Dialogic OD is a label used to distinguish a mindset about organizations, leadership and change that is different from foundational Diagnostic OD. Gervase Bushe and Bob Marshak introduced the concept in 2009 to show that new forms of organization development had emerged since the mid 1980s (like appreciative inquiry, future search, open space, and world café, among many others) that did not conform with, and in some ways violated, central principles of OD found in textbooks and taught in graduate programs. Since then, theory and research on Dialogic OD has expanded rapidly. Bushe and Marshak argue that each OD practitioner is likely to use a unique combination of diagnostic and dialogic mindsets in their practice. In the 2015 textbook on Dialogic Organization Development, Edgar Schein describes Dialogic OD as a return to the roots of OD’s original spirit of inquiry, and opined that Dialogic OD may have emerged because organizational problems are now more complex, ambiguous and uncertain. Since then, the idea that Diagnostic OD is better suited to complicated, technical problems and Dialogic OD better suited to complex, adaptive challenges, has been echoed by others.

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