I’ve been jotting down notes, on everything, for as long as I can remember. A supervisor who couldn't return a text. A TV interviewer who handled a difficult subject better than most managers handle a difficult employee. An article making a point it doesn't realize it's making. Twenty years of pattern recognition means the filter is always running.
This is where I stop taking notes and start saying something.
Nobody Owned The Outcome
What happened next was not unique to this company. I've since come to understand that it happens in some form in most organizations when OD work does its job correctly. The work surfaced the truth and the truth was uncomfortable.
What The Eye Roll Told Me
The reaction was exactly what you'd expect. Polite eye rolls. Knowing nods. The very specific energy of people thinking you brought us in here for this? We kept pushing anyway.
This is the kind of thing I think about. If it resonates, there's more where it came from — or let’s talk.