit professional with an MA in Organizational Psychology from Columbia University.  She tweets @ODforNonprofits.

I recently conducted a two-part interview with Juliette Powell (author of 33 Million People in the Room) at the OD Network Conference in Seattle, just after she delivered the final keynote speech, titled “The Technology of Relationships: Social Networking and the Future of Human Communities.” This first interview gives you a behind-the-scenes look into Juliette’s take on the field of OD after delivering the keynote and meeting with OD practitioners for several days. You’ll especially want to watch if you were at the keynote or you plan to watch it on YouTube when it gets posted by the OD Network. I highly recommend you watch that keynote address when posted; her points are crucial for OD practitioners to remain relevant in the shifting organizational and media landscape.

You won’t want to miss our upcoming blog post featuring the second interview. There she clears up the misconception from the keynote address around her provocative comment regarding the demise of traditional conferences. She also further elaborates on her upcoming Leadership Engine project – an exciting new development for OD.

Here is a quick glimpse of that comment regarding the future of conferences during the keynote address

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For those interested in the future of organizations with respect to the social-technological systems that enable people to be effective in the organization, and for those interested in the future of how conferences may be organized, be sure to visit this blog for our second interview with Juliette.

I was fortunate enough to spend some time with Juliette during the conference. She is a fascinating individual who is passionate about her work and is clearly making a significant contribution to the world. Our private discussions about our own personal transparency on the web may ironically become increasingly public, in that we may continue these discussions on various social networks and in public online spaces, as they may be of interest to others (she has already challenged me to change my personal Twitter handle from @rhetor to my full name). Perhaps it is not ironic after all, but rather a small example of the greater discussion around authenticity and community that Juliette challenges us to wrestle with as we strive to be effective and happy in our organizational and personal lives. I see the lines blurring between those we used to call “public figures” and “everyone else,” and maybe that can produce extraordinary results. If you have a strong opinion on this please be sure to comment on this post. Can it be taken too far? For an extreme example of such behavior, see We Live In Public.

During her keynote Juliette tells us that those companies who are at the center of their industries are ones that gather the most information, hence achieve the best results. One of the keys to arriving at the center of one’s industry is having the most connected employees, both online and offline. I would tell those companies who currently block social networking sites at their offices to promptly purchase Juliette’s book and reconsider their policies!

This week at the OD Network Conference, organization development consultants – -seasoned and newly inspired – gathered to hear one of our favorite thought leaders, Peter Block. Block spoke of the “collective possibility” to “create a future distinct from the past.” This conference, like so many others, lives off of this premise – that people come together to share experience, debate new ideas, learn from each other in order to move their cause, profession or passions forward.

Individuals gathered in “community” can be a powerful force to bring about change at the macro level. And, at the micro level, it simply rejuvenates the individual to be with those who share their interests. Conferences mimic real-life in this way, offering a myriad of concurrent sessions on different topics. When the doors close, the community filling the chairs reflects those who chose to put their time and energy into this particular collective conversation. For the next 90 minutes, the exchange will feed their need to learn, contribute, and form new opinion.

The need to connect with others in community is part of our DNA. In historical times, tribes and clans held us together. Other examples of our need to “belong” to a community include our choice of religion, our expression of our cultural heritage, our loyalty to our company, and more benign examples: college fraternities, rock band groupies, football fans, and those who won’t miss an episode of Heroes! Not only do we get new ideas, we also find information, support and a sense of identity within these groups. But community is not just about what we receive, it’s also about the fulfillment of giving. Consider those in public office or those who organize the local food drive. And each of us gives in small and fleeting community moments as well. Think of how you felt when you helped lift a suitcase into the overhead, or gave directions to a “stranger” on the street.

We see how the power of community plays out in organizations of all kinds. In our book, Social Media At Work, we share how social media tools such as wikis, blogs, and social networking sites accelerate the formation of community and improve performance. These tools enable people who would have never known of each other to connect, communicate and collaborate on difficult problems or new innovations. They facilitate learning and provide new ways for us to engage with each other, to receive and to give our ideas, our opinions and our insights. (Although we haven’t met, you’re reading this now!) This kind or community within organizations – large, small, public, corporate, social – will certainly super charge our ability to effectively “create a future distinct from the past.”

The other night we were honored to be invited to a mixer hosted by Plus Delta Consulting. There we met new friends and found old friends from the previous year’s conference. This new community exchanged ideas, shared wisdom from our experience, and sparked possibilities for new collaborations. Yes, like many others we met at the conference, we will keep in touch via the Internet. We will tweet and blog and join the online social network, and this will keep our community energized. But, we all know that there’s nothing like a good old-fashioned handshake. For that reason, we look forward to seeing everyone again next year to revel in the collective possibility and to continue shaping a future distinct from our past.