Top 15 Books Recommended for Organization Development Professionals
In our last blog article, Critical OD Competencies to Help You Become a World-Class OD Interventionist, we mentioned how important it was for the OD professional to work towards self-mastery.
In this article we would like to share our top 15 suggestions of books that we think OD professionals should read in order improve their skills. We hope you will find this list useful.
1. Handbook for Strategic HR: Best Practices in Organization Development from the OD Network (ODNetwork (Editor), John Vogelsang (Editor), Maya Townsend (Editor))
This book is a collection of 78 articles from a variety of OD Professionals. The main reason for reading this book is that it helps the reader learn a greater role of the HR professional as OD consultants which involve strategy development, work design and cultural change. You can also get HRCI credit.
2. Best Practices in Organization Development and Change: Culture, Leadership, Retention, Performance Coaching (Louis Carter, David Giber, Marshall Goldsmith, Richard F. Beckhard, W. Warner Burke, Edward E. Lawler III, Beverly L. Kaye, Jay Alden Conger, John Sullivan)
This book is a compilation of what the most effective OD techniques individuals and organizations are using to become successful. If you want to learn about how these companies are using OD, Leadership Development, Talent Management, and Coaching to up their game, then this book is for you.
3. Flawless Consulting: Your Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used (Peter Block): Process Consultation Revisited (Edgar Schein)
This book guides us on how to navigate a complex and changing world by addressing the challenges surround us as OD professionals. It also helps us use questions and implement other OD tools more effectively so that we are able to get the results we are looking for.
4. Images of Organization (Gareth Morgan)
This book helps us understand the complexity of organizations and enables us to use the theories to design better practices.
5. Organizational Culture and Leadership (By Edgar Schein)
This book talks about how culture can be used to bring change within an organization. Culture is regarded as a tool which can help in achieving organizational goals.
This book talks about the culture of an organization and helps the reader understand how to change it through the process of diagnosing the culture, understanding it in detail and implementing the change process.
7. Changing Conversations in Organizations: A Complexity Approach to Change (Patricia Shaw)
This book helps us understand that often the tools, methods and understanding of organizational change are difficult to implement because the situation keeps on unfolding in real-time. The book talks about the importance to keep understanding and deciphering what is happening with change and be comfortable with the uncertainty element of it. The author talks about bringing about change as a discovery process.
8. Managing to Collaborate: The Theory and Practice of Collaborative Advantage (Chris Huxham & Siv Vangen)
Collaboration can have far-reaching impacts on one’s environment and day-to-day life. This book talks about the different aspects of collaboration and helps us as students of collaboration develop a deeper understanding of it.
9. Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation (Daniel Siegel, M.D.)
This book helps us overcome our mental barriers and accomplish more. It is a good read for helping you reach your potential.
10. Organization Development & Change (Thomas G. Cummings & Christopher Worley):
This book discusses who behavioral science impacts organizational practices. It provides a very good theoretical basis for understanding how behavioral science works in this way.
11. Community: The Structure of Belonging (Peter Block)
This book helps us determine what healthy communities look like and how people can save their communities from fragmentation. A good read for developing a better world around us.
12. NTL Handbook of Organization Development and Change: Principles, Practices, and Perspectives – 2nd edition (Brenda B. Jones)
A recently published book which contains contributions on many authors on how organization change is all about and how we should bring about change in a complex environment. Noted for its relevance to the current times.
13. The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization (Peter Senge)
Learn how to develop your own learning organization in a systematic, step-wise manner.
14. The Change Champion’s Field Guide: Strategies and Tools for Leading Change in Your Organization (Louis Carter and Roland L. Sullivan)
Gain tools and strategies to become an effective change leader. The focus is on helping bring about positive change where people are satisfied with the process and outcome of change. This is a collection of a variety of contributions from noted authors in the field of HR and OD.
15. Helping: How to Offer, Give, and Receive Help Paperback (Edgar H. Schein)
We all imagine helping to be a simple process of offering help. In fact, it is much more than that. This book guides you on how to build a helping relationship so that all the stakeholders in this process are able to have a more productive exchange.