Yesterday afternoon Tonya Peck and I sketched out the macro-design for our presentation on Beautiful Organizations that we’re preparing for next month’s #ODNET10 conference in New Orleans (register here). The brief for the talk is below:

What do iPads & effective organizations have in common? Both are the result of the intentional creation of an authentic emotive experience. Peter Block, in his ODNet09 keynote address, encouraged OD professionals to integrate design thinking into their work in the 21st century. Tim Brown, CEO of global design firm IDEO, recently asked “Can organizations be beautiful?” This talk will explore similarities between the disciplines of design and OD in general, with emphasis on how these similarities can be leveraged specifically when using approaches like systems thinking and HPT (as examples). In the clinic portion of this session, the co-facilitators will guide participants to apply design thinking and methods to live OD scenarios.