This post is from our Applied Wisdom team member, Kathleen King.
Nonprofit executive Teresa Chapman teaches a course on Organizational Development and Change and has found a way to bring Applied Wisdom into her curriculum. The assignment required students to write a short essay connecting organizational development concepts to Jim Morgan’s recognition that building an organizational culture requires “the right structure, processes, and people.”
Four students examined Jim’s practical leadership insights through an organizational development lens, revealing connections between his wisdom and more formal theories and practices.
Hannah focused on Morgan’s second insight, “Respect and Trust Your People,” connecting it to transformational leadership and other organizational culture models. She emphasized how psychological safety and trust creation align with humanistic organizational development values, particularly drawing parallels to theories that build on organizational strengths rather than focusing solely on problems.
John explored Jim’s “Bad News is Good News” concept, linking it to organizational development’s diagnostic phase where honest feedback drives understanding. He connected Morgan’s “Develop Court Sense” to systems theory and the need for leaders to navigate organizational complexity. Drexler also examined “Who’s Got the Monkey?” as it relates to empowerment principles in organizational development practice.
Dixie provided a comprehensive mapping of Morgan’s eight insights to organizational development theories, including purpose-driven leadership, empowerment, collaboration, learning, systemic thinking, emotional intelligence, trust-building, and strategic agility. She connected these to established organizational development approaches like Appreciative Inquiry, Action Research, and Participatory organizational development methods.
Xincha demonstrated the broadest theoretical integration, connecting Morgan’s insights to multiple organizational development frameworks including Schein’s culture model, McGregor’s Theory Y, Action Research, open systems theory, Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model, and the RACI matrix. They emphasized how Morgan’s practical wisdom provides actionable strategies for leadership development and sustainable organizational growth.
Together, these four students discovered that Morgan’s Applied Wisdom serves as a bridge between theoretical organizational development concepts and practical leadership implementation, particularly in creating cultures of trust, transparency, and continuous improvement within nonprofit organizations.
I was delighted to see Teresa Chapman extend the reach of Applied Wisdom through her teaching and networking. I’d love to see more educators use the materials — let us know what we can do to help you use Applied Wisdom within your programs.
Teresa Chapman is Chief People Officer at Santa Clara Family Health Plan (SCFHP) and an instructor at University of California Santa Cruz Silicon Valley Extension Professional Education in their HR and Business Certification program.