Conscious Organization Development: A Distinctly Mindful Theory & Practice

To varying degrees, employee experience orients itself through consciousness, a quiet but critical feature of psychological functioning in organizations. Empirical observations suggest that consciousness entails a continuum of orientations, which range from concentrated conceptual processing to intuitive receptivity, and non-dual awareness. Accompanying empirical evidence demonstrates that an individual’s ability to shift, expand, and sustain attention across this continuum directly influences activities associated with organizational effectiveness. This article draws connections between these observations to produce a theory of Conscious Agility, which suggests that an employee’s ability to regulate consciousness in a situationally informed fashion may influence their effectiveness at innovative tasks and inclusive relationships. In addition to providing a new way of understanding and enhancing existing OD applications, Conscious Agility Theory leads to a new form of OD called Conscious Organization Development, which differs enough from Diagnostic and Dialogic OD in terms of its premise and applications that it stands to advance the field in unique ways.