Running head: Post-Session Reflection: OD and Large Scale Change

Post-Session Reflection: Organization Development and Large Scale

Change

Maegan Scott

MSOD 618

Pepperdine University

July 18, 2016

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Appreciative Inquiry at San Diego Gas and Electric

For this practicum, our consulting teamcomposed of Amanda,

Daryl, Liz, and myselfworked with the Organizational Effectiveness

department at San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E). The SDG&E OE

department is a high-functioning department, with knowledgeable and

talented staff members who have a diverse range of experience and

expertise. Our AI intervention focused on how staff in the OE

department can better leverage each others skills to catalyze

exceptional performance. To design the intervention we worked closely

with two members of the OE departmentthey gave us insight into the

background of the department and potential outcomes the department

director was hoping to achieve, while we offered guidance on how to

frame each phase in the intervention as well as drafting the questions

for the appreciative interview. During the engagement, and now

thinking in reflection, I believe we had a good working relationship and

natural chemistry with our client reps. Our consulting team lucked out,

in a way, because our client reps both had organization development

backgrounds, so we all fed off of each others ideas and energy.

The intervention itself both did and did not unfold in the way I

expected. I think we delivered a great workshopthe department

members and director were pleased with the outcome, we turned at

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least one naysayer into a believer in the power of AI, and the

department members got a better idea of how they could work even

better as a team. Success! However, we received a minor curve ball at

the beginning of the workshop when the director provided context for

why we were all here that day. Our initial understanding was that the

main focus was on team performance; after hearing the director frame

the day, it became clear that she was just asif not more so

concerned about the departments relevance within the broader

company. What is the value proposition of an OE department to

SDG&E? How do we articulate to others our value? We heard glimmers

of these questions in our conversations with the client reps the day

before, but they became much clearer in that moment as the director

was speaking them.

We continued with our workshop as designedwhich was good

but I was intermittently distracted throughout the day, knowing that

we werent directly addressing the directors core question. In the final

debrief with the client reps, we were able to come back to the other

core questions the director was grappling with. We discussed strategies

for scaffolding, building on top of the work we did that day to begin

articulating the departments value proposition. That was a great

discussion, and I think we left SDG&E in a good place.

Point of View on Planned Change

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I continue to believe that planned change is oxymoronic, or at

least paradoxical, since change is happening all the time. My

experience with the AI intervention, the time I spent with the Monarch

School and better understanding the state of homelessness in San

Diego, and the efforts to strengthen our cohort community through

dialogue all served to enhance that belief. This isnt to say that people,

organizations, and communities cant decide to embark on some sort

of change or journey. The concept of planned, however, conjures up

the notion that the change can be controlled, which I dont believe it

can be. It can be influenced. And we can have a North Star, but the

river were navigating will twist and turnplease keep your hands,

feet, and pets inside the canoe at all timesor dont. It is what it is.

What has increasingly become apparent to me is the critical

step of building muscle around self-awareness. The skill to see myself

as I am (and as sacred) and hold you as you are (and believe you to be

sacred) combined with the intuition for knowing where and how to

meet you so I can be of service to you, the organization, the

communitythose are the capacities, I think, of the OD practitioner

who works for social change, justice, and community building. I believe

that every movement ever started began as a conversation, between

two people, that eventually caught fire (or went viral, as the kids

say). So, lets keep talking.