GOD!!!!

GOD!!!

Prelude:

From my Junior High years to the second year of graduate work at the University of St. Thomas, I aspired to be a Catholic Priest. In my freshman year, I discovered the world of change agents. And….I was required to write a paper on the philosophy of death. Per change I found a book on the Seminary Library by Dr. Sivananda. His thinking became the core of my paper. To This day, he is my number one personal whole person transformation inspiration. He is the first dedication in my 3rd Edition on OD. What follows is my edit of one document among over 1,000 and books and articles’.
INTRODUCTION
Who is God? What is God? Is there a God? Where is God? How to realize God?
All people want an answer to these eternal questions. Certainly there is God. God exists. He is the only reality. God is your creator, saviour, and redeemer. He is all-pervading. He dwells in your heart. He is always near you. He is nearer to you than your jugular vein or nose. He loves you. He can talk to you. You cannot find God by the intellect. But, you can find Him by feeling, meditation, experience, and realisation.
WHO IS GOD?
The Petromax (Aladdin lantern) does not talk, but it shines and sheds light all around. A rose does not speak, but it wafts its fragrance everywhere. The lighthouse sounds no drum, but sends its friendly light to the mariner. The Unseen beats no gong, but Its omnipresence is felt by the dispassionate and discriminating sage.
Behind all names and forms is the one nameless, formless Essence. God is nameless and formless. For our transcendental limitations God has been given many names since the beginning of civilization. My favorite is Yahweh. Yahweh is the covenant name of God. The name Yahweh occurs more than 6800 times in the Bible.
God has had 100’s of names in Christianity, i.e. the Trinity, Jehovah, Love (John 3:16)
Behind all governors is the one Supreme Governor of governors. Behind all lights is the one Light Of lights. Behind all sounds, there is the soundless Supreme Silence.
Behind all these perishable objects is the one imperishable Absolute. Behind all these motions is the one motionless Infinite. Behind time, minutes, and days is the one timeless Eternity. Behind hatred, riots, and wars is the one hidden Love.
God is the totality of all that exists, both animate and inanimate, sentient and insentient. He is free from ills and limitations. He is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. He has no beginning, middle, or end.
For Christians, he is Yahweh or the Father, Christ as the Son and Breath/Soul as the Holy Spirit.
For Hinduism – Krishan, Vishnu, Siva or Rudra and a thousands of other names.
For American Indians – The Great Spirit
For Islam – Allah plus 99 other names that a Muslim can not be given.
For Confucianism – Shang Ti
For Taoists – Tao
For Sikhism – Waheguru
God is the indweller in all beings. He is the life-force within all of us.
God is all in all. God is the only reality in this universe. The existence of things is by the light of God.
God is ever living. All depend on Him. He is not depending on any. He is the Truth, the light and the way.
Yoga means yoking or becoming One God or realizing Union or Communion with God. It is a practical discipline used by most of the major religions. Yoga has no dogma. God is the end or goal of all Yoga aesthetics.
God is the Centre towards which all things strive. He is the highest purpose or highest good of the world. You have the urge of hunger. There is food to appease the hunger. You have the urge of thirst. There is water to quench the thirst. There is the urge to be always happy. There must be something to satisfy this urge. This something is God, an embodiment of happiness. God, Immortality, Joy, Freedom, Perfection, Ecstasy, Peace, Bliss, Truth, Love are synonymous terms.
WHAT IS GOD?
What is God? It is hard to tell. But, when I look at the Ocean. I know it is God. When I see a Rose. I know it is God. When I behold the blue sky, I know it is God. When I hear the chirping of birds, I know it is God. When I taste honey, I know it is God. When I see a Baby. I know it is God.
God is the alpha and omega; the beginning of transformation, the center of transformation and the end of transformation.
The Supreme is indefinable, though scholars in different dogmatic traditions give intellectual accounts of It which are not absolutely true.
Every person has his or her own conception of God. The God of a military man wears a helmet. The God of a China-man has a flat nose and a pipe for smoking opium. The God of a Hindu has marks on his forehead, and wears a rosary and a garland of flowers. The God of a Christian wears a Cross. For some, God has wings or is just nature.
Such an anthropomorphic conception of God is obviously puerile or naive. The greatest and most important thing in all the world is to get a right concept of God, because your belief about God governs your entire life as well as influences the experience of your destiny
IS THERE A GOD?
God is beyond human imagination, but he is a living reality. Christ is no metaphysical abstraction. Yahweh is the fullest and the most real being; actually the full really real!!
The existence of God cannot be proved by scientific experimentation. Perhaps the computer will prove the existence of God. The Absolute baffles the mind of even the greatest scholar. It eludes the grasp of even the mightiest intellect. It is experienced as pure consciousness, where intellect dies, scholarship perishes, and the entire being itself is completely lost in It. All is lost, and all is found.
You want laboratory proofs? Very fine, indeed! Can the chemist wish to limit the illimitable, all-pervading God in your test-tube, blow-pipe, and chemicals. God is the source for your chemicals. He is the substratum for your atoms, electrons, and molecules. Without Him, no atom or electron will move, He is the inner ruler; the core of a transforming beings.
It is God who lends power to our senses, perception to our mind, discernment to our intellect, strength to our limbs. It is through His will that we live and die. But people vainly imagine that he is the actor and the enjoyer. An individual is but a conscious speck before the almighty, governing Power that directs the movement in the universe.
God’s will expresses itself everywhere as law. The law of gravitation, cohesion, relativity, cause and effect, the laws of electricity, chemistry, physics, all the psychic laws, are expressions of God’s will.
As we explain everything within nature by the law of cause and effect, so also, nature as a whole must be explained. It must have some cause. This cause must be different from the effect. It must be some supernatural entity, i.e., God.
Nature is not a mere chance collection of events, a mere jumble of accidents, but an orderly affair. The planets move regularly in their orbits; seeds grow into trees regularly; the seasons succeed each other in order. Now, nature is insentient. It is not conscious of itself like humans are. Nature cannot order itself. It requires the existence of an intelligent being-God-who is responsible for it. Even Einstein, the mystical scientist, was strongly convinced of the creation of the universe by a Supreme Intelligence.
Though you do not see the stars in the daytime, yet they do exist. Though you cannot see the sun during a cloudy day, yet it does exist. Even so, though you cannot see God with these physical eyes, yet He does exist. If you get the divine eye or the eye of intuition by the practice of meditation, you will behold Him.
God is self-proved. He does not want any proof, because He is the basis for the act or process of proving.
WHERE IS GOD?
Where is God? There is nowhere where He is not. Just as one thread penetrates all the flowers in a garland, so also, one Self penetrates all these living beings. He is hidden in all beings and forms, like oil in seed, butter in milk, mind in brain, Prana or breath or soul in the body, foetus in the womb, sun behind the clouds, fire in wood, vapour in the atmosphere, salt in water, scent in flowers, sound in the I-pod, gold in quartz, microbes in blood.
God dwells in all beings as life and consciousness. God is in the roar of a lion, the song of a bird, and the cry of a babe. Feel His presence everywhere. God is the love between lovers.
See God in the wings, of a butterfly, in the letters Alpha and Omega, in the cough of a patient, in the murmur of a brook, in the sound of a bell. Behold the wonder of the Lord’s face in every object of this world.
Every breath that flows in the nose, every beat that throbs in the heart, every artery that pulsates in the body, every thought that arises in the mind, speaks to you that God is near.
Every flower that wafts fragrance, every fruit that attracts you, every gentle breeze that blows, every river that smoothly flows, speaks of God and His mercy.
The vast ocean with its powerful waves, the bright sun and stars in the wide sky, the lofty tree with its branches, the cool springs in the hills and dales, tell you of His omnipotence.
The music of the sweet singers, interventions of change agents, the lectures of the Powerful orators, the poems of the reputed poets, the inventions of the able scientists, the operations of the dexterous surgeons, the utterances of the holy saints, , the revelations of the major religions; speak of God and His wisdom.
Everything is God. Good is God. Misfortune is God. Greet God in everything and rest peacefully in ecstasy then bliss.
God pervades the entire universe. He moans in pain in the guise of the sick. God is my ill brother. He walks in the garb of a beggar. Open your eyes. See Him in all. Serve all. Love all.
Feel the Divine Presence everywhere-in every form, in every thought, in every feeling and in every sentiment, in every movement, in every emotion.
God, seen through the senses, is matter. God, seen through the intellect, is mind. God, seen through the spirit or Self.
You my friend art indwelt by the Lord. He is the inner ruler, guarding and controlling your life. He is in you and you are in Him. He is quite close to you. He is not very far, but is nearer to you than you are to yourself. You were thinking in the beginning that He could be found only in Church, Mecca, Jerusalem, sky or heaven. You had very vague ideas. This body is His moving temple. The sanctum sanctorum is the chamber of your own heart. Close your eyes. Withdraw from the sensual objects. Follow your breath as you still your mind. Search Him in thy heart with one-pointed concentrated mind, devotion, and pure love. Find him in sacred sex. You will surely find Him. He is waiting there with outstretched arms to embrace you. If you cannot find Him there, you cannot find Him anywhere else.
HOW TO REALISE GOD?
God is a question of supply and demand. If you really yearn for His communion or presence, He will reveal Himself to you in an instant.
You need neither art nor science, neither study nor erudition for God-realisation, but faith, purity, and devotion.
Fast, purify, breath, eat live food, have pure intentions to love all in the world. Use the ancient disciplines to bring God alive in your inner self.
Combine all the love you cherish towards all worldly objects-wife, son, wealth, property, relatives, friends-and then apply this combined love towards God. You will realise in this soon.
As we move into the Age of Aquarius, thousands will be graced with higher and higher forms and experiences of enlightenment.
To serve God and Mammon at the same time is impossible. You cannot enjoy the ecstasy then bliss of the Self and the sensual pleasure in one and the same cup. You cannot have light and darkness at the same time.
The Lord demands your whole heart.
Reduce yourself into zero before God. Only then will God completely take care of and guide you. Only then surrender becomes complete.
Forget your own interests, your own longings, your own desires. You will attain the bliss of the Supreme Self.
Crucify, sacrifice the lower self, if you wish to have union with God.
Empty your egoism. You will be filled with God. Lose your personality. You will find the Divine Life. You will realise God.
Dr. Sivananda edited by Roland disciple of Sivananda since 18 years young.

Addendum:

Names for God in the New Testament
Creator: John 1:3 (Jesus); Isa 40:28 (YHWH)
Savior: John 4:42 (Jesus); Isa 45:22; 43:11 (YHWH)
Raise the dead: John 5:21 (Jesus); I Sam 2:6 (YHWH)
Judge: John 5:27; Matt 25:31-46 (Jesus); Joel 3:12 (YHWH)
Light: John 8:12 (Jesus); Isa 60:19-20 (YHWH)
“I AM”: John 8:58; 18:5,6 (Jesus); Ex 3:14 (YHWH)
Shepherd: John 10:11 (Jesus); Ps 23:1 (YHWH)
Glory of God: John 17:1,5 (Jesus); Isa 42:8; 48:11 (YHWH)
First and last: Rev 1:17; 2:8 (Jesus); Isa 41:4; 44:6 (YHWH)
Redeemer: Rev 5:9 (Jesus); Hosea 13:14 (YHWH)
Bridegroom: Rev 21:2; Matt 25:1ff (Jesus); Isa 62:5; Hosea 2:16 (YHWH)
Rock: I Cor 10:4 (Jesus); Ps 18:2 (YHWH)
Forgiver of sins: Mark 2:7,10; Jer 31:34 (YHWH)
Worshiped by angels: Heb 1:6 (Jesus); Ps 148:2 (YHWH)
Addressed in prayer: Acts 7:59 (Jesus); throughout Hebrew Scriptures (YHWH)
Creator of angels: Col 1:16 (Jesus); Ps 148:5 (YHWH)
Confessed as Lord: Phil 2:11 (Jesus); Isa 45:23 (YHWH)

Reflections on the list serve conversation at ODN: it is organization development or organizationAL development

Warner Burke, the youngest second generation OD practitioneer, has told me personally and he has written several places that as saintly friend Sir Scherer says…it is organization development not organizationAL development.

It is organization because our focus is on the system, the enterprise or the entity.

Organizational means organizing as you organize your time utilizing time management or you organize your clothes in your bedroom or organize the dishes in the kitchen or organize labor and union.

And yes I know that Warren Bennis and Chris Argyris and other notable people have published using the phrase organizational development

As John says perhaps we should clarify. it is organization development (OD). And for God’s sake it is not “Change Management”.

OD is a field. It is a profession. We have our ethics. We have our competencies or knowledge base established.

But in all true reality is most likely more a field in the profession

My concern is that the consultants that want to sell their latest gimmick or tool use phrase organization development to sound marketable.

Often they are people who have never had a course in OD or never have read a book from beginning end on OD.

I call that malpractice.

These kinds of wonderful well-intentioned beings have made the boundaries around OD fuzzy and sloppy.

Chris Worley and Tom Cummings along with French and Bell and others in our classic OD text books have documented the essential theory and knowledge.

Then the wonderful soul in William Gellerman, who is often the moral conscious for this listserv, has…through participative and extensive work defined the ethics for the field.

Don Cole has spent much of his life purporting the OD field to become the OD profession.

Personally I don’t care if it’s a profession or a field. I just want to have a community of practice to have a strong identity.

A community that is recognized having extraordinary wisdom and competence to help the world survive and transform itself immediately into a whole system filled with love and care for the planet as well as for each in individual human being. as many of you know I have initiated the Asian OD network.
in my travels I am confronted by the stories and experiences of poverty in a dramatic way.. If we can only put ourselves together to the values of OD weekend a lemonade hunger, illiteracy, and the lack of basic healthcare. This is all possible I believe to be able to occur in this century.

So let’s get on with the work and stop building castles in the air with our lofty unproductive conversations.

I see a new important conversation coming up around global transformation. I am having dialogue right now to deal with the crisis that is much more serious than global warming in some people’s minds, at least in the United States. it is the major issue of dealing with water.

Personally, I’m in an auspicious position.

I have a beautiful deep well in deep wooded suburb of Minneapolis.

So it will not be a personal issue for me but we are starting to experience the United States and Canada to come after Minnesota for our wonderful water.

My idea is to repeat the Seventh American Forest Congress (google to learn about) model in a national conversation that will transform the water system in the United States.

God bless you all and may the divine life bloom and shine in your personal life and in the life of your family and all your clients

So my two cents from an oasis… that is a thriving metropolitan area or fly over space in the wilderness of the central part of our country where is is cold, fresh and pristine.

It is that time of the year where many worthy people are getting prepared to go to Lake Wobegon for Holiday in Prairie.

Roland …. still attempting to master what I learned about love in my first C Seashore T-group back in 1962.

Key competencies for doing whole system transformation

1. Be able to master one’s self

2. Integrate theory and practice

3. Ability to work the whole system systematically

4. Surface Relevant Data

5. Participatively create extraordinary and committed action plans

6. Keep true information flowing in a safe environment

7. Communicate and facilitate transition

8. Align leadership and be able to stay in a relationship with them so they can guide and support the change

9. Leave system so the change is sustained

10. Train an internal change agent to take the place of the external change agent.

watch my twitter to download our recorded webinar -work https://twitter.com/ChangeAgent100

WEBINAR: Beyond Change Management
When

Tuesday, December 15, 2009
11:30am – 1pm

About the webinar Coming Soon!
Whole System Transformation Journey

Why do a majority of change management efforts fail? Hint: Today change is created in a closet and ‘rolled out’ to the organization but it doesn’t stick. Our speakers will present the latest research on what organizations need to respond to change, innovation, globalization and chaos. They will then provide a roadmap for going beyond traditional change management to Whole System Transformation (WST). WST naturally addresses organizational needs for change and, in all cases, WST has succeeded. Attendees will come away from this presentation with an understanding of the importance of creating an integrated, sustainable journey led by internal resources that engage the entire organization including establishing mutual influence and alignment between the top, middle and bottom of the organization. Finally, the speakers will apply the whole system transformation to a case study.

Attendees are encouraged to submit their situation for review during the session. We will discuss the cases and work together to come up with real solutions. (Email your contact information and details about your situation in advance to mnasq1203@gmail.com.) We will generate as many questions as we can about the situation. Questions left unasnwered during the session will be answered offline by the speakers and made available to all attendees. Attendees will also be provided access to selective chapters from the new, just released, 3rd edition of Practicing Organization Development: A Consultant’s Guide, customized resources that respond directly to the questions generated during the session, and proprietary videos on organizational transformation.
Registration

Registration deadline: Monday, December 14, 2009 at 12:00 Noon. Register Early. Space is limited.

* Register online »
* COMPLETE REGISTRATION BY FOLLOWING THE LINK RECEIVED IN YOUR ACTEVA ORDER CONFIRMATION. YOU WILL BE ASKED TO PROVIDE THE ACTEVA TRANSACTION NUMBER PROVIDED IN THE CONFIRMATION.
* Log on to the webinar at the scheduled time using the information received in step 2. It is suggested you log on approximately 10-15 minutes early to provide adequate time to resolve any possible connection issues.

Cost

* $0 Members & Partners
* $10 Non-Members (Special ‘work out the kinks’ pricing!)

About the Speakers
Roland Sullivan

Roland Sullivan is one of the original 100 professional change agents. Since the mid-sixties he has been an organization development (OD) pioneer. In the early 70’s, he was the first to teach an academic “Quality” course in the Midwest. About the same time, he founded the Minnesota OD Network. Roland has worked with over 1,200 organizations in 30 countries and in virtually every major industry. His writings on Change have been widely translated into many languages and he founded the Asian OD Network, now in its fifth year. Roland’s Practicing Organization Development: A Consultant’s Guide is one of the field’s seminal books; the third edition was just released in October 2009. Roland was awarded the “Change Consultant of the World” by the OD Institute. He holds a Master’s degree in OD from Loyola University in Chicago and Pepperdine. Roland has edited 15 books including Beyond Change Management: Advanced Strategies for Today’s Leaders by Dean Anderson and Linda Ackerman Anderson.
Tom Dick

Tom Dick is a Partner at Solutia Consulting where he is responsibile for the firm’s strategic plan and development of key service offerings. Prior to joining Solutia, Tom was a Senior Consultant for an international consulting firm where he conducted numerous company-wide assessments working with executives to improve organizational structures, processes and systems. Before becoming a consultant, Tom was with The Boeing Company in Seattle as a leader helping to implement new quality programs. After Boeing, Tom helped found a software start-up company where he established the target market and set direction for software development. Tom also performed the Quality Manager role for a key customer of this company in order to improve companywide performance prior to automating processes. Tom holds a BA from Hamline University with a double major in Business Management and Physics and an MS in Industrial Engineering from the University of Minnesota where he focused his program on systems engineering.

Tom and Roland have known each other for 10 years and are currently working on several WST efforts together.
On this page

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from my friend, Deon, on employee engagement

Managing the Employee Stakeholder is of far more strategic importance than
most managers realise.

Not only are they an organisation’s most important ambassadors but engaging
the hearts and minds, and not just their hands is crucial to building a
favourable reputation in the minds of other stakeholders.

An organisation by the way obtains its reputation from the way the
organisation is perceived by its various stakeholders. Some research shows
that as much as 55 – 73% of a company’s stock price comes from its
reputation. Other studies show that Loss of Reputation is the biggest risk
that organisations can face.

Recently I was asked to facilitate a workshop on Strategic Employee
Engagement at a PR Conference – I thought I would share some things:

What is Strategic Employee Engagement?

“The state of emotional and intellectual commitment of a person, group or
organisation to the entity with whom they are employed.” Source: Hewitt

Engagement defined as “employees who are mentally and emotionally invested
in their work and in contributing to their employer’s success.”

It is also interesting to note what Jack Welch had to say about it: “It goes
without saying that no company, small or large, can win over the long run
without energized employees who believe in the mission and understand how to
achieve it. That’s why you need to take the measure of employee
engagement at least once a year through anonymous surveys in which people
feel completely safe to speak their minds.” (Jack Welch, Former CEO, General
Electric)

One of the best studies that I have seen on the subject – ASTD Engagement &
Learning Study 2007

Regards,

Deon Binneman
Speaker, Seminar Leader & Management Consultant in Reputation Management
Because YOUR REPUTATION matters……..!

from my friend tom on personal development

From Crisis to Collective Responsibility:
From my deep friend, Tom..

I have done whole system transformation work for him ..

He led a logistics team for me. The intervention, received national recognition..

He is my spiritual confessor…. For real…

He will be heading up the Asian OD Network Summit in India in a few years.

Just sent my friend to do OD at his college where he is president.

Roland

Sorry about the margins.. am just starting my day.. it is 2 am and now must do my yoga.

Roland.

By Dr. Thomas Thakadipuram

In a world of depressing headlines and challenged organizations, Leadership
Development is recognized as a critical
competency in our global environment.
This article outlines the findings from
my doctoral research in which leaders
discussed their development and
transformation following crises on a
journey toward wholeness. In this study
10 top spiritual leaders shared their
transformational journeys from crises
to collective responsibility in a variety of
organizations across the globe, including
an abbot, abbess, archbishop, a Zulu
chief shaman, founders and presidents
of international spiritual organizations,
and members of the World Council
of Religious Leaders. It is one of few
empirical studies on leaders’ quest for
wholeness and offers the Leadership
Wholeness Model (page 8). The findings
provide a breakthrough in understanding
personal and organizational leadership
within the broader constructs of ethical,
authentic, spiritual, and holistic leadership.
Interior Dynamics
In the study the top leaders’ quests for
wholeness demonstrated both interior
and exterior dynamics as an integrated
whole, depicted in the final model. The
journey toward wholeness involved four
common experiences: crisis, acceptance,
awakening, and co-responsibility. Their
quests for wholeness deeply influenced
how they interacted with followers,
community, and the larger world and
characterized their journey:
All experienced existential crises that
led them to question previously-held
views, values, and perspectives of
life. For example one questioned the
practice of apartheid and advocated
an ethic of tolerance; another
•
challenged the cult of Rwandan
genocide and became a caretaker
of orphan children of genocide; and
yet another’s experience of major
failures and clinical depression
helped him become an authentic
agent of courageous renewal.
The crucibles of
crises urged them
to look at life with
a new lens as the
old meanings and
patterns were
shattered.
Crises also led them to a process of
self-acceptance and learning from
past failures and weaknesses in spite
of their tendency to resist and deny.
They dealt with their crises
constructively to break through the
darkness and meaninglessness of
life, experiencing an awakening to a
higher perspective.
The trajectory of the leaders’ journey
was nonlinear, as the four factors
of crisis, acceptance, awakening,
and co-responsibility interplayed
together in a pattern of an infinity
loop and transformational process
of learning and growth.
By engaging in an authentic search with
integrity and honesty, the top spiritual
leaders set new directions for their quest
for wholeness. Consequently, they began
to enhance their sense of deeper self and
discovered their interrelationship with
community and the larger world, thus
experiencing greater harmony. Awakening
to a new purpose and meaning, the
leaders exercised responsibility for their
life and also for the lives of others. A sense
•
•
•
•
of responsibility and co-responsibility
demonstrated the relationship between
leaders and followers and also between
the community and larger world as an
integrated whole (see model).
Moreover, the four factors of crisis,
acceptance, awakening and
co-responsibility interplay
with one another in an
infinity loop and are rooted
in consciousness at the
center of the leader’s being.
This represents the leaders’
quest for wholeness as
an ongoing natural process in a nonlinear
fashion discovering new meaning
and harmonious relationship with the
community and larger world through crises
and chaos.

Exterior Dynamics
The exterior dynamics contained five
dimensions of co-responsibility for
the leader, followers, community, and
larger world:
The circle of relational trust operates
at the personal and intimate level
between the leader and the inner
circle of his or her team, where each
one had the courage, willingness, and
mutually-assured confidentiality to
be who they were without any mask
or pretensions.
The circle of responsibility is exercised
at the organizational level where the
leader assumes certain roles, duties,
and authority. A sense of values and
ethics guides the leaders to exercise
the responsibility with utmost care.
1.
The findings provide
a breakthrough in
understanding personal and
organizational leadership
within the broader constructs
of ethical, authentic, spiritual,
and holistic leadership.
Minnesota Organization Development Network (MNODN) December 2009 • Volume 24 • Number 4
The circle of influence indicates the impact the leaders are able to make on society by their presence, creative activities, and persuasion. Similarly, Covey (1989) identified the “circle of influence”, where the leader impacts the lives of others by the witness of their own life and activities, and “circle of concern”, where leaders show sympathy about issues, but without having the ability to do anything about it (p. 83).
The circle of compassion indicates the leader’s concern and involvement about global issues, especially for the most vulnerable and deprived sentient beings (including humans, animals, and other beings). These leaders expanded their circle of compassion globally, having helpful service activities to uplift the weak.
The circle of solidarity points out the interest and involvement of the leaders in environmental and sustainability issues of development and progress. Leaders expressed solidarity, mostly for issues of peace and justice, establishing organizations and networks for wider cooperation. As we live in an interdependent and interconnected world, these leaders understood the need for global cooperation in a spirit of solidarity, eliminating unbridled greed and unhealthy competition to tackle global issues and advance world benefit reducing world misery (Maak, 2007).

The quest for wholeness was expressed in these practical ways of co-responsibility and global initiatives from many of the top leaders. They nurtured the notion of the family of humanity and the earth as one common roof under which everyone belongs, and everything is connected to everything else. Moving through the processes of crisis, acceptance, and awakening, the quest flow culminated in the realization of an ethic of co-responsibility toward community and the larger world, flowing from their sense of values and obligation to the whole universe as they became aware of the deep connection between the individual self and the universal or cosmic self. This enlightened awareness was the platform from which their sense of collective responsibility and solidarity emerged.

Implications For OD
What are the key implications for OD practitioners and leaders?
This model of wholeness should help leaders engage in self-reflection, journaling, and personal leadership development practices.
Using the Leadership Wholeness Model will be helpful for mentoring and coaching to develop high-potential and high-performing leaders and clients with a holistic approach to organization development.
The essential themes are not only applicable for top leaders, but can also be used at all management and employee levels for training and development. This will help develop a conscious culture and environment at different levels of organizations with a broader collaborative focus promoting authentic engagement, diversity, creativity, and participation.
•
•
•
A Model of Leadership Wholeness

Leaders’ quests for wholeness emphasize the importance of learning from crises, acceptance, awakening, and responsibility while recognizing interconnectedness among personal, organizational, social, and environmental dimensions of life.
Minnesota Organization Development Network (MNODN) December 2009 • Volume 24 • Number 4
Hailing from the spice coast of India, Kerala, Thomas Thakadipuram finished his graduate studies in Philosophy and Psychology from University of Madras. Recently he finished the doctoral program in OD at the University of St.Thomas, Minneapolis, USA. His area of focus in OD is leadership development, whole-system change, cross cultural team effectiveness and International OD. He is also part of the planning team for Asian OD network and a member of MNOD Network. Currently he is leading St. Claret College in Bangalore. He can be reached at tomscmf@gmail.com; website: www.claretcollege.edu.in

Pricing: A lesson from Picasso

A women was strolling along a street in Paris when she spotted Picasso
sketching at a sidewalk cafe. The women asked Picasso if he might sketch
her, and charge accordingly. Picasso obliged. In just minutes, there she
was: an original Picasso.
“And what do I owe you?” she asked.
“Five thousand francs,” he answered.
“But it only took you three minutes,” she politely reminded him.
“No,” Picasso said. “It took me all my life.”

IN OD …experience counts

definition of od

for my friends at ODN list serve… the following is to large to post on the list serve so here it is here.

I specially define OD for each client system i enter

my second edition had a most comprehensive definition. The following is from the edition just released.

Roland Sullivan.

Organization Development Defined
According to Clardy (2003, p. 785):

“The field of planned organization change was long equated
with organization development (OD). OD proponents were
up-front with the bona fides of their approach: full disclosure,
informed consent, inclusive participation, and so on. These
canons of OD provided the principles and practices that could
be applied to any organizational change project. Yet, for a
number of years, standing alongside the OD literature were
smaller volumes (Zaltman & Duncan, 1977) that did not so
neatly fit the OD mold. By these accounts, the geography of
organizational change management was bigger than that
encompassed by OD.”

While some might disagree with the assertions in the preceding
paragraph, those assertions are effective in helping readers to clarify their
beliefs about the field of OD and to recognize that there are multiple ways of
defining the field.

Over the years, OD has been defined and redefined by just about every
author who has written about it. Here are a few definitions, organized
chronologically, that represent a range of ways to understand OD:
 Organization development is “an effort (1) planned, (2)
organization-wide, and (3) managed from the top, to (4) increase
organization effectiveness and health through (5) planned
interventions in the organization’s “processes,” using behavioralscience
knowledge” (Beckhard, 1969, p. 9).

 Organization development is “a response to change, a complex
educational strategy intended to change the beliefs, attitudes,
values, and structure of organizations so that they can better adapt
to new technologies, markets, and challenges, and the dizzying rate
of change itself” (Bennis, 1969, p. 2).

 Most people in the field agree that “OD involves consultants who
work to help clients improve their organizations by applying
knowledge from the behavioral sciences—psychology, sociology,
cultural anthropology, and other related disciplines. Most would
also agree that OD implies change and, if we accept that shifts in
the way an organization functions suggests that change has
occurred, then, broadly defined, OD is analogous to organizational
change” (Burke, 1982, p. 3).

 Organization development is “a systemic and systematic change
effort, using behavioral science knowledge and skill, to change or
transform the organization to a new state” (Beckhard, 1999,
personal communication- dick and I created this on the phone…. Days before he died the day he closed up his NTL Bethel Cabin for the last time.— roland ).

 Organization development is “a process that applied a broad range
of behavioral science knowledge and practices to help
organizations build their capacity to change and to achieve greater
effectiveness, including increased financial performance, customer
satisfaction, and organization member engagement” (Cummings &
Worley, 2009, p. 1).

These definitions imply several key points:
First, OD is long-range in perspective. It is not a “quick-fix” strategy
for solving short-term performance issues, as employee training is often
inappropriately perceived to be. Many managers are becoming acutely aware
of the need to move beyond quick and often unworkable solutions for
complex organizational problems. Organization development is a means to
bring about complex, deep, and lasting change. This may include any domain
in the organization that is in need of discovering ways to improve
performance. Traditional OD asserts a need for patience and a long-term
effort in order to achieve deep and significant change. In many organizations
OD is coupled with strategic business planning, a natural fit because both can
be long-range in scope. For more information on OD and strategy see
Chapters Sixteen and Eighteen.

Second, OD works best when it is supported by top managers. They
are traditionally the chief power brokers and change agents in any
organization; top managers often control an organization’s resources and
reward systems. Although OD efforts can be undertaken at any organizational
level without direct top-management participation, OD is more likely to
succeed if it has at least tacit approval from top management.

Third, OD effects change primarily, although not exclusively, through
education. Organization development expands people’s ideas, beliefs, and
behaviors so that they can apply new approaches to old states of existence.
Even more important, OD change efforts go beyond employee-training efforts
and concentrate on the work group or organization in which new ideas,
beliefs, or behaviors are to be applied. Organization development has often
been synonymous with organization learning (Argyris, 1993, 2004; Bennis,
1969; Kanter, 1995; Lippitt, 1958; Senge, 1990; Vail, 1996). Peter Senge
(1990, p. 13) says, “A learning organization is a place where people are
continually discovering how they create reality and how they can change it.
Organization-wide learning involves change in culture and change in the most
basic managerial practices, not just within a company, but within a whole
system’s management. . . . I guarantee that when you start to create a learning
environment, people will not feel as though they are in control.”
The words change and learning are often used to mean the same thing.
Consider, for example, the title of a classic book, The Laboratory Method of
Learning and Changing, by OD founders Benne, Bradford, Gibb, and Lippitt
(1975). Many of these early leaders of the field were innovative educators.
Many OD founders were leading educators. They saw as one of OD’s major
goals was to innovate and re-invent education. It is important to remember
that learning is broader than education, and learning occurs outside classroom
settings. For instance, how a manager or consultant models behavior provides
an important learning lesson for others, who may be inclined to imitate how
their leaders behave.

Fourth, another OD effort that is interrelated to organization learning is
knowledge management (KM). KM focuses on organization learning as it
transforms to elicit tacit knowledge and new knowledge that can be organized
and used to improve performance (Cummings & Worley, 2009). Many case
studies on KM as it relates to OD are available in Harvard Business Review
and the Society for Organizational Learning (SoL: www.solonline.org).

Fifth, OD emphasizes employee participation in assessing the current
state and in planning for a positive future state; making free and
collaborative choices on how implementation should proceed; and,
empowering the system to take responsibility for creating and evaluating
results. In this sense, OD differs from other methods that hold managers or
consultants responsible for the success or failure of a change effort. In OD at
its best, the entire system is accountable rather than just management. Further,
in OD, everyone in an organization who is affected by change should have an
opportunity to contribute to—and accept responsibility for—the change.
Organizational effectiveness and humanistic values meet as employee
ownership of processes and outcomes increases. Although early OD
contributors did not focus on business effectiveness it has become equally
important in OD ideology over the past decade (Gottlieb, 1998).

Roland—it then goes on to say what OD is not.. just as master, Earon , suggests………..

Link to Asian OD Network

http://www.odsummitindia.org

referenced in previous blog

History of my founding with others the Asian OD network

Charlie Seashore, my publishing buddy, Dr. William Rothwell and started the Asian OD Network in 2004. Our first summit was in Dubai 2005 then we planned to go to India 2006. Dr. Himank Priyadarsh from Infosys and I had been working together for years. In my boat one summer he came up with the concept of the Asian OD Network. Dr. Pareek and I had been talking about for years about India being involved. Dr. Pareek introduced Dr. Krishana to Himank. One day at Infosys, we all decided to create GODS 2005. The idea had come out of Dr. Krishana’s class at SDM where we held the second conference. The keynote and head of SDM is a mystic. And then as they say the rest is history.

History
The Asia OD Network (AODN) is a not-for-profit organization formed in 2006 by a group of OD scholars and practitioners based in Asia to create an environment that renews the passion and search for excellence in OD practice resulting in wholesomeness in people, institutions and society.
Goals & Objectives
1. To connect and network OD practitioners in the Asian region and around the world.
2. To co-create conceptual and theoretical frameworks for OD that is relevant to the emerging economic, social, cultural and technological contexts in the Asian region.
3. To promote OD and Institutional Building practice among all sectors of society.
4. To set standards for professional behavior and practice.
Vision and Mission
We envision Asian business, nonprofit, and government organizations that promote and practice economic, social and environmental performance with sustainability.
Our mission is to create and provide an environment that continuously fuels the passion and search for excellence in Organization Development and to provide a venue for all OD professionals to network with each other and to share knowledge and best practices with special emphasis on the unique needs of the dynamic Asian region.
AODN Working Model

(The model is designed by Udai Pareek, Udhayakumar, Mohanakrishnan, 2006, the inner circles originally conceptualized by Mohanakrishnan, Sankar, Vasudevan, 2005 for the Global OD Summit).
The theme of AODN centers on theory and practice, and what is established and what is to be advocated or recommended. Thus it is based on two axes: ‘knowledge – practice’ and ‘is – ought to be’. On the one hand, knowledge on OD is continually developed and new practices are introduced. On the other hand, they are continually appraised as to their capacity to explain phenomena and yield the desired results.
The knowledge developed and the practices followed as such in corporate management mark the current status of OD. Certain areas of OD knowledge have been played out and others that stood the test of time are carried forward. So also in the case of practices, some have been rejected and others continue to serve their purpose. Knowledge found valid and practices found relevant continue to thrive.
While best practices are identified and continued to be advocated, and domains of knowledge continue to yield insights, new or hitherto unearthed practices and new or hitherto unshared domains of knowledge are to be brought to the light. A reconstitution of the best practices and valid knowledge is wanted along with new ones. And that will constitute the ‘ought to be’ axis.