Conference: Friday, 24 July 2026
Pre-conference Workshop: Thursday, 23 July 2026
Conference Overview
In a world where organisations claim to value openness — open communication, open learning, open systems — how open are we really? For decades, Organisation Development has championed transparency, curiosity, and human‑centred inquiry. But as practitioners, leaders, and collaborators in change, we also need to ask the harder questions:
- Where do we let openness thrive, and where do we quietly shut it down?
- How do our own habits, blind spots, and anxieties shape the openness we invite — or avoid?
- And what happens when organisational constraints collide with practitioner discomfort?
“Cracking Open OD” invites us into this tension. It asks us to explore openness not as an abstract ideal, but as a lived, sometimes uncomfortable practice — in organisations and in ourselves.
In 2026, ODA brings our community together to examine the gap between how open we think we are and how open our behaviour, systems, and practice truly allow us to be. This year’s conference is an exploration of depth, honesty, stretch, and possibility — rooted in evidence, practice, and lived experience
ODA Conference 2026
Join us for an immersive and reflective day designed for OD professionals, leaders, HR partners, consultants, coaches, and anyone committed to human‑centred change. Together, we will explore what it really means to “crack open” our practice — stretching our thinking, deepening our awareness, and strengthening our capacity to support openness in organisations and in ourselves.
We’re committed to making our 2026 conference accessible. If cost is a barrier, please reach out—subsidised or complimentary places are available to help ensure financial circumstances don’t prevent participation.
Keynote
Inside Open OD: What openness really looks like in teams, leaders, and systems
Most leaders say their workplaces are open. Most teams quietly disagree. Drawing on over 25 years of applied OD practice and research, Dr. William Brendel brings to life an evidence‑based approach for understanding openness where Psychological Safety and Growth Mindset meet.
You’ll learn:
- What real openness looks like in practice — beyond slogans or “safety‑washing”
- Why teams often struggle to speak up, disagree constructively, or name hard truths
- How the Open Assessment reveals the exact factors shaping satisfaction, performance, and retention
- How openness is shaped not only by interpersonal behaviours, but by deeper structural forces (design, learning, leadership patterns)
- A real case example from a Health & Human Services department that rebuilt trust, performance, and retention under extreme pressure
Dr Brendel will introduce the Open OD Approach — a simple, team‑driven method that empowers people to explore their own patterns, decide what matters most, and guide their path toward stronger, safer, more connected work. He will share a client case – a Health & Human Services department that, against all odds, rebuilt trust, raised performance, and increased retention through Open OD.
Attendees are invited to take the free Open Assessment prior to the conference. Bring your report — it will enrich your experience and personal reflection throughout the keynote.
Concurrent Sessions
We’re excited to have Dr Krista Troiani join us as a concurrent session presenter this year.
Her session, Cracking Open Care, takes a bold look at the gap between organisational “openness” and the lived experience of working mothers — and what really drives that disconnect. Expect insight, honesty, and fresh perspectives.
Dr Troiani brings deep expertise in leadership behaviour and organisational systems, paired with real‑world consulting experience. It’s a session you’ll definitely want to catch.
Pirooz Jafari’s session, The Story We Tell Ourselves in OD, will “crack open” the stories we default to in our OD work—and how those stories can narrow the perspectives we consider and the interventions we design. The session draws on Sensemaking theory (Karl Weick) and ideas on “single story” thinking, offering practical ways to strengthen curiosity, dialogue, and more open interpretation in our practice.
Dr Lindy Amos presents Strong Back, Soft Front: The Undefended Heart of OD Practice, a highly experiential session blending story, reflection, dialogue and practice.
OD practitioners are immersed in the underbelly of organisational life, conflict, grief, projection, idealisation, fear and systemic turbulence. Yet the emotional labour of this work is largely invisible and unacknowledged. When practitioners are required to absorb systemic emotion without support, the consequences are predictable: exhaustion, emotional over‑identification, defensive distancing and diminished capacity to hold complexity. Systems become brittle, relationships contract and adaptive work stalls.
Gain insight into the shadow dynamics that shape organisational life and explore ways to stay present to discomfort and “sit in the fire” without collapsing, rescuing, or withdrawing. Acquire a deeper appreciation of the emotional labour of OD and how to work with it safely and skilfully.
The session is immersive, relational, and designed to “crack open” the defended patterns that limit OD impact.
More speakers to be announced soon!
| Date | Friday, 24th July 2026 |
| Time | 9 am – 5.15 pm
5.30 pm post-conference drinks and canapes (at An Di, 5A/854 Collins Street Docklands) |
| Venue | Community Hub at The Dock 912 Collins Street Docklands VIC 3008 |
| Getting there | Tram: Route 48 and Route 11 (stop D18). This stop is within the ‘Free tram zone’ connecting Southern Cross Station and the city.
Train: Southern Cross station is ~500 meters walk to the Hub. Car: There are a limited number of metered parking spaces in the area, primarily along Bourke and Collins streets. There is limited parking at The Dock, so public transport is recommended |
| Ticket Price | Early bird available till 30 April ODA member – $395 early bird ($495 full price) Non-members – $595 early bird ($695 full price) Become a member today! |
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ODA’s Pre-conference event
Inside the Open OD Method: How openness shapes real work and real results
Thursday, 23 July 2026
Dr. William Brendel
This hands‑on workshop takes you inside the thinking, research, and practice behind the Open Assessment and the wider Open OD method.
You will explore:
- How the Open Assessment was built and the research behind its scales
- How each dimension connects to psychological safety, growth mindset, satisfaction, retention, and performance
- The correlation logic used to uncover patterns across teams, leaders, design, and learning
- How to interpret sample results and trace patterns in real organisational cases
- The full Health & Human Services transformation case, illustrating openness in action
- A practical sense‑making approach that teams themselves can use to interpret their own data
The workshop is experiential — you will work with real outputs, examine data, explore meaning‑making, and practice the steps teams use when navigating their own patterns.
This session is for OD practitioners, coaches, HR partners, leaders, and anyone who wants a grounded, research‑based way to understand the forces that help — or hinder — healthy team behaviour.
No prior experience with the Open Assessment is required.
| Date | Thursday, 23rd July 2026 |
| Time | 9.30 am – 4.30 pm
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| Venue | Community Hub at The Dock 912 Collins Street Docklands VIC 3008 |
| Ticket Price | Early bird available till 30 April
ODA member – $595 early bird ($695 full price) |
Thursday Evening Dinner (Optional Add‑On)
Cracking Open Conversations: A Shared Dinner & Dialogue
Thursday 23 July 2026 — Venue to be announced shortly
Tickets: $95
Join us on Thursday evening for a relaxed and engaging shared dinner with the ODA community. Whether you’re attending the preconference workshop, the conference only, you are warmly invited.
This dinner is an opportunity to meet colleagues, exchange ideas, and spark conversations, in an informal, welcoming setting. Expect warm company, thoughtful dialogue, and space for meaningful connection.
Venue details will be confirmed soon.
We are absolutely thrilled to announce that Org-ology is a Gold Sponsor for the 2026 ODA Conference: “Cracking Open OD: How open is our OD practice really?” 
Globally recognised as leaders in Organisational Design & Development Consulting, Org-ology helps organisations think differently about how they will meet future challenges. Org-ology has over 20 years of experience in helping organisations understand how people, process, and technology can work more effectively together to create that future.