Handbook for Strategic HR

CHAPTER 6

The Seven Deadly Sins of OD Consulting

Pitfalls to Avoid in the Consulting Practice

Connie A. Freeman

I DON’T KNOW WHY the subject of sin appeals to me, but I always seem to notice articles written about it. Last year I read an article in the Harvard Business Review by Andrall Pearson, former president of PepsiCo, entitled “Corporate Redemption and the Seven Deadly Sins” (1992). Pearson’s thoughts about how to change American organizations to be globally competitive made an impression on me. Pearson believes that “many change programs fail because they do not address the root cause of the problem (in corporate America): The negative, risk averse, bureaucratic work environments that flourished in the decades of easy growth but that now ...