The Blogworld of Poppyfish People Development

Is Business Continuity a form of OD? It's a bit early in the week to wire up  "The Cogitator" and consider the world of OD through my own particular lens, but as I am delivering a Business Continuity decision making exercise this week I wanted to stop for a moment to consider the connection between Business Continuity and Organisational development. Does BC = OD? Simulations provide a key opportunity for learning and offer an opportunity to analyse decision making in a safe environment and are an excellent tapestry for personal development, yet few relatively few organisations choose to run decision making exercises for this purpose. In the field of L&D overall simulations tend to be niche areas, and not always regarded as the first option. I find this rather thought provoking, especially when the role of simulations is so well established in some other areas of organisations. Take for instance the field of Business Continuity. Business Continui...

Images speak louder than words, they say. So I thought I’d share some wonderful Wordle images created from the articles posted on the Poppyfish Blog. Enjoy All posts to date    What is coaching? Disruptive people Wargames What is an OD consultant The OODA Loop   

Running wargames for business is not about playing soldiers As an Organisational Development Consultant I view wargaming as one of many possible interventions that I can offer to clients to allow them to challenge their own thinking and as a space for personal development and the spotlighting of talent.  For organisations we approach them as ways of building evidence of a spirit in support of resilience – that ability to maintain a dynamically stable state under continuous stress. Negotiation scenarios can be a subject for exercise, although critical incidents such as cyber threats, PR crisis, continuity incidents, strategic planning horizons and PR crises are more popular, and often higher profile, areas for our clients. Whole system approach Organisations exist as whole systems experienced by people, so from our OD perspective we like to look at the human influences and impacts of the scenario. Because of this, we do not tend to use software to number crunch as we g...

A  few weeks ago I had to renew an insurance policy using a new online form. One of the questions the website wanted me to answer was " What is your job ?". Next to the question was a drop down list on which there were, quite literally, hundreds of options. The list included some familiar occupations: Accountant, Actuary, Receptionist, Welder, Priest, Car Mechanic and Quantity Surveyor, etc were all listed. Scattered among them were a host of other more unusual ways to earn a crust including: Axeman, Astronaut, Chicken Chaser and Chicken Sexer.  I was so absorbed by some of these the amazing sounding jobs that I must have I scrolled up and down the list over a dozen times. I was amazed at its thoroughness. It seemed that just about every profession, or in some cases, bizarre fetish, that you could imagine, was listed.   But Organisational Development Consultant wasn't on the list.   T he suggestion that there are more astronauts tha...

 No, not that kind of coach, you chump  What is coaching? Coaching is a form of personal development that involves two people working together with one outcome. It is about you (the coachee) spending time in meaningful conversation with an individual ‘thought partner’ (the coach), to help you achieve your desired outcome. Coaching can provide the essential support that you need to confidently tackle important decisions and challenges, and offers you access to a dedicated and personal learning specialist to help you achieve your own goals. Coaching really can be a very effective channel for personal development, and great for challenging those blockages that we all get from time to time. Many people find that  it isn’t always easy - or appropriate - to talk about the issues that are really challenging us, for a whole host of reasons. Having a coach from outside the organisation gives the opportunity to talk about issues - warts and all – to someone who only ha...