I'm not one to give away all of my best ideas on a website -- blogging is a phenomenon I don't fully understand. However, while I'm not keen on telling the world exactly what I do -- I am very happy to tell everyone what I DON'T do, and why 'articulation' is an apt term for my work.
Organization development and management consultants have a bad reputation in many organizations, and with good reason. Their advice sometimes sounds like a slightly less-extreme version of Alice in Wonderland. "Off with their heads!" cries the management consultant, whose lust for cost-cutting at any cost can be very counterproductive. "All have won and all must have prizes," exclaims the OD consultant, who acts as though the purpose of the organization is to provide a convenient location for group therapy.
Unfortunately, these two logical extremes are not statistical extremes: they are very common attitudes because they are simplistic. Adopting the point of view of the accountants or of the employee assistance program is easy. Adopting the point of view of the whole organization is difficult. It's not just a matter of surveying all 'stakeholders' and averaging out their various opinions. Each organization must have a purpose, a reason for being, and must constantly increase its capability to achieve this purpose.
'Articulation' is the word that captures best the work I do with organizations: precisely defining the purpose of the organization and increasing its ability to achieve it. This two-fold meaning rejects the one-dimensional approach of cookie-cutter consultants. It means growing an organization that achieves results.
Photo copyright 2005 by Andrew Davidhazy. Used with permission.