Organizational Defensive Routines are patterns of interpersonal interactions people create to protect themselves from embarrassment, threat or disagreements. Chris Argyris, a social scientist and professor emeritus at Harvard University, has extensively researched and written about them in his 1990 book, Overcoming Organizational Defenses.

Bill Noonan picks up where Chris Argyris let off, by providing a guidebook to help individuals, trainers and organizations detect the echo of their own behaviors in the descriptions of the vicious cycle we can all get caught in. The reflective team exercises that end each chapter offer a safe haven to navigate through the puzzles of human behavior how our actions create consequences that we didnt intended or desired to do. In addition, the DVD Fix It Now or Fix It Later is a case study that serves as a medium for reflection and interactive exercises.

The combination of text and multi-media will appeal to various audio and visual learning styles. In addition, critical to the adoption of new skills is the opportunity to see it done well by others and to model their behavior. Several vignettes in the case study, Fix It Now or Fix It Later model how individuals within a team can create a virtuous cycle of interactions.

This book includes end of chapter exercises that relate to a 22 minute DVD case study and is designed for individual OD students,teachers, consultants, managers, leaders and teams.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword by Chris Argyris.
Acknowledgments.
About the Author.
PART ONE: DEFINING DEFENSIVE ROUTINES.
1. Framing the Issue: The Work of Chris Argyris.
2. The Foundational Skill Set.
PART TWO: MARK, BRENDA, YOU, AND ME: BRINGING DEFENSIVE ROUTINES ABOUT AND KEEPING THEM IN PLACE.
3. Conditions of Threat and Embarrassment: Fix It Now or Fix It Later, Scene One: The Bad News.
4. Being in Control: Fix It Now or Fix It Later, Scene Two: The Word Gets Out.
5. Bypass Tactics and Covering Up: Fix It Now or Fix It Later, Scene Three: Being Nice.
PART THREE: DISCUSSING THE UNDISCUSSABLE.
6. Strategic Interventions: Interviews and Mapping.
7. The De-Escalation: Fix It Now or Fix It Later: Mark and Brenda Reflect.
8. Engaging Differences.
9. Key Thought Enablers.
PART FOUR: STAYING ON THE PATH OF LEARNING.
10. Mistakes, Continuous Learning, and Progress.
11. Helping Those Who Teach, Learn.
Conclusion.
Appendix A: Mapping Templates.
Appendix B: Strategies for Case Study Groups.
Bibliography.
Index.
How to Use the DVD.