This note comes from opening remarks by Peter DiGiammarino who participated in a panel discussion with Peter Vail at the 2001 Annual Conference of the Chesapeake Bay Organization Development Conference.

I was first exposed to OD as a graduate student at the MIT Sloan School where, in addition to core courses and my concentration in MIS and Planning & Control, I studied with Richard Beckhardt, Ed Schein, and other future luminaries in the field.

These courses were on my schedule because of a survey of students who had been out 20 years revealed that these were the courses they all wished they had had more of.

I went on to become a pretty successful high-tech business executive who continued to learn about and to use OD in my positions as:

• President of a $200M software products firm,
• SVP of a $150M division of a $300M services firm, and
• Business Area Manager of a $175M business that I started from scratch 15 years earlier.

Chief executives who are OD-competent tend to be purposeful, patient, and deliberate in the their actions. They understand that it takes time for people to "get it" and take pains to work with them to get there. They also know this doesn't happen at Internet speed.

High-tech venture investors and boards of directors expect something quite different because they are used to working with CEOs who are hard charging, relentless, and even ruthless.

When they see the OD competent CEO practicing an enlightened approach in one of their ventures, they don't recognize it, don't understand it, are frightened by it, and are quick to reject the approach and the person.

While I was able to create islands of sanity, the task to convert the ultimate powers proved too difficult in today’s climate. The only way out was to acquire the venture outright or start a new one.