'Good to Great by Burke' - a conversation with OD&C thought-leader Warner Burke
— Transforming Organizations, Revitalizing Communities and Developing Human Potential
Warner Burke, Ph.D. says, "There Are TWO THINGS BUGGING ME!"
What allows an organization to be sustainable? And what’s the difference between change management and organization development?
This past week I had the opportunity to partake in a keynote conversation with a genuine thought-leader of organization development and change: Warner Burke, Ph.D. of Columbia University hosted by Steve Cady, Director of the Doctorate in OD&C at Bowling Green State University.
There are two things bugging Warner Burke. First, he is bugged by the undercurrent warfare between OD purist and Change Management. Second, he is bugged by notions of performance, results, and outcomes in research, particularly with regard to surrogates for performance.
Listen to the webinar to hear about Open Systems Theory, and the definitions, and considerations of what defines organization development and change management. Dr. Cady suggests not having a definite definition could be a good thing!
Dr. Burke spoke with great candor and also shared an intriguing recent research exploration based on Jim Collins’ work in “Good To Great.” Turns out one of the great companies Collins identified is Wells Fargo. Dr. Burke suggests we need to focus more squarely on sustainability: So, “Good to Great by Burke” is based on data available for manufacturing organizations turned up the following criteria:
Succession has worked - the organization has lasted past its first generation.
Sustained profitability and performance over decades.
No Union.
Four organizations meet those criteria:
McCormick [spices]
Harwood Manufacturing [textiles]
Herman Miller [office furniture]
Gore [textiles and more]
These four organizations had seven commonalities:
Size: 10-12k, $1-2 Billion annual revenue. “Big is bad, manageable is marvelous.”
Employee participation “In every instance, employees are involved in decision making!”
Equity and Ownership: Employes own stock.
Strong and apparent value statements in Mission, Vision, and Culture.
Visionary Leadership.
Customer Focus.
They are Data-Driven.
In the breakout rooms, Q&A, and conversations webinar attendees wrestled with how these insights might translate to service and not-for-profit organizations. The chat conversation reflected this. And I will be coming back to listen again and working to digest this rich conversation!
For more from Warner Burke’s keynote webinar, check out: https://nexus4change.com/blog4change/2019/warnerburke2
Check out NEXUS4change’s webinar series of 30-min. high-impact change tool talks. Check our events page [www.NEXUS4change.com/events] for more on the power of Design Teams, the Change Formula, Collaborative Roadmaps, Appreciative Benchmarking and more.