An Invitation to Think Different by Lisa Meyer

I’ve read dozens of definitions of Organization Development and most fall short of conveying the reasons why I am drawn to this work and why I find this field so interesting. And I’m not alone. An Amazon review of a leading OD textbook said “Imagine stuffing 10 saltine crackers in your mouth and having no water…. that’s how dry this book is.”

I think about this as more and more organizations are dealing with the kind of complex challenges that OD is uniquely suited to address like sustainable growth, innovation, inclusive cultures, design thinking, and safe and equitable workplaces. Instead of better definitions of OD, we need a new narrative for organization development; one that can inspire and help prepare a rising generation for the messiness and excitement of working on these real problems in real systems.

I draw my inspiration from Steve Jobs, the late founder, and CEO of Apple, who once faced a similar situation. In its early days, Apple’s main competitors were the personal computer (PC) manufacturers who criticized Apple computers for being slow and expensive. But Steve Jobs didn’t want Apple technology to be defined by processor speed and price, which he said would lead to undifferentiated products and a fragmented approach to accomplishing a larger goal. Jobs’ vision for Apple was a better human experience through personal technology. He decided that instead of a focusing on building faster, cheaper computers for applications like spreadsheets and word processing, he would focus on producing a new, more human-centered kind of personal computing and then work backwards to the technology.

With the motto “Think Different” Apple overcame an image of quirky, inferior technology to eventually revolutionize how human beings interface with technology of all kinds. It’s hard to argue that the pivot to virtual settings necessitated by the global pandemic, for work, education, and other aspects of life, would have been possible without Steve Jobs’ vision.

The Apple story contains both lessons and questions for organization development. All too often, the default thinking in OD work is like that of the generic PC manufacturers; to design new technology applications without connecting them to accomplishing a larger goal. The focus is on short-term interventions and techniques instead of on the incredible benefits OD brings to organizations and the people in them. For Steve Jobs, the relevant question for any new technology was how did it fit into a larger cohesive vision. This raises the question, what is the larger, cohesive vision for organization development? 

Steve Jobs vision for Apple was a huge bundle of valuable benefits that Apple’s technology could provide to a wide range of users. Importantly, he said if you get it right, the customer doesn’t have to know anything about the technology of what’s in the box because the value is in what the box can do for them.

This is an interesting way to think about organization development. Maybe we focus too much on our theories and techniques as “what’s in the box,” and neglect talking about the incredible value of this work to organizations.