Leaders Fostering Dialogue Through Developmental Relationships: An OD Perspective

In complex and chaotic contexts, technical approaches to organizational change fail to produce desired results. This chapter explores how leaders can foster developmental relationships at the individual and group levels by using dialogue-centric methods to help individuals and groups identify emergent solutions. We integrate the literature on dialogic organization development (OD) and psychological safety to develop a perspective for developmental relationships in emergent contexts where groups cannot find clear solutions. The chapter culminates with an overview of three families of methodologies for fostering developmental relationships through dialogue at the group level: Technology of Participation (ToP), Liberating Structures, and Design Thinking. We provide real-life case examples of each from our own practice. Although not widely written about in the OD literature, each of these families of methods offers multi-faceted approaches for organizational change in contexts calling for dialogue and exploration rather than identifying technical solutions Most importantly, these widely-used methods demystify the process of fostering developmental relationships among teams through dialogue in emergent contexts.