Step 2 presumes you have become acquainted with each of the 11 foundational OD competences and the various OD specialisms, while also considering the patterns of your own OD practice and outcomes to date. Now you are invited to dig a bit deeper, conducting a ‘self-directed inquiry’ into what are your shorter- and longer-term career destinations. It may be helpful to think of this reflective exercise as having a career dialogue/conversation with yourself, exploring some of the following questions, using the space provided to journal your answers to these questions:
The intention of Step 2 is to focus on gaining insights into yourself within the larger context of the OD career goals to which you aspire. To that end, it is important you get a sense of where your career destination is heading. (Of course, depending on your age and stage of life, ‘career direction’ might feel like a rather distant concept or a moot point. But whatever your age and stage, this self-reflection can yield vital insights for personal and professional growth.)
It is often helpful to ‘chunk the journey’ into smaller steps—thinking of what is your desired destination in, e.g., 3 years, and what steps you should consider to move you to that place. If that horizon still feels too distant, think in terms of 2 years. Or you might prefer to think of a 5-year goal. What’s important is that you have a ‘near term’ time scale within which you will be able to construct your aspirational OD competence profile.
Please note: This ‘reflecting and learning’ step is NOT about creating a report card. Rather, in keeping with the journey metaphor, it is more like reviewing a roadmap and identifying your desired destination—where and how you want to arrive—what type of OD mastery you want to grow as an OD practitioner. With this ‘map’ you will be able to craft a personal competence profile that fits your OD experience, skills and aspirations, which is the next step.
As you turn to Steps 3 and 4, please note:
- You are invited to use the app form as a tool to begin constructing your Personal OD Competence Profile, intended to help you identify your professional OD aspirations, capturing the ambitions and yearnings that emerge from your reflections and learning in Step 2. Constructing this profile is like marking a map for navigating a journey, identifying milestones for reaching your next destination as you pursue greater OD mastery.
- Remember that these two steps are an analytical step, NOT evaluative — Put simply, the choice of OD specialism and the construction of your personal competence profile is based on your answer to this question: Given my OD career aspirations, what is required to help me reach that professional and personal destination? Therefore, no matter how tempted you might be at this stage to assess yourself, please don’t. Bear in mind that you need first to establish the map with a destination in view before calculating how far you will need to go and what you need to do to get there. (That will be the work of the Step 5 – self-assessment.)
- Don’t be in a hurry to get to Steps 3 and 4, to complete your personalized competence profile. It is important to give plenty of time for the reflection and learning described in Step 2. Moreover, it is an iterative process. It needs not, and likely should not, be drafted in one go. The Steps 3 and 4 processes, especially the reflective work and filling in the form, can be worked on over time, saving and revisiting your emerging reflections as often as needed, until you are ready to proceed to Step 5.
- It is also important to bear in mind that Steps 3 and 4 are interrelated. Any specialism that you desire to develop will typically have competences overlapping with the 11 foundational competences. Some specialisms may be closely tied to specific competences. It consequently stands to reason that your thinking about the competences will necessarily be informed by which of the OD specialisms you may decide are important to your journey. In other words, choosing areas of specialism will necessarily help to anchor your thinking about the OD competences. the process therefore is an iterative process, allowing you to move back and forth between the specialisms and the competences.
It is often helpful to ‘chunk the journey’ into smaller steps—thinking of what is your desired destination in, e.g., 3 years, and what steps you should consider to move you to that place. If that horizon still feels too distant, think in terms of 2 years. Or you might prefer to think of a 5-year goal. What’s important is that you have a ‘near term’ time scale within which you will be able to construct your aspirational OD competence profile.
Please note: This ‘reflecting and learning’ step is NOT about creating a report card. Rather, in keeping with the journey metaphor, it is more like reviewing a roadmap and identifying your desired destination—where and how you want to arrive—what type of OD mastery you want to grow as an OD practitioner. With this ‘map’ you will be able to craft a personal competence profile that fits your OD experience, skills and aspirations, which is the next step.
