My name is Nancy Polend and I am a new member to the listserve. Its good
to be here.
[Host's Note: Welcome, Nancy! ...Rick]
I am a recently self-employed Organization Development consultant. OD is
my second career, as it is for so many others I know. My first career was
in the publishing field as a publications graphics specialist. There was
a transition period in which I was officially still a graphics specialist,
but in reality was an internal change agent. I found myself spending more
and more of my time developing and conducting teambuilding sessions,
continuous improvement activities, process improvement activities,
training, outreach, etc.
Finally, one day I realized that this type of work was really "what I
wanted to do when I grew up." So I embarked on an academic and
professional journey such that the boundaries between the two were (and
still are) undiscernable. That was 6 years ago...and it goes on today
(and probably forever).
After being layed off in a Reduction-In-Force from the government
organization where I was an internal change agent (after an 11 year career
there), I pursued life "on the outside". I spent 2 years as a Management
Consultant for a medium-sized consulting firm. I left that organization
to go to, of all the unlikely places, an executive search firm. Executive
search turned out to be a major detour from the road I wanted to be on, so
after 6 months, I decided to make the leap into self-employment. And here
I am.
I am currently taking a course in Learning Organizations in which I had a
great deal of input into the coursework requirements. I specifically
included participation in a listserve as a learning activity for the
course. So I will be participating and probably asking some rookie
questions...My experience with Learning Organizations to date has been
largely vicarious---I've read alot and connect alot of what I read about
LOs to the OD field, in which I continue to study and practice.
Sorry this has been so long...if you've read to this point, I thank you
for your attention...if not, I don't blame you! ;)
I look forward to some great dialog,
Nancy Polend
nanjr@erols.com
--Nancy Polend <nanjr@erols.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>