Courses

ODVR 501 Foundations of Organizational Systems, Design, and Renewal

As the first course in an integrated seven-quarter program, this course introduces the program design and its core competency domains of theory, skill, and personal development. Particular emphasis is given to systems theory, intercultural communication, and ethics as themes woven through the 21-month curriculum. Students will apply theory and specific skills through small group and individual work. This course is conducted off-site. Required.

ODVR 502 Individual – Development of the Adult Learner

Students identify personal values and purpose and then integrate this foundation with their personal and professional goals. They learn strategies for applying theory to understanding the self as system and the self as learner. Students learn about themselves and the use of self-assessments by completing instruments relating to learning styles and strengths. Further, students are introduced to a personal learning contract as a core design element for their personalization of the OSR program. This course is conducted off-site. Required.

ODVR 505 Individual – Research Literacy and Methods

Students will develop an introductory understanding of qualitative and quantitative approaches to applied research. This course also will develop foundational research literacy for students, emphasizing the knowledge necessary to locate, read, and assess knowledge claims in information resources such as academic journal articles and books. These introductory skills will enable students to understand what they read and how the theoretical claims of authors fit into the subjects they explore. Further, it will help them to begin conceptualizing how they might conduct research related to their Design Teams, Theory Paper, and Consultation Project. Required.

ODVR 506 Systems – An Overview of Theory and Perspectives

Students develop an overview of the development and principles of systems theory, understanding the shift from the mechanistic paradigm to one of holism and interrelatedness. Key principles such as context, boundaries, feedback, interdependence, complexity, emergence, and paradox are explored. Various branches of systems theory are introduced and examined as a way to familiarize students with the vastness of this theory base. Required.

ODVR 507 Skills – Designing and Leading Participative Meetings

This hands-on application course develops the capacity to design and lead change actions through a participative process. From an application perspective, students will gain hands-on experience and real-time feedback in designing and leading a variety of participative meetings. Students will also learn the theory base and ethics upon which the participative meeting process rests. Course concepts are connected to professional applications. Required.

ODVR 508 Design – Principles and Practice

Students explore and experience design as an intentional co-creating process of being and acting in the world. The design approach invokes creative thinking and encourages innovative action. This is necessary for leading intentional change, where organizational shifts are in sync with the system’s larger context. The course provides students the theoretical framework and practical skills essential for helping clients imagine, conceptualize, and implement their preferred future. Creative change is explored in conjunction with the notion of “serving others” in a manner that can facilitate personal and organizational change and renewal. Required.

ODVR 509 Organizations – Theory and Culture as a Foundation for Inquiry

Students explore the classical theories of organizations as a way to understand the historical roots of contemporary organizational practices. They become familiar with seminal organizational theorists whose philosophies, values, and practice surface in issues such as change, effectiveness, and participation. Special emphasis is given to organizational culture as a key concept within organizational theory. Students learn how to use their understanding of theory and culture as a foundation for organizational inquiry, which focuses on obtaining valid data as the basis for effective and ethical interventions. Required.

ODVR 510 Organizations – Intra and Inter Group Relations

This course lays a theoretical and practical foundation in group dynamics, teams, and collaboration. Students gain knowledge, awareness, and skills in working with task, relationship and process issues in groups. The exploration of group development models and intercultural communication theory helps to understand and inform work in small groups. Students also explore the structure and function of teams, including, defining characteristics, when and how to use teams, and characteristics of high performance teams. Successful teaming within or between groups requires an ability to go beyond mere coordination or cooperation to a level of collaboration. Students explore the qualities of this level of engagement and the conditions necessary to bring forth such a relationship. Required.

ODVR 511 Change – Theory and Ethical Interventions

Students will explore contemporary organizational change models and theories to learn more about their strengths and limitations in creating real and sustainable change in organizations. Students will learn to distinguish between first and second order change and change that is planned and unplanned. Intervention is a “helping” process to intentionally “disturb” the system in order to improve the functioning and performance of the system. The principles of designing interventions will be explored, ranging from facilitation of, or participation in, a meeting to entering an organizational system with the intent of helping it effect systemic change. Ethical issues will be explored, particularly the importance of ascertaining and working at the appropriate depth of intervention. Required.

ODVR 512 Change – The Theory and Practice of Appreciative Inquiry

Appreciative Inquiry is a participative and powerful method for creating change in social systems. Rooted in social constructionism and the power of image, it involves a systematic discovery and mobilizing of what gives a social system life in human, ecological, and economic terms. Students will learn the theory and practice of this approach as it represents a major shift in how organizational development practitioners work with organizations. This course is conducted off-site. Required.

ODVR 515 Skills – The Consultative Approach

Students deepen their knowledge of the consultative process of entry, contracting, and intervention. Students also learn how to work with clients during the feedback and action-planning phase of the consultation. This includes principles for interpreting data, planning and conducting feedback sessions, and helping the client move into action. Additionally, students explore the role of the self as consultant/helper, learning how personal values, self-awareness, and ethical principles are essential to any consultative process. This course is conducted off-site. Required.

ODVR 516 Leadership – Leadership of Systemic Organizational Change

This course focuses on the practice of adaptive leadership as developed by Ron Heifetz and explores the qualities of leadership and followership needed for a systemic and holistic approach to designing and leading change. Skills focus on discernment of the adaptive challenge facing an organizational system as opposed to technical problems, advancing the purpose of the organization, orchestrating tension in service of systemic change, listening to and communicating the “song beneath the words,” leveraging informal versus formal leadership, differentiating self from roles, being on the dance floor and in the balcony, thinking politically, and giving the work back to the group. Required.

ODVR 517 Change – Participatory Methods for Designing the Future

Students develop an understanding of “futuring” and how it differs from conventional planning. Exploration of theory, models, and methods associated with futuring helps students understand how to apply this perspective at an organizational and individual level. Emphasis is placed on methods featuring a participatory and whole systems approach. Intercultural considerations are explored. Students will have an opportunity to experience aspects of futuring models and methods as a way to strengthen their application skills. Required.

ODVR 518 Skills – Consultative Praxis

Students engage with the full consulting intervention cycle, including issue exploration, contracting, data gathering and interpretation, feedback, recommendations, and closure. This course contains the final in-depth and hands-on session intended to provide opportunities for students to practice their competency to design and conduct organizational development interventions before they implement their Consultation Project. Students consult to issues and opportunities related to the renewal of the OSR program, thus grounding the experience in reality. Required.

ODVR 519 Systems – Living Systems Theory

This session provides a deeper exploration of living systems theory, one of the main branches of systems theory emphasized in the OSR program. Concepts such as adaptive systems, self-organizing, emergence, complexity, autopoiesis, dissipative structures, and structural coupling are emphasized. Implications for viewing social systems as living systems are explored, particularly in terms of the design and leadership of change. Required.

ODVR 520 Organizations – At Work in the World

While cultural perspectives are integrated throughout the program, it is in this course that students immerse themselves in the theory, principles, models and implications of individuals and organizations working in a multi-cultural global system. The interdependence of our belief, political, economic and natural systems demands new consciousness and mental models. This course explores the global perspectives of this transformation and the challenges associated with embracing our differences and diversity. Students learn to develop a way of knowing and navigating within such broad perspectives. Core topics explored are demographic, climatic, environmental, political, cultural and economic trends. A central question of the course asks how we live, grow, and design for this future, sustaining those qualities that relate to what is most meaningful. Required.

ODVR 521 Systems – Dynamics of Social Systems

This course examines how systemic approaches to organizational development and change are being learned and applied within all types of organizations. Tools of systems thinking, system dynamics, model building, archetypes, and simulations will be explored for their usefulness in understanding the dynamics inherent in organizational systems. The latest research in social networking will also be investigated.As the final course in systems theory, particular emphasis is placed on learning events that provide students opportunities to continue building on their capacity to apply their theoretical knowledge of systems to the intentional design of systemic change. Required.

ODVR 523 Change – Transition, Renewal, and Life-long Learning

As the final course in an integrated seven-quarter program, focus is on group endings and managing transitions at the individual level. The learning is highly experiential and personal in that this course includes the adjournment of the learning community. Design considerations for group endings are examined. Engagement in renewal occurs with a continuance design for the cohort and individual next steps in life-long learning. Required.

ODVR 524 Leadership – Theory and Personal Mastery

Leadership development is a core skill component and the instrument of systemic organizational change. Students are introduced to the evolution of leadership theory and styles, such as situational, shared, servant, steward, feminine and adaptive leadership through the lens of culture, gender, and systems. Leadership is distinguished from authority and recognized as an action that complements followership; both require courage - following the heart in the face of fear. Thus development of leadership and followership capability is rooted in personal learning, awareness, emotional intelligence, and mastery. Coaching is foundational to the development of leadership and followership. Required.

ODVR 571 Individual – Learning Reflection and Synthesis I

ODVR 572 Individual – Learning Reflection and Synthesis II

ODVR 573 Individual – Learning Reflection and Synthesis III

ODVR 574 Individual – Learning Reflection and Synthesis IV

ODVR 575 Individual – Learning Reflection and Synthesis V

ODVR 576 Individual – Learning Reflection and Synthesis VI

Oral and written communication skills are essential in relating with others in personal and professional settings. Students practice academic and reflective writing as a means of developing professional competence and increasing self-awareness. Reflective inquiry and critical thinking are developed through dialogue methods and writing assignments. Examples of writing assignments include an Entry Statement, monthly academic and reflective learning papers, and an Exit Statement. Students reflect on their courses, the dynamics of the learning community, progress on their Learning Contract, and their design and facilitation of Degree Committee meetings. Quarterly synthesis papers develop the ability to see themes from the quarter and integrate these themes with prior learning. Large and small group discussions develop dialogue skills. Students take these courses over six quarters building up their capacity for both reflective and critical thinking. Required. Graded CR/F.

ODVR 581 Skills – Curriculum Design and Delivery I

ODVR 582 Skills – Curriculum Design and Delivery II

Students deepen their learning about research, instructional design, adult learning, consultative skills, and team process within a learning environment of Design Teams designing and delivering course curricula. Students participate in a Design Team during each year of the program. Design Teams provide students with opportunities to apply design principles and to engage in collaborative creation of adult learning activities. Additionally, students research a specific body of knowledge vital to understanding and designing for change and renewal. Students design the learning session — which is presented to the entire cohort — to meet learning goals determined by the core faculty.They receive faculty and student feedback about the effectiveness of overall design, content, and delivery, as well as their individual performance. It is a forum for deepening practice, leadership, and team membership skills, as well as providing an opportunity to experience the paradoxes of group life. Students are assigned to a particular Design Team, with preferences taken into consideration. While the required deliverables are the same for each Design Team, activities may be spread over two or three consecutive quarters. Required.

ODVR 591-593 Special Topics 1 to 6

ODVR 595 Skills – Consultation Project

The Consultation Project provides consultative design and delivery practice in organizational change for a client outside the OSR system. The Project is conducted under the supervision of the student’s faculty advisor and the review of their Degree Committee. The Project provides a vehicle for the student to demonstrate proficiency of OSR program-related core competencies as well as attainment of the student’s goals in their Learning Contract. In addition to supporting the student’s learning, the Project is designed to contribute to the primary client’s real-time organizational needs in an ethical and effective way,within the parameters agreed to by both client and student. Work on the Consultation Project generally carries over 2 to 3 consecutive quarters. A Consultation Project requires OSR program advisor sign-off before the student begins work. Required.

ODVR 596 Individual – Theory Paper, Consultation Project Design

This course involves a thorough literature review of a theory base related to the student’s Learning Contract and professional interests. Based on the review, students write an academic paper summarizing and contrasting the seminal contributors to the field as well as elaborating on the theory. Understanding their theory base deepens the student’s knowledge foundation before moving into practicum level application via the Consultation Project. Students also write their Consultation Framing Document, in which they develop and demonstrate their ability to propose a type of consultation project that is in service to client needs as well as their own Learning Contract and professional aspirations. Required.