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International Residency
The AU MSOD International Residency offers an opportunity to broaden your OD skills through an 11-day residency currently held in Johannesburg, South Africa or Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Prior residencies have also been held in Trinidad and Tobago, Scotland, Canada, and other field sites. Student teams, coached by faculty, work with local client systems to complete a full cycle of action research consultation. Clients benefit from your input--and you gain valuable hands-on experience applicable to professional work in global and multicultural settings.
Prior to the Residency, students spend a class weekend examining theory, models, and experiences of diversity, focusing on their use of self in diverse settings and pathways to inclusion. They examine their experiences and assumptions as U.S.-based practitioners, including how this background affects their responses - and perceptions that host nationals may hold about them -- as professionals working outside the U.S. In addition to this in-depth weekend, students attend an International Residency Briefing led by program staff and course faculty to prepare them for the logistical and financial aspects of the International Residency.
This course includes foundational readings, field activities, the full-cycle OD consultation, lectures and presentations by faculty and leading executives and OD professionals from the host country. Students deepen their learning through written work, team and individual reflections, and presentations to their class. Our students find this Residency to be a landmark experience in the AU MSOD curriculum.
MSOD students should expect to remain fully engaged in their intense consultative work throughout the duration of the IR. The experience includes both weekday and weekend time, and students should expect to be away from work for 9-10 days. While some students take personal time off, many MSOD students work with their organization to consider these days as training, continuing education, and conference time.
What Students Say
"The International Residency proved a great experience. The compressed consulting cycle perfectly synthesized theory into a confidence-boosting experience for our cohort. In all cases, our teams were able to add value to the client system. At the same time, we learned about consulting in an international context, contributing to a high performing team, and more about ourselves. We were so fortunate to have an incredibly high caliber of international faculty with us during our International Residency. They enriched our IR experience through their coaching, diverse approaches to OD, and through their consistent appreciative stance. It was a transformative experience." - Member of Cohort 66, Amsterdam Residency, January 2014
"What I valued most about the International Residency was that it provided a truly transformational experience in working with a team and client to help make an organization healthy. The international residency provided the culmination of a year's worth of self-development (team work, study and personal development) that made the ground fertile for an environment that made capable any outcome. The success of the work was further fostered by professional advice, wisdom, and guidance, along with a client need to put that development to good use." - Member of Cohort 66, Amsterdam Residency, January 2014
International Residency Gallery
AU MSOD Cohort 76 in Amsterdam
Students visually theming and analyzing client data
Local guide, AU MSOD students, and IR Professor Enrique Zaldivar before the first visit to the client site in South Africa
Students from Cohort 77 map out their organizational intervention
Antoinette Sithole reflects on protests against apartheid
Dr. Anastasia Bukashe speaking at the IR’s OD Forum
AU MSOD student during a coaching session in Johannesburg, South Africa