The future of Organization Development lies in facilitating a widespread cultural shift toward a flourishing economy respectful of the social and ecological systems upon which we all depend.
In 2003, our members got together to research, survey, and present results, recognizing that asking the right questions is crucial to defining the best path forward. Inquiry led us to answer the questions, and rise to the challenge they presented. But we didn't do this through inquiry alone. Over the years we've come to recognize that the most powerful tool for idea generation is dialog with others.
Purposeful dialog with collaborators, students, editors, and event participants defined our mission: to transform organizations and communities in service of humanity and the earth. Guided by shared values and goals, it is still dialog that germinates new ideas in service of that purpose. Whether consultants, human resource professionals, coaches or community organizers, our members are experts at facilitation, systems thinking, and a slew of other competencies shown to be key to successful sustainability initiatives.
By getting together as a community of practitioners with a shared purpose - formally or informally, in a group of 2 or 20, by phone, in person, or online - we continue the dialog that, again and again, translates into action. Whether that action is taking or teaching a course about sustainability-related OD skills, proposing alternative ways of doing 'business as usual' at work, collaborating on a book or article, or brainstorming ways to be proactive in our workplace or community, dialog generates ideas. Ideas with the support of a community make an impact!
Bright spots are people and organizations that inspire, working on the human side of change-making. They vary in scale and type, and strive toward a shared goal of a socially, economically, and ecologically flourishing world. By highlighting success stories, like-minded practitioners can get ideas, deepen their knowledge, forge partnerships, and continue to build on what others have started. Below are just a few. Connect with us on LinkedIn to share other bright spots, including the work you are doing.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development provides a shared blueprint of 17 Sustainable Development Goals for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future.
Collective Responsibility develops long term knowledge bases, capacity, and programs in the areas of Corporate Social Responsibility, sustainability, and civil society for both profit and non-profit enterprises.
AIM2Flourish is an initiative of the Fowler Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit, connecting students with business innovators using Appreciative Inquiry to celebrate business innovations aligned with the UN Global Goals.
The Inner Development Goals (IDG) is a non-profit, open-source initiative committed to fostering inner development towards more sustainable futures. They research, collect, and communicate science-based skills and qualities that help us to live purposeful, sustainable, and productive lives.
The Society for Organizational Learning (SoL) North America is a Massachusetts-based non-profit that aims to create new opportunities and develop new capacities for a better society. SoL aspires to connect people with the tools and community support they need to tackle today’s complex and evolving issues.
u-school is a global capacity-building and action research platform that offers programs, certifications, space holding and innovation labs using Theory U and Social Arts to activate a shift in individuals and collectives from ego- to eco-system consciousness, for the healing and regeneration of self, society and planet.
Author and thought-leader Margaret Wheatley offers an antidote for the humanitarian and ecological crises we find ourselves in today: restore sanity by awakening the human spirit. An Island of Sanity is a gift of possibility and refuge created by people’s commitment to form a healthy community to do meaningful work.
The Center for Systems Awareness is a global community-based organization that serves a collaborative surface—a space for people who want to engage in compassionate systems change can come together, collaborate, explore, and learn from each other.
We are a leading partner for organisations ready to address humanities grand challenges to create a better future. We enable decision makers to manage complexity, define their future position and seize opportunities for short and long term success.
Nature is a powerful source of inspiration and practical action for restoring life in both inner and outer ecosystems. Regenerative Change Lab helps leaders see how living systems principles and practices could refresh how they approach personal and organizational change.
TTG helps leaders think in new and creative ways – to be more innovative, collaborative, and effective.
Our aim is to accelerate the cultural and business transformation that is necessary for organizations and our world to be more sustainable.
Brands are uniquely positioned to align business and society on the path to a flourishing future. Those brands that embrace this challenge will prosper in the 21st century. Accomplishing this challenge requires a new way of seeing the world - along with a new set of skills, tools, and collaborators.
ODCFW's Leadership Team is a volunteer collective of
Practitioners, Professors, Lecturers, Community Leaders, and Authors.
We work for change locally, internationally, and in between.
Our titles and backgrounds are diverse, but our shared purpose keeps us convening, brainstorming, and acting.
Jessica helps individuals, teams and organizations gain awareness, clarity and purpose on the path to self-actualization. She is a proponent of Appreciative Inquiry principles for the cultivation of healthy, vibrant human systems.
With co-author Ann Feyerherm, PhD, Jessica‘s original research on the significance of worldview in
Jessica helps individuals, teams and organizations gain awareness, clarity and purpose on the path to self-actualization. She is a proponent of Appreciative Inquiry principles for the cultivation of healthy, vibrant human systems.
With co-author Ann Feyerherm, PhD, Jessica‘s original research on the significance of worldview in the context of sustainability was published in the International Journal of Sustainable Strategic Management (2013): “Transitioning organisations for sustainability: implications for organization development and change management.” The research supports findings that, given their unique training and skills, OD practitioners are ideally positioned to provide organizations and communities with the kinds of tools and leadership necessary for successful sustainability initiatives.
Jessica holds a Master of Organization Development from Pepperdine University and a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania.
Karen, a consultant with organizations globally for over four decades, is committed to enhancing the health, effectiveness and joy of human systems and our planet. Her life work is in the spirit of earth wisdom; her values and practices are grounded in multiple ways of knowing.
Karen is dedicated to co-creating global community and s
Karen, a consultant with organizations globally for over four decades, is committed to enhancing the health, effectiveness and joy of human systems and our planet. Her life work is in the spirit of earth wisdom; her values and practices are grounded in multiple ways of knowing.
Karen is dedicated to co-creating global community and sustainability by working and learning with colleagues and groups throughout the world. Her current leadership and board memberships include Open Space Institute US and International Organization Development Association. For many years Karen was a trustee of Organization Development Network. She has been on the graduate faculty of Organization Behavior and Development at the Universidad Diego Portales in Santiago de Chile. Other long-term commitments involved her service on the board of a large healthcare and insurance company, various community and cultural groups, as well as advisory boards of several international organizations.
Karen’s educational background includes specializations in chemistry, counseling psychology and social psychology. Her music training and experiences are significant influences in her work and life. When not traveling or working around the world she lives in New York City, returning regularly to her native Arizona. Summers, she is on her farm in rural Quebec, Canada with her virtual office. Karen describes herself as a "global citizen and gardener." The earth is her playground and lifelong teacher.
Elena, principal for Feliz Consulting, is an Organization Development Consultant and Certified Coach. Her expertise includes assessment, strategic planning, change management, leadership development, team building, diversity & inclusion, facilitation, coaching and training. She was an internal OD/HR consultant in AT&T for 25 years
Elena, principal for Feliz Consulting, is an Organization Development Consultant and Certified Coach. Her expertise includes assessment, strategic planning, change management, leadership development, team building, diversity & inclusion, facilitation, coaching and training. She was an internal OD/HR consultant in AT&T for 25 years and is an external OD consultant for the private and public sector since 2002. She has been invited to speak at a variety of forums and conferences. She currently serves on the Board of Directors in NTL (National Training Laboratories) Institute.
Elena received her Master's from American University in Washington, D.C. She has served on the Board of Trustees for the Organization Development Network (ODN) twice and is a board member of NTL Institute of Applied Behavioral Science (ABS) for the second time. Elena convenes multiple groups of people of color and women to support social justice
Nalini M Kumaran, a seasoned HR professional, provides consulting in all areas of Human Resources Management. Her knowledge of financial accounting, computer programming and international HR gives her the unique ability to identify needs of the client, analyze options and create an innovative solution. Her work in large multinational cor
Nalini M Kumaran, a seasoned HR professional, provides consulting in all areas of Human Resources Management. Her knowledge of financial accounting, computer programming and international HR gives her the unique ability to identify needs of the client, analyze options and create an innovative solution. Her work in large multinational corporations like AT&T, Verizon, small start-ups and mid-sized organizations across industries and countries enables her to provide a global perspective and develop cohesive solutions for all clients.
To diversify into the new and exciting field of environmental sustainability, she has now joined Transitioning to Green in studying the role of Human Resources within an organization's sustainability vision. She has designed and developed the Living Fieldbook online resource for the book, The Sustainable Enterprise Fieldbook: Building New Bridges (Routledge, 2019).
Terri McNichol, developer of imaginement® and President, Ren Associates, is an award-winning artist and independent scholar. She is Senior Associate Adjunct Professor at Mercer County Community College and has taught studio and Asian art history at both the community college and university levels for over twenty-five years.
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Terri McNichol, developer of imaginement® and President, Ren Associates, is an award-winning artist and independent scholar. She is Senior Associate Adjunct Professor at Mercer County Community College and has taught studio and Asian art history at both the community college and university levels for over twenty-five years.
A former museum director, she has been a sponsored speaker at international museum and management conferences in Taiwan, in the UK, Beijing China (PRC) and most recently at the Wise Management conference held in Shanghai, China.
Terri is a contributor to The Sustainable Enterprise Fieldbook: When It All Comes Together now in its second printing and the forthcoming The Museum Blog Book. Terri’s chapter "The Art Museum as Laboratory for Re-Imagining a Sustainable Future" based on her students’ museum essays is in Part III: Appreciative Intelligence Perspectives: Advances in Appreciative Inquiry- Positive Design and Appreciative Construction: From Sustainable Development to Sustainable Value v.3, 2010.
Linda works at the nexus where big picture vision meets practical implementation to produce sustainable enterprise that is relevant and contributes to overall prosperity. She is a cultural creative who guides individuals and teams through the process of change to develop the mindset, presence, and capabilities they need to lead and colla
Linda works at the nexus where big picture vision meets practical implementation to produce sustainable enterprise that is relevant and contributes to overall prosperity. She is a cultural creative who guides individuals and teams through the process of change to develop the mindset, presence, and capabilities they need to lead and collaborate in the building of a sustainable world.
Her focus is on cultivating professional and personal excellence that bridges the gap between knowing what to do and being able to do it. Linda’s whole systems approach to learning and change enables clients to navigate difficult issues in doable steps that produce rapid, genuine results. As happens with the turn of a kaleidoscope, our accumulated skills and experiences reorder and recombine to make new original patterns time after time; we’re always a work-in-progress. It is the rich breadth and depth of our humanness, simultaneously simple and complex in its unfolding, that forms the foundation of Linda’s work as a consultant and coach.
She brings to her consulting, training and coaching a pragmatic, hands-on perspective gained from thirty years of business experience coupled with her artist’s sense of invention, play and design, and an amateur naturalist’s powers of observation. She works with both businesses and government agencies.
Linda is a leader in forging new ground using virtual technologies for collaborative problem-solving, immersive learning, and advancing collective ingenuity. Delia Lake is Linda Kelley’s avatar representative in virtual platforms such as Second Life® where she has worked for over ten years to raise awareness of and work collaboratively on real-world environmental and sustainability issues with people around the globe. She does this because she believes that virtual media will provide essential co-creative spaces and interfaces between local and global sustainability initiatives.
Linda is a co-author of The Sustainable Enterprise Fieldbook (Greenleaf, 2008). She serves on the steering committee of the Downtown Pittsfield Farmers Market, is a member of the core team of the Pittsfield Working Cities Challenge, and formerly was on the board of the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Boston.
Jeana is Associate Professor of Professional Practice in the Management & Global Business Department, Rutgers Business School, and Executive Director of the Rutgers Institute for Corporate Social Innovation (RICSI). She leads the UN Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) initiative and teaches Sustainability/ESG related co
Jeana is Associate Professor of Professional Practice in the Management & Global Business Department, Rutgers Business School, and Executive Director of the Rutgers Institute for Corporate Social Innovation (RICSI). She leads the UN Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) initiative and teaches Sustainability/ESG related courses in Rutgers Business School’s MBA and Executive Education.
Jeana is lead editor and author for The Sustainable Enterprise Fieldbook: Building New Bridges (Greenleaf, 2008; Routledge, 2019). Her previous book Building a Culture for Sustainability: People, Planet and Profits in a New Green Economy (Praeger, 2014)
shows how to holistically integrate sustainability throughout the culture of organizations.
Jeana is also president and CEO of Transitioning to Green , a training and consulting firm that helps companies and organizations make sustainability and corporate social responsibility a mainstream, routine business practice.
Previously, Jeana was HR Director for Development, Quality and Organization Effectiveness at Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) where she led a variety of initiatives to build organizational capacity and held several leadership positions in AT&T Human Resources and Marketing. Jeana started her career in the Federal government where she was a Social Science Analyst in the Office of Research at the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and led the
Women’s Research/Social Processes team at the National Institute of Education.
She teaches Organizational Behavior and Intro to Corporate Social Innovation in Rutgers MBA program, Women Leading in Business and Management Skills in Rutgers Department of Management and Global Business. She received her Master’s degree and Ph.D. with honors in Psychology from U.C.L.A.
Connect with Jeana on LinkedIn.