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OrgDev with Distinction
OrgDev with Distinction
Author: Dani Bacon and Garin Rouch
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© 2026 OrgDev with Distinction
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The Org Dev podcast is all about Organisational Development, a practice that has the power to transform organisations, shape cultures, and empower individuals. Yet, it's often shrouded in mystery and misunderstood. But fear not, because on this podcast, we pull back the curtain to reveal the inner workings of Organisation Development. We demystify the concepts, unravel the strategies, and delve into the real-life experiences of professionals who are driving real and significant change and innovation within organisations.
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We'd love to hear from you so send us a message! Strategy is one of the most overused words in organisational life – and one of the least well understood. In this conversation with Rupert Morrison, we explore what strategy actually means, who really owns it, and why so many organisations struggle not with ambition, but with focus. We talk about why strategies so often turn into shopping lists, why prioritisation is harder than it looks, and how pace, culture, and execution collide once a stra...
We'd love to hear from you so send us a message! This week on the OrgDev Podcast we’re joined by the brilliantly provocative Nick Shackleton-Jones, a guest who never fails to challenge how organisations think about learning. Nick brings energy, clarity and a healthy dose of disruption as he unpicks why so much workplace learning fails to change behaviour and what actually works instead. He shares a rallying cry of resources not courses along with stories about simulations and onboarding...
We'd love to hear from you so send us a message! Top tips from leading Organisation Development and Design Experts This is part 2 of a special highlights episode. This year has been a big one for us. We recorded 44 episodes, and the podcast reached listeners in 109 countries. Our guests joined us from as far afield as California, Spain and Australia – as well as Austria, the Netherlands and Sweden, and together we covered a broad spectrum of practice – from neuroscience and psychological sa...
We'd love to hear from you so send us a message! op tips from leading Organisation Development and Design Experts This is a special highlights episode.This year has been a big one for us. We recorded 44 episodes, and the podcast reached listeners in 109 countries. Our guests joined us from as far afield as California, Spain and Australia – as well as Austria, the Netherlands and Sweden, and together we covered a broad spectrum of practice – from neuroscience and psychological safety, to syst...
We'd love to hear from you so send us a message! What does leadership look like when it’s driven by purpose rather than control? In this episode of the OrgDev Podcast, we’re joined by Dr Louise Van Rhyn, social entrepreneur, leadership and organisation development practitioner, and founder of Symphonia. Louise shares powerful insights from more than four decades of practice working with leaders, organisations and large-scale social change initiatives across South Africa and beyond. We explore...
We'd love to hear from you so send us a message! Why Do Transformations and Change Fail - And What Can Leaders Do About It? Where do leaders go when the map runs out – when the terrain ahead is shifting faster than they can chart it? Today on the OrgDev Podcast, we’re stepping into the space where the known meets the unknown, and where transformation takes root. In this episode. we’ll hear how Gwen blends rigour and relationality, why she believes leadership must be both human-centred a...
We'd love to hear from you so send us a message! How Can Design Thinking Solve Your Organisation's Most Intractable Problems? Design thinking has transformed how we approach products and services - but what does it really look like when we apply it to people, culture, and organisations? How do we move from post-it notes and empathy maps to real organisational change? To explore the intersection between design thinking and organisation development, we’re joined by Giles Wright – an...
We'd love to hear from you so send us a message! Is it time to rethink leadership and management? Many leaders work under the illusion that they can control what goes on but in reality organisations are messy, and unpredictable. So what does this Complexity really means for how organisations function, how leaders make decisions, and how people navigate uncertainty. One person who has challenged the neat models and tidy solutions we often reach for – instead opens up more real, human, a...
We'd love to hear from you so send us a message! What does it take to deliver on an ambitious strategy – especially in a mission-driven organisation where the stakes are high and capacity is limited? How do you align people, processes, and systems to deliver on the organisation's ambitions? Our guest this week is the Maria Farres, Director of Organisational Development & Employee Experience at Cancer Research UK, where she leads work on org. development, leadership & talent, EDI, empl...
We'd love to hear from you so send us a message! What really derails a change project – the plan, or the relationships behind it? Our guest today, Sophy Pern, has spent her career helping leaders and teams untangle the relational dynamics that quietly shape whether strategy and change succeed or stall. An international consultant, facilitator and executive coach, she works with executive leaders on strategy engagement, organisation design, operating models, culture change and team development...
We'd love to hear from you so send us a message! How do you make sure your organisation’s design is truly fit for purpose – not just neat on paper, but aligned to the strategy your future depends on? And how do you work with senior leaders in a way that builds real trust – so you can understand how value is created in their world, and the tough trade-offs that come with redesigning it? Today we’re joined by Jaimini Lakhani – founder of Lumiere Consulting and a leading expert in organisation...
We'd love to hear from you so send us a message! What separates good OD practice from great OD practice – skill, strategy, or self-awareness? You can have the tools. The models. The frameworks. But what really shapes your impact as an OD practitioner? According to Dr Frances Baldwin, it’s not what you do – it’s who you are. Frances has been shaping the field of Organisation Development for more than five decades. Yet when you ask her what truly makes a difference in this work, she doesn’t s...
We'd love to hear from you so send us a message! How to Solve Complex Business Problems? Organisations are not machines – and they certainly don’t run on machine logic. Solving the toughest business problems isn’t about pulling levers or rewriting process charts. It’s about people: how they work together, how they make sense of their world, and how they feel. But people don’t operate in neat, predictable ways. We delete, distort, and generalise the reality around us – which makes organisatio...
We'd love to hear from you so send us a message! Have you ever worried you’ll be “found out” or dismissed your own successes as luck? You’re not alone. In this episode, we’re joined by Dr Kate Atkin, author of The Imposter Phenomenon: Why You Feel Like a Fraud and What to Do About It. Kate brings both personal experience and rigorous research to the conversation, busting myths (it’s phenomenon, not syndrome) and sharing practical strategies for navigating self-doubt. We explore how impo...
We'd love to hear from you so send us a message! In this episode of the OrgDev Podcast, we’re joined by Mel Francis, Director of Neurodiversity at Work at Do-IT Solutions, to explore how organisations can move beyond simply accommodating difference to designing workplaces where all kinds of brains can thrive. Mel shares practical strategies for embedding neuroinclusive thinking across the employee lifecycle – from recruitment and onboarding to performance, progression, and everyday management...
We'd love to hear from you so send us a message! Change and Transformation. What if the way most organisations approach transformation is fundamentally flawed? In this episode, Dr. Andrew Day turns the usual change management playbook on its head. Drawing on decades of work with leaders across sectors and continents, he explores why transformation isn’t something you can manage from the top – and why the real work is social, emotional, and far messier than any plan on paper. We dig into wha...
We'd love to hear from you so send us a message! What if the future of HR isn’t about getting a seat at the table - but redesigning the table altogether? In a world shaped by paradox, uncertainty and stakeholder pressure, the next generation of HR leaders must be architects of value—not just participants in strategy. It’s about creating human capability that drives stakeholder value—for employees, customers, communities, investors and boards. For this episode, we're joined from the U...
We'd love to hear from you so send us a message! OD in Complexity, Change and Transformation What gets in the way when strategy and change aren’t truly connected – when the people leading strategy and the people leading change don’t even see their work as part of the same conversation? We’re delighted to be joined by Toby Lindsay, Senior Consultant in Leadership and Organisational Development at The King’s Fund and Lead Consultant at Lindsay Associates Toby has dedicated his career to expl...
We'd love to hear from you so send us a message! What does it really take to build a responsive, high-performing organisation – one that learns, adapts, and endures? Today, we’re joined all the way from California by one of the world’s leading thinkers on organisation agility, Dr Chris Worley – co-author of The Agility Factor and a pioneer in the fields of organisation development, strategic change, and design. In this episode, we explore what agility really means (beyond the buzzword), how A...
We'd love to hear from you so send us a message! Business Ethics - Corporate Scandals and Failure - CEO Failings Why do good people do bad things? What drives epic ethical failure in organizations? Have you ever read about a corporate scandal in the news and thought that next time, it could be you and your organization? Probably not. We all tend to believe that bad things are done by bad people. And since we consider ourselves to be decent human beings, we don’t believe we would ever engage i...



