OD in the NHS

Where it is now…and what it could be doing

John Higgins and I started a collective inquiry a while back to explore the position of organisation development (OD) in the National Health Service (NHS).

It arose out of a conversation that we had where we marvelled at the wealth of talent in this area of activity that exists across the service – and, at the same time, noted how leaders across that corporation often neglect that resource and instead favour the retention of external consultants (often at considerable cost to the tax-payer).

We began by having a number of one-to-one conversations with a selection of people in the field to test out our initial observation. Latterly, we convened three online collective inquiry events to explore this notion and to consider how OD could – at this time – be working within the NHS to help its people to tackle its challenges and to realise its ambitions.

The document reproduced (and downloadable) here offers a summary of what John and I heard – and what we think in response to these observations. If you’re interested in adding to this dialogue, particularly in respect to suggesting ideas for promoting the agenda to put internal OD firmly on the map in terms of redesigning and developing our approach to health and social care in the UK, please share your thoughts via email to radicalod@colefellows.co.uk with OD in the NHS in the subject line.

Additionally, please feel free to download and circulate the attached, in order to encourage a wider discussion of this topic.