Leg Two - Learning to Be Better Partners

Humankind achieves the majority of its purposes as an outcome of partnerships between individuals committed to achieving a shared purpose. Humankind needs to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its partnerships, in all walks of life, and thus the prosperity of our society. Early steam locomotives had an overall efficiency of about 5%. Steam locomotives were replaced by diesel electric locomotives with an efficiency of around 30%. Business organizations seek to thrive in an increasingly competitive world, and to achieve this they need to fully utilize their resources and particularly their human resources. Business organizations need to realize that to fully utilize their human resources they have to create a partnership culture in which people can fully utilize their professional skills and creative wisdom. By creating a partnership culture, they are facilitating the ability for employees to learn and grow and evolve and enhance their capability not only to contribute to the well-being of the organization but also to a positive future for humankind and our planet. The professional field of Organizational Development (OD) is increasingly recognizing the role of OD in helping address the challenges our society faces. An underlying theme of the 2023 international OD Summit to be held in Raleigh, North Carolina on June 11-14 is “Building a better world is the present and future of OD.”

Many surveys have indicated that employee enjoyment in their work and engagement is deteriorating. Leg Two of the stool involves understanding how the performance of organizations can be improved not by direction from politicians, religious leaders or even top management but rather by enabling individuals to improve their partnership, respect and love for themselves and for each other as they act together to achieve their purpose. My research has clearly shown that to improve the performance of an organization, the improvement effort needs not only to be focused on the desired outcome but also on the ability for participants to improve their partnership and become a more effective contributor within the partnership.

Key Thoughts

  • Humankind achieves the majority of its purposes as an outcome of partnerships between individuals committed to achieving a shared purpose.
  • Improving the efficiency and effectiveness of human partnerships in all walks of life improves the prosperity of our society.
  • To fully utilize their human resources business organizations, need to create a partnership culture in which people can fully utilize their professional skills and creative wisdom.
  • By creating a partnership culture, business organizations are facilitating the ability for employees to learn and grow and evolve and enhance their capability not only to contribute to the well-being of the organization but also to a positive future for humankind and our planet.
  • Improving organizational performance needs not only to focus on the desired outcome but the ability of participants to become more effective partners in achieving the organization’s purpose.

    • Leg One - Accessing Inner Wisdom

    Leg Three - Defining Humankind’s Evolutionary Vision

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