The Only Constant

Helping organisations design work that works — for people, performance and the future.

Code of Conduct

The Only Constant takes transparency and ethics seriously. Find out what you can expect when interacting with us.

1. Responsibility for professional development and competence

  • Accept responsibility for the consequences of our acts and make reasonable efforts to ensure that our services are properly used
  • Recognise the limits of our competence and experience in providing services and using techniques; neither seek or accept assignments outside of those limits; refer clients to alternate professionals where applicable
  • Strive to attain and maintain a professional level of competence in the field of organisation development (OD) including broad knowledge of theory and practice in applied behavioural science, organisational behaviour, system behaviour, multicultural issues and other areas relevant to knowledge and practice
  • Strive for continually self-knowledge and personal growth and maintain awareness that our values, beliefs and aspirations can both limit and empower us and that they are primary determinants in our perceptions, our behaviours and our personal and professional effectiveness.
  • Recognise our own personal needs and desires and deal with them responsibly in the performance of our professional roles.

2. Responsibility to Clients and Significant Others

  • Serve the short and long-term well-being, interests, and development of the client system and all its stakeholders, maintain balance in time, pace and scale of change so as to create a mutually beneficial relationship between the system and its environment.
  • Discuss candidly and fully any goals, costs, risks and limitations and anticipated outcomes to any intervention or other relationship under consideration; seek to avoid automatic confirmation of predetermined conclusions either the clients or own; seek optimal client involvement in every step of the process.
  • Fully inform participants of the sponsor, nature, purpose, implications and any significant risk associated with any activity or procedure to allow participants to freely choose whether they wish to participate. Be sensitive to risks of working with people from other cultures other than our own.
  • Be aware of our own personal values, our values as OD practitioners, the values of our native cultures, the values of the people we work with and involve the client system in making cultural differences explicit and be prepared to make our personal assumptions explicit. 
  • Work collaboratively with other internal or external consultants serving the same client system and resolve conflicts to achieve the balanced interest of the client system and its stakeholders.
  • Encourage our clients to gradually develop for themselves the services we provide rather than the client becoming fully reliant on us; encourage, foster and support self-education and self-development of individuals and groups within the system.
  • Cease work with a client when it is clear that the client is not benefitting for the engagement or the contract has been completed.
  • Avoid conflicts of interest; inform the client about serving similar or competing clients to be clear about loyalties and responsibilities; cease work if conflicts cannot be adequately resolved; seek to resolve conflicts in the internal client system without taking sides by acting as an impartial consultant; identify and respond to major differences in values and ethical conflicts between ourselves the client. 
  • Protect the confidentiality of our Client-professional relationships; reveal information accepted in confidence only to appropriate and agreed-upon recipients or authorities; use information obtained during professional work in writing, lectures or other public forums only with prior consent or when disguised so that it is impossible to identify the client
  • Make adequate provision for maintaining confidentiality in the storage and disposal of records.
  • Establish mutual agreement on a contract covering services and remuneration; do not shift from that agreement without both a clearly defined rationale for the shift and informed consent of the client; withdraw from the agreement if circumstances beyond my proper control prevent proper fulfilment.  Ensure mutual understanding of the agreement but accept that some contracts are necessarily incomplete because information is not available at the outset. 
  • Take accountability by evaluating and assessing the effects of our work; understand if our efforts have achieved the desired outcome; seek to undo any undesired outcomes and do not attempt to cover these up; actively solicit open feedback.  

Responsibility to the Organisation Development (OD) profession

  • Act in ways that bring credit to the OD profession and with due regard for colleagues in other professions.
  • Work actively for ethical practice by individuals and organisations engaged in OD activities and in case of questionable practice, use appropriate channels to confront it. 
  • Contribute to continuing professional development by supporting others including mentoring less experienced professionals 
  • Promote the sharing of OD knowledge and skill and giving credit for ideas and products of others. 

Social Responsibility

  • Strive for the preservation and protection of fundamental human rights and the promotion of social justice.
  • Be aware that we bear a social responsibility because our recommendations and professional actions may alter the lives and well-being of individuals within my client-system.
  • Contribute knowledge, skill and other resources in support of organisations, programmes and activities that seek to improve human welfare; be prepared to accept clients who do not have sufficient resources to pay our full fees at reduced fees or no charge.
  • Respect the cultures of organisations, community, country or other human system within which we work yet recognise and constructively confront the counterproductive aspects of that culture whenever feasible; be sensitive to cross-cultural differences and implications; be aware of the cultural filters which bias our view of the world. 
  • Contribute to the quality of life in human society at large; work toward and support a culturally based mutual respect for each other’s rights as human beings; encourage the development of trust, openness, mutual responsibility, authentic and harmonious relationships, empowerment, participation, and involvement.