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The role of organisational development (OD) post recession 45The role of organisational development(OD) post recessionISSUE9Valerie Garrow, Associate DirectorOver the past year many of us have come to experience first hand something aboutchaos and complexity. What most of us knew as a butterfly flapping its wingscausing a tidal wave on the other side of the world was illustrated powerfully in thesorry saga of the sub‐prime loans. Since then household names such as Woolworthsand Royal Doulton have disappeared, once revered bankers such as Sir FredGoodwin have been vilified, and ridiculed and the City has been shaken to the core.As if that were not bad enough, we have simultaneously experienced a crisis in ourpublic institutions with widespread disbelief that tax payers money is spent onmoats and duck houses and a suspicion that we were taken to war on shakyevidence. But what has all this got to do with organisational development (OD)?We have heard a lot recently about systemic failure, which suggests that the blameresides in the wider system rather than with individuals and we have reached apoint where our organisations and institutions now have a major task in rebuildingcustomer, employee and public trust. It is time for some serious OD, taking a wholesystems approach to shift cultures that have enabled some of our top people toremain blind to risk and bad practice. Frog Theory suggests that if you put a frog in apan of boiling water it will jump out immediately; if you slowly heat the water it willsimply sit there and cook. One of OD’s principle roles is sometimes to shock thesystem into action.In 2009 IES published Fish or bird? Perspectives on Organisational Development, what wemight call an ‘inquiry’ into contemporary organisational development (OD) practicein the UK. One of our key findings was that OD practice is highly contextual. It issensitive to specific organisations, industries and environmental conditions and isdeveloped through relationships. OD practice may look very different in differentcontexts.