An Excerpt from Openness in Organizational Development

Genetic Alliance improves health through the authentic engagement of communities and individuals. We have discovered, in practice as well as principle, that the transformation of health is a multi-dimensional task. It involves individuals, families, and communities. It includes not only physical health but also mental, emotional, and spiritual health. And, it requires attention to the way in which we live and work together as well as the results of that endeavor.

Our mission focuses on three primary areas—promoting novel partnerships, improving health systems, and translating research into services and individual decision-making. As we do this, we bring together diverse stakeholders, integrate multiple perspectives, and revolutionize access to information.

We address one of the most challenging questions that all organizations face, “How do we accomplish our mission?” The answer to such a question is never simple, and yet we have found a core orientation that has enables us to be successful and to develop as fully as we aspire to.

It is openness. We promote an environment of openness in everything we do and consider it both the process and product of Genetic Alliance. Our understanding of openness and the practices associated with it energize everything we do in Genetic Alliance, and part of that process is to share what we know at this point in time about how openness transformed us individually and collectively.

This means that we practice openness within Genetic Alliance – as a Council and staff – but we also bring openness into our interactions with external individuals and organizations. We invite them to practice openness in their partnerships and projects, and to “pay it forward.” In this way, openness becomes a process for the entire community, and an iterative feedback loop develops as openness expands throughout the Genetic Alliance and partners’ networks. It precipitates strengthening of thriving systems and accelerates discovery of problems in broken and inefficient systems.

Return