The Organizational Development Muse

Multi-scenario Planning: not just in emergencies

Posted by Mark L. Vincent on Mar 25, 2020 9:43:00 AM

Multi-scenario planning: not just for emergencies.

Special Announcement: a FAST TRACK version of Process Consulting Training. (see more below).

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Topics: process consulting, Process Consultation, Process consultation and design, strategic planning, organizational development muse, Mark L. Vincent, Design Group International, organizational design, organizational strategy, lon swartzentruber, society for process consulting, strategic mapping, multi-scenario planning

Jubilee! Opportunity is knocking

Posted by Mark L. Vincent on Mar 19, 2020 1:26:44 PM

It is well established that the sooner we:

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Topics: process consulting, Process consultation and design, Convene, Mark L. Vincent, Design Group International, society for process consulting

Elephant Man

Posted by Mark L. Vincent on Mar 5, 2020 12:22:00 PM

Excerpted from Walking Beside My Dying Wife, a curated blog developed by Mark L. Vincent.

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Topics: organizational development muse, Mark L. Vincent, Design Group International, deep transformation, personal leadership, executive develpment, leadership excellence, executive leadership training

Opportunities/Challenges: Calculating the Value

Posted by Mark L. Vincent on Feb 19, 2020 9:00:00 AM

A growing number of CEOs participate in some form of round-table discussion. Some are half days each month, some whole days, some far less frequent. Some tie to specific industry groups, or perhaps they are an appendage of the Chamber of Commerce or local community college business center. Several of my Design Group International colleagues are privileged to be Executive Chairs for round tables like these. For example,I run one that draws across greater Milwaukee. Phil Bergey has launched one in Lancaster, PA.

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Topics: process consulting, Financial Leadership, organizational development muse, Convene, Mark L. Vincent, Design Group International, behavioral economics, steward leadership, organizational problem solving, organizational decision making, Executive peer-based advising, long term decision making, society for process consulting

An executive leader development scaffolding

Posted by Mark L. Vincent on Feb 9, 2020 6:20:00 AM

Recent months have brought abundant conversation on how next-generation executive leaders might be developed within an organization — especially in a healthy company that is straining its capacity. Conventional wisdom says that developing from within best continues a strong company’s momentum, and that hiring externally best redirects a company that has lost its way. In either scenario, the ability to develop and position executive leaders becomes especially important!

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Topics: process consulting, organizational development consulting, organizational development muse, Mark L. Vincent, Design Group International, executive leadership training, executive vocation

Traumatic Interference

Posted by Mark L. Vincent on Jan 27, 2020 7:15:00 AM

Trauma interferes with our ability to manage conflict.

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Topics: process consulting, organizational development muse, Mark L. Vincent, Design Group International, church conflict, society for process consulting, process chaplaincy, conflict management

homogeneity, schomogeneity

Posted by Mark L. Vincent on Jan 21, 2020 7:00:00 AM

Early in the pastoring part of my career we studied the homogeneity principle—essentially that like attracts like. Folks with similar incomes, education, experience, ethnicity, and interests will be naturally drawn to each other. The more homogeneity, the more they congeal.

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Topics: homogeneity, stewardship based leadership, organizational development muse, Mark L. Vincent, Design Group International, creating a culture of generosity, expansiveness

Process AND Product

Posted by Mark L. Vincent on Jan 13, 2020 6:55:37 AM

My recent experience at the athletic shoe store was flabbergasting.

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Topics: process consulting, organizational development muse, Mark L. Vincent, Design Group International, process vs. sales, society for process consulting

"Walking beside my dying wife" is released

Posted by Mark L. Vincent on Dec 9, 2019 1:47:00 PM

"Walking beside my dying wife" is a curated blog of posts surrounding the passing of my wife, Lorie, one of Design Group International's Founders. It is now available as a free resource for anyone wanting to move more deeply into hope. Here is a sample:

Grit

Grit lives at my house.

Grit is one letter removed from grim. It contains grim's unsmiling severity without the dismal dourness.

Grit pinches a crease just above the nose. It sets the jaw. It offers no complaint while it pushes on.

Actually, in the middle of this battle there is no capacity for complaint. Finding a way through takes all the focus the very definition of grit.

Grit is a product of realism. We are here. It isn't going to get better.

The word grit aligns with this feeling I have of walking in wet sand while carrying a rucksack full of rocks. The journey is longer than we thought. The sack feels heavier than ever. We start to wonder about the purpose of carrying rocks from one place to another. It has begun to rain. We must decide to make the most of it. Even with this. We start singing to build a cadence as we trudge along. We decide to find something satisfying in having been able to say we never quit, even if we must suffer.

...why...would I want to condemn a person to a this-world immortality with their broken and aging body?

Grit.

What better options might there be? I can't find any.

DENIAL? Sorry, but this IS happening. Denial offers no safe haven. Denial is accompanied by delay; combined, they only add injury in the end.

MAGICAL THINKING? I wish I could think of prayers for complete healing as useful, but I only experience them as insulting. Complete healing doesn't give us our 16 years back. It doesn't restore lost income or money spent to cover medicine. It doesn't spontaneously grow new organs that were removed. It does not remove harm done by chemotherapy and radiation. And why, through prayer, would I want to condemn a person to a this-world immortality with their broken and aging body?

ANGER? Anger is a strong temptation, but it is a shovel handed to someone trying to get out of a hole. The last thing I want is an aftermath from harsh words or more lost relationships. Cancer has demanded too high a price already.

DEMANDS? BARGAINING? IRRATIONAL COPING MECHANISMS? I don't know what to ask for. I have nothing left to offer and to whom would I offer it? And, I've been around ministry so long I've seen the additional destruction from "going off the deep end."

These options make a realistic gritting it out a veritable paradise by comparison.

What is going to happen is going to happen, and it will happen in its time. We will face each day, each moment, with what little reserve we have. When it is over, the sun will rise. The mountains will cast their shadows, and birds will sing. I trust these things are so even though I'm blind and deaf to them at the moment.

-mark l vincent