ODKM

It is no surprise that artificial intelligence (AI) continues to redefine the workplace, becoming a pervasive force reshaping how we, as a society, live, work, and interact with one another. Much of today’s discourse on AI centers on the productivity and efficiency component of automation. Yet, in the journey to understand just how much AI can do, there is minimal attention given to what AI reveals about the society that is using it. So what happens when a group of five ODKMers takes on the challenge to shift the narrative of AI away from a technology lens towards a relational one?

When ODKM graduates walk across the stage, they don't stop being students of organization development and knowledge management — they simply change classrooms. That's the idea behind our ODKM Continuing Education Program, designed to keep our alumni community learning, growing, and connected long after graduation.

This past academic year (August 2025 to May 2026), the faculty began a push to expand alumni participation throughout the ODKM program by recruiting graduates into our classrooms to support students, and alumni enthusiastically responded to our call.

On May 12, 2026, ODKM lost one of the program’s guiding minds: Dr. Ann Crooks Baker passed away peacefully at her home in Woodstock, Georgia, at age 81, closing out a life that spanned from the classrooms of South Carolina to the halls of George Mason University, touching so many in between.

At a recent professional event, a speaker suggested that many organization development (OD) graduate programs excel at teaching theory but fall short in equipping students with the practical skills necessary to become effective OD practitioners. According to this critique, such programs produce graduates who can cite theory and write research papers, but struggle with the pragmatic aspects of OD engagements like contracting, client management and project management.

I didn’t come to the Organization Development and Knowledge Management (ODKM) program at George Mason University because I had everything figured out; I came because I didn’t.

When the editors were discussing these first editions of the ODKM Learning Edge, we wanted to include community voices. We hoped to hear from alumni from a wide span of the 30-year program.

The current curriculum in the Master of Organization Development and Knowledge Management program at the Schar School of Policy and Government is a mix of classes that have been part of the curriculum since the very beginning as well as newer classes meant to address the current working and organizational landscape.

We enter group spaces carrying invisible scripts: how to belong, how to lead, how to stay safe from conflict or vulnerability. But what happens when those scripts no longer work? When the group itself becomes a mirror, reflecting back our blind spots, our values, and our deepest questions about power, safety, and connection?

On September 13, four students from ODKM Cohort 29 will host a Learning Community event, Secret Agents of Change: Inner Development for Outer Transformation. The event will be a fun-filled day of engaging discussions, interactive activities, and expert insights into the IDG framework.