Change is hard enough. Why do we insist on making it harder on ourselves?

In this episode, we have some fun with Price Pritchett’s 15 common mistakes people make during organizational change. And, as you might expect, we recognize ourselves in more than a few of them!

We walk through all 15, sharing our reactions, personal experiences, and a few laughs along the way. From trying to control the uncontrollable to getting caught up in our own doom and gloom, there’s plenty here to make us stop and think.

And with change coming at us faster than ever, we may need to get comfortable being uncomfortable. William Bridges called it the Neutral Zone. We wonder if we're moving in permanently!

Join us for a lively conversation about the things we do that make change more stressful than it needs to be—and how we might get out of our own way.

How do you bring a community together to honor its past, confront its present, and shape its future?

The pandemic changed how we connect. AI is reshaping how we work and learn. And the relentless pace of change is challenging the relevance of long-established professional communities. Perhaps it's time for these communities to pause, reflect, and reinvent themselves.

Today, Bob ’n Joyce explore that challenge as we design a highly participatory, one-day gathering intended to help a professional community reflect on its history and imagine what comes next.

Drawing on elements of Open Space Technology and Future Search Conferences, we explore a process that invites an entire community into the conversation. We begin by reflecting on 30 years of shared history, exploring the defining moments, experiences, and contributions that brought the community to where it is today.

Then comes the harder part: taking an honest look at where we are now and challenging ourselves to imagine what a vibrant, relevant professional community needs to become in a rapidly changing world.

The common denominator? Trusting the wisdom of the people in the room. Rather than relying on a handful of leaders to chart the future, we explore how to create the conditions for a community to discover and shape it together.

Join us as we consider how two time-tested OD approaches can help communities honor their legacy without becoming captive to it. Because in a world changing this rapidly, even communities devoted to change must be willing to reinvent themselves

In today’s episode, we tackle one of the most difficult responsibilities facing HR/OD practitioners: protecting the cultural integrity of their organizations.

With mounting pressure to deliver results, even well-intentioned organizations can find themselves on a slippery slope—stretching ethical boundaries, rationalizing questionable decisions, or simply looking the other way when actions conflict with professed values. Small compromises can gradually become accepted practices, eroding the very culture leaders claim to protect.

So what happens when HR/OD sees the organization drifting away from its values? Speaking up takes courage, but it also requires judgment, diplomacy, and an awareness of the potential consequences.

We explore the delicate balance between putting hard truths on the table and navigating the personal and organizational risks of doing so. How do we challenge questionable decisions without becoming collateral damage ourselves?

And perhaps the toughest question of all: If HR/OD doesn't speak up, who will?

There is an epidemic of exhaustion and frustration in today’s workplace. Employees come to work carrying the weight of modern life, while organizations face relentless pressure to deliver results amid uncertainty and a frenetic pace of change.

So how do we, as OD practitioners, help our organizations stay focused, healthy and connected to what is really happening?

Our answer: pamper your middle managers.

Middle managers sit at the intersection of almost everything happening in an organization. They hear the frustrations employees may never tell senior leaders. They feel the pressure coming down from above and the anxiety coming up from below. If you want the real pulse of your organization, this is where you should be listening.

In today’s episode, we make the case for connecting with, supporting—and yes, pampering—middle managers more than ever. Listen to them. Learn from them. And make sure their voices reach the people making the decisions.

Because in the chaos of today’s workplace, your middle managers may be your best early-warning system for what’s really going on.

In today’s episode, we continue our conversation about the implications of AI from an OD perspective. The challenge is that we’re trying to make sense of a technology evolving so quickly that even the people creating it disagree about where it’s taking us.

Rather than pretending we know, we argue that embracing the not knowing may be exactly the right place to start. Not knowing can provoke curiosity, inquiry, and learning—the very things OD practitioners will need if we are going to help our organizations navigate what’s ahead.

The stakes are high. AI has the potential to fundamentally reshape how organizations operate, how work gets done, how performance is measured, and what leadership looks like. So how knowledgeable do we need to become—and where do we begin?

We offer some practical first steps for moving beyond uncertainty: getting curious, asking better questions, experimenting, and educating ourselves about what AI is today and what it might become.

We don’t have the answers. But perhaps our willingness to enter the unknown is the first step toward finding them.

Today we take on leadership models—and ask whether we may be putting far too much faith in them.

Thirty years ago, leaders watched and emulated GE CEO Jack Welch, following his leadership formula chapter and verse. His approach was studied, taught, copied, and widely held up as a model for how great organizations should be led. Today, much of what seemed like enduring leadership wisdom from that era feels remarkably dated—and some of it downright absurd.

And Welch is hardly alone. Leadership history is littered with models, formulas, and “best practices” that once seemed unquestionably right, only to lose their relevance as the world around them changed.

Which brings us to AI. We are entering a period of extraordinary change where none of us really knows what organizations, work, or leadership will look like even a few years from now. If the world is changing faster than our leadership models can keep up, what sense does it make to keep creating them?

Maybe the answer isn’t another model at all.

In this episode, we push beyond the familiar leadership playbook and offer a few out-of-the-box ideas about what leadership might need to become in a world that refuses to stand still. Some may challenge what we’ve been teaching leaders for years.

And maybe that’s exactly the point.

In today’s episode, Bob ’n Joyce take on a question that has followed us throughout our careers: Where can you do your best and boldest OD work—from inside an organization or from the outside?

We’ve done both. And while we believe some of our most impactful work came from being inside the organization, there are real advantages—and some very real traps—to both.
Internal OD practitioners have an intimacy with the business that’s hard to replicate. They understand the culture, know the players, and can build credibility and trust over time. But that closeness can also get in the way. Internals can become too embedded in the system to see what needs to change—or find themselves spending too much time doing routine, low-impact work.

External OD practitioners bring fresh eyes, a clearer mandate, and often the freedom to say things others won’t. But distance has its costs. Externals can miss important nuances, remain at arm’s length from what’s really happening, or unintentionally create a dependency that leaves the organization less capable when they leave.

So maybe the real issue isn’t internal versus external. Maybe it’s understanding the traps that come with where you sit—and refusing to let them keep you from doing the work that really matters.

Join us as we wrestle with what it takes to do great OD work, wherever you sit.

What can a transition expert writing three decades ago teach us about navigating AI’s impact on work? As it turns out, quite a lot.

In this episode, Bob 'n Joyce revisit William Bridges’ vision of the optimal workplace and consider it through the lens of the AI transformation now underway. Bridges’ work stands the test of time because, although the world of work has changed dramatically, what people need to feel connected, capable, and committed has not.

Bridges uses the metaphor of a trapeze artist suspended between two bars—what was is no longer there, and what comes next has not yet arrived. With the rapid rise of AI, that is where many organizations and their people find themselves today. It is an uncomfortable and often paralyzing place, filled with uncertainty, loss, and fear.

So, what can leaders and OD practitioners do to help people navigate this in-between time? Bridges points toward the kind of workplace we need—one where:

• People are invested in the outcomes of their work.
• Leaders and managers are committed to the highest standards.
• Expectations are clear.
• Employees receive reliable feedback from the customers they serve.

Joyce and I build on Bridges’ thinking by putting forward several practical first steps leaders and OD practitioners can take right now. We don’t pretend to have all the answers, but we believe these actions can help organizations move through uncertainty with greater clarity, connection, and confidence.

AI may be transforming the work, but it does not eliminate the human needs that make work meaningful.

Come join us.