In This Story
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. Below, you’ll find the list of classes accompanied by a notes section that lists recollections and fun facts regarding when they were added, how they retained their structure, evolved through the years, and other applicable information.
Fall Semester – First Year
ODKM 600 – Foundations of Organization Development and Knowledge Management
Instructor: John Hovell
This introduction provides the foundations for the disciplines of organization development (OD) and knowledge management (KM) and for all future classes in the degree. Participants will study and practice numerous OD and KM approaches. The course culminates in two deeply experiential exercises to truly embody OD and KM.
Notes: Remember Mark Addleson’s crazy wall-to-wall white board scribbles? Hovell has replaced the whiteboard with Miro and invites students to contribute and co-create during classes.
ODKM 605 – Group Dynamics and Team Learning
Instructor: Tojo Thatchenkery
Engaging in unstructured and semi-structured learning environments, students will learn how to facilitate team learning for organizational effectiveness. By exploring various aspects of group dynamics such as power, perception, motivation, leadership, and decision-making, students will develop various competencies to manage teams and enhance their emotional and appreciative intelligence.
Notes: As you may remember, we still have the small groups facilitated by our generous and committed alumni: Lea Pickett, Bob Travis, David York, Erin Finn, Nia Akinkugbe, Lauren Green, Marytony Torres, Jessica Zucal, John Stephano, Joey Zabel, Shashuana Littlejohn, Cate Rodman, Cory Wofford, Penny Potter, Tiffany Jesteadt, Kate Trygstad, and many more!
Spring Semester – First Year
ODKM 610 – Social and Organizational Inquiry
Instructor: Ann Romosz
This course introduces students to the ethical, reflective, and practical dimensions of conducting research in complex organizational and social contexts. As the foundational research course in the ODKM program, it prepares students to investigate ambiguous, real-world challenges using both quantitative and qualitative methods grounded in organizational development values and best practices. Emphasis is placed on inquiry as an experiential and relational process—students do not merely observe research, but practice it firsthand, gaining insight into their own biases, assumptions, and impact as researchers.
Throughout the course, learners will build analytic reasoning skills, present their findings with clarity and confidence, and engage in critical reflection on how research framing shapes both outcomes and the evolution of organizational systems. This course supports the development of practitioner-scholars who approach inquiry not only as a method, but as a mindset essential to leading change.
Notes: Romosz began teaching the class in 2022, through a rigorous and thorough exploration of research methods and methodologies for OD and KM practitioners. Students now engage in both quantitative and qualitative methods to learn how to do data analysis using artificial intelligence.
ODKM 621 – Foundations of Coaching
Instructors: Penny Potter and Mary Zackius-Shittu
Coaching is a transformative skillset that extends far beyond formal credentials. It’s foundational for anyone seeking to lead change, foster growth, and navigate complex dynamics in the workplace. This course offers a 360-degree experiential journey where students coach, are coached, and observe coaching in real time. Grounded in experiential learning and intentional change theory, the course equips students with practical foundation skills such as presencing, deep listening, powerful inquiry, and reflective practice. Whether working in HR, OD, management, team leadership, or any organizational role, students will walk away with skills that enhance their everyday effectiveness and deepen their impact across professional settings.
Notes: This course was added in 2018 based on the idea that coaching skills are foundational for OD practitioners’ repertoire. Potter taught it solo until she invited Stacey Guenther to co-teach in 2023. When Jessica Srikantia left in 2024, Guenther began teaching the 722 coaching course, and Potter invited Zackius-Shittu, who is a senior HR officer at the World Bank, to co-teach. As part of our succession planning, Zackius-Shittu will serve as lead instructor in spring 2026!
Summer Semester
ODKM 715 – Creating Learning Organizations
Instructor: Steve Jones
This experiential course engages students in integrating fundamental understandings of organization dynamics and learning theories into an adaptive approach to facilitating organizational learning. Students examine the nature of organizations and how we “come to know about” organizations as the basis for analyzing organization dynamics. Within this context, students apply learning processes and practices that support individual and organization development to the design and facilitation of learning sessions throughout the course.
Notes: Alumni from earlier cohorts may remember this class as The Reflective Practitioner taught by Ann Baker. A fun fact: Gareth Morgan’s Images of Organization, continues to be an integral part of the class as does the concept of the learning organization and the Challenger accident.
ODKM 730 – Facilitation and Design Thinking
Instructor: Lauren Green
This course exposes students to fundamental facilitation skills that can be used to manage conflict and enable effective dialogue, as well as a reusable process for building agendas with leading practices in group process. Students will learn and demonstrate core competencies in facilitating meetings in a simulated environment and be asked to identify and reflect on opportunities to put these skills into action.
Notes: This is a fairly new class in the program, added in 2024. A popular class among recent cohorts, Green, who is also an alum, teaches the practical skills of facilitation and designing for facilitated programs. Students have said the practical course is perfect timing for LearnComm facilitation in their second year.
Fall Semester – Second Year
ODKM 725 – Knowledge Management and Collaborative Work
Instructor: John Hovell (fall 2025); Kader Gümüş (Cohort 15; starting fall 2026)
This course is an in-depth look at knowledge management, both theory and practices, which distinguishes between technology-oriented KM practices and people-oriented ones, with an emphasis on leveraging and sharing knowledge to get work done well and develop more effective organizations. The course examines effective ways of organizing knowledge-work, including social networks, communities of practice, and the use of collaborative technologies. The course uses real-time practice of advanced KM within a real organization.
Notes: Mark Addleson taught this class until his retirement, passing it on to Barbara Fillip who taught until fall 2024. Hovell will teach in fall 2025, and ODKM alumna Kadar Gümüş will begin teaching in fall 2026. The KM project remains a central part of the course.
ODKM 732 – Leadership and Social Justice
Instructor: Stacey Guenther
This course challenges participants not just to theorize leadership and social justice but to inhabit them. Reflective understanding and practice span: inner journeys, interpersonal relationships, organizations, and large-scale systems. With globalization, ethical leadership requires understanding diverse perspectives and complex systems. Outward leadership relies on inner development. Participants reflect deeply on leadership, social justice, their identities, and who they are as a leader through a semester-long autoethnographic log, at the completion of which they analyze and discover key learnings and areas of growth.
Notes: Many of you may remember PUBP 502: Leadership, Governance, and Policy Processes taught by Jessica Srikantia. She carved a new course—Leadership and Social Justice—out of it beginning with the 2016 fall semester. Many students mentioned it as one of the most transformative learning experiences. Srikantia taught the course until two years ago. Guenther teaches the course this semester and brought back some of the aspects of the Cross-Cultural Competency course taught by Ann Baker, such as the sojourn assignment.
Spring Semester – Second Year
ODKM 722 – Coaching and Organization Development
Instructor: Stacey Guenther
This course engages students at the cutting edge of transformational organizational change, in both theory and practice, that is beginning to emerge through the symbiosis of the disciplines of coaching and organization development. In spring 2026, change management will be added to the course, based on feedback collected from alumni during the summer of 2025.
Notes: This is the second coaching course (also added in 2018), providing students and graduates with a pathway to coaching certification. Students continue to build their coaching skills developed in the foundations course and broaden their scope of coaching to include coaching collectives and using tools and assessments. Students engage in a multi-session coaching engagement with a client outside of the ODKM community, giving them a taste for coaching “in the wild.” With the help of Director of Coach Education Penny Potter, students can work toward certification with their classroom hours complete (through the two ODKM courses) and the addition of coach supervision and completing coaching hours. Some work to integrate other aspects of the program is also woven into this course. Guenther has been teaching this course since 2024; it was previously taught by Jessica Srikantia.
ODKM 735 – Organizational Development Practices
Instructor: Tojo Thatchenkery
Students develop applied knowledge of various organizational development practices such as action research and appreciative inquiry. The course includes simulations to understand the complexities of real-world change management. Group projects with selected organizations will help students develop their diagnostic and analytical skills to become better facilitators of organizational learning.
Notes: OD Practices is also known as the Appreciative Inquiry class. The AI (or Appreciative Sharing of Knowledge) project is still the focus of this capstone course.
First and Second Years
ODKM 740 – Learning Community
Instructor: Tojo Thatchenkery
Using workshops, seminars, simulations, and structured experiences, students will learn how to build a learning Community of Practice (CoP) as practitioners of organization development. They will also reflect upon the community-building experience using research findings and design practice sessions to apply the lessons learned to the work environment.
Notes: A cohort favorite since the beginning of the program, students now engage in three LearnComms per year, in person at the beginning of both the fall and spring semesters and one held virtually in mid-November. Students continue to plan and execute a daylong program under Thatchenkery’s supervision. A new addition this fall is that student groups receive team coaching throughout the process by Penny Potter, director of coach education for the program. Also, thanks to alum Lorne Epstein (Cohort 25) who founded the George Mason University-supported Learning Alliance, the day is no longer potluck. Now there is such a thing as a free lunch!
A Note for ODKM Alums
The curriculum has, of course, changed over its 30 years. If you see a course that you are interested in but was not offered when you were enrolled, you would be welcome to join any of the classes. Get in touch with us to find out how to become a nondegree-seeking student and enroll. Virginia residents get in-state tuition, and Maryland and Washington, D.C., residents get the equivalent. Eligible Virginia residents who are 60 years of age or older are entitled to audit up to three academic credit courses per semester and pay no tuition or fees, except fees . for course materials. Contact Stacey Guenther (sguenthe@gmu.edu) or Tojo Thatchenkery (thatchen@gmu.edu) for more information.
Get to Know the Faculty
Many of the faculty members have recorded videos on our YouTube channel discussing various topics under the OD, KM, and coaching umbrella. If you’re curious about any of the members of the faculty, check out their videos. And we’re always looking for additional topics—please suggest some!