A few years ago I wrote an article published by Croner, 'HR and Organisation Development: what is the relationship? Is it going anywhere?' in which I said:
The history of the two disciplines [Human Resources and Organisation Design and Development – HR and ODD] makes it appropriate to ask whether they have the "gene compatibility" to converge. There are good arguments from both those who feel they should remain separate and also those who maintain either that OD is a subset of HR, or that HR is a subset of OD.'
I then explored the various arguments. Last week variants of this discussion surfaced again in multiple forums and in real life, not in theory. I won't go into the ins and outs of it but the sensitivities and tensions around it have caused me – well various emotions, thoughts, and reasons to consider the stances.
Not only that and in the usual synchronicity of stuff, this week I've been asked if I'd facilitate two workshops – two unrelated requests - later this year on skills for organisation design and development consultants, and I've been commenting on a capability guide we've been developing for internal consultants based on the Institute of Consulting's framework.
Additionally, we've been having a debate on whether HR Business Partners can be good ODD consultants.
