Organisational Development in Practice

‘In this inspiring collection of personal and professional reflections, case vignettes, observations and poetry Kevin Flinn achieves the remarkable feat of bringing to life the nuances, emotions, challenges and powerful insights of a complexity approach to organisational development… If you’re looking for a creative and insightful exploration of the complexities and opportunities of creating and holding spaces for individual and collective learning to emerge then this is the book for you!’ Richard Bolden, Professor of Leadership and Management, University of the West of England, UK ‘Critiques of managerialism, neoliberalism, power, inequality, abound, but then we are often left with the question: So, what are the implications for management and organizational development? Kevin Flinn’s response is that there is no simple answer – we need to embrace the complexity of our world, the responsibilities of organizations, our experience, and ourselves… At [this book’s] heart lies insights relating to our ethical responsibility to others, the importance of constantly learning, and of paying attention to what it means to be a human being.’ Ann Cunliffe, Professor of Organization Studies, FGV-EAESP, Brazil ‘Flinn offers us a new way of understanding and approaching OD, mobilizing philosophical, research, practitioner, activist and artistic traditions that coalesce around the understanding that human life, at its core, involves complex responsive processes of relating to others and that group dynamics thus have potent effects… Explicating his ideas with clarity, nuance, wit and elegance, Flinn… [offers] both guidance and sustenance for the hard but important work of developing organisations, and the people that populate them, in ways that foster our individual and collective flourishing.’ Suze Wilson, Associate Professor, School of Management and Marketing, Massey University Te Kunenga Ki Pūrehuroa, Aotearoa New Zealand