Your Journey Introduction
Users of this app tend to fall into one of three camps:
- People who have been consistently clear about their career ambitions and end goals, often with a plan to get there.
- Those who have seized upon various professional opportunities that came their way, notwithstanding some interesting side trips. Along the way, they have accumulated a wide variety of experiences, picking up a range of skill sets and knowledge. Often, as they progress in their career, they gain increasing clarity about what they really love doing, under what conditions, and in what roles.
- Those who are relatively younger in their career pathway. They are excited to learn about the possibilities of various destinations and are open to explore different professional adventures. They are focusing on which destination will best play to their strengths, values and sense of who they are.
Whatever camp you may be in, this seven-step process will support to get you make progress toward OD goals that are important to you. The process will help provide a picture of what your OD journey will look like, showing what you may experience along the way and what side-trips you might wish to make as you explore possible longer-term destinations. The app is here to encourage and support your process of self-inquiry as you identify and progress towards your career aspirations.
While you are the one who decides what is useful at every step, you are very much encouraged to follow the seven steps in order. Each successive step builds upon what has preceded it, helping you forge a strong foundation for moving forward with care and confidence.
Advice for the Journey
Before you begin the seven-step process, there are a few important points to bear in mind:
- As the name indicates, all of the 11 competences described in the app are genuinely foundational. A fully-developed OD practice will reflect a level of competence in each of them. That said, at this point of your OD professional journey, some competences may have greater priority or urgency than others. This app will help you determine where it makes most sense for you to focus at this stage of your professional development as you consider your OD career aspirations.
- Of the various specialisms described in the app, it is up to you to choose which areas you are motivated to focus on as a personal area of expertise. While it is your choice to decide how many subject areas you may want to achieve mastery in, you are encouraged to consider carefully which few would make sense to you at this juncture of your career, thinking of your experience, gifts, and values, as well as where you desire to be helpful and what type of work or industry is especially of interest to you.
- Start with Steps 1 and 2. It is important to establish a clear understanding of both the content and process sections of the app before venturing into the subsequent steps. Doing this will give you clarity and conviction as you construct your profile, as well as enhancing the assessment process.
- Next, take steps 3 to 5 – focusing only on the 11 Foundational Competences. This is a strong recommendation. Engaging with the 11 competences at the same time as the various specialisms can be overwhelming. No matter how tempted you are to proceed with both content sections, please resist the temptation. Save the specialism content for after working through the foundational competences. Of course, you can use the app as makes best sense to you, but the logic of the sequencing is important and the order of the steps is strongly advised.
- Step 6 – Step 6 looks at a range of OD specialisms. This step is offered as a resource to build on top of your consideration of foundational OD competences in the previous steps, after you have explored the competences. To that end, Step 6 provides an opportunity for you to investigate a growing list of OD specialisms.
Step 7 – Giving feedback. To remain relevant and useful as a living resource to the global OD community, feedback from users is critically important. Your thoughtful review and comments in the Step 7 section are warmly welcomed and encouraged, and will help ensure that the OD App continues to well-serve the global OD community.
