10 take-aways for diagnosticians thanks to the Corona Plague

The present pandemic has provided a rich platform for Organization Development professionals to hone their diagnostic skills.

I want to point out the major points that should warrant consideration  in organizational diagnosis. All these points have been amplified by the present plague, but have “been around” for a long time. Corona has merely dusted them off and brought them to the surface.

  • It can take an awful long time to cope with serious problems.
  • Some problems have no solutions whatsoever. None. Nada. שום כלום
  • Skills needed to get you to the top are not predictive of the ability to cope effectively with a senior job; quite the opposite can be the case.
  • There are no objective experts who cannot be contradicted by another objective expert.
  • A rich and diversified web of co-existing cultures presents obstacles in reacting quickly to rapid change.
  • Followers have ridiculously exaggerated expectations from leadership.
  • Uncalled for positivism can be poisonous. Delivering bad news without sugar-coating is a skill all but absent in present-day leadership; promising only blood, sweat and tears apparently ended in World War 2.
  • Faced with proof positive that something does not work, a system will strive to return to the past and try not to reinvent itself.
  • Compromise is not necessarily meeting in the middle. It may turn out to be totally sacrificing today for tomorrow.
  • What most/many people choose to do and believe is not necessarily the guide to making good decisions.

I believe that all of these factors serve as underpinnings/tools/building blocks critical to our mindset as diagnosticians.

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