The Power of Hexagon as an Organization Development Process

Abstract

This article focuses on the use of Hexagon, a “thinking through” process. It assesses it through various activities such as strategic planning, negotiating, or organizational assessments. It is the authors’ view that engaging people in groups to think and connect with one another at the ideation and conceptual levels calls for a different technique that will allow them to experience that “the whole is greater than the sum of its part.” The article articulates the rationale of this discourse and documents the engagements as an action research and illustrations of the possible uses of Hexagon. The results show a significant difference in the level of awareness before and after the use of the Hexagon technique and between and among groups in terms of utilization of this very technique. It can be concluded that the effectiveness of the Hexagon technique raises the participants’ level of consciousness both at an individual and group level and that its use cuts across different types of activities, participants and countries.