What makes "OQM" unique?

OQM is unique because it offers an holistic solution to these issues. OQM begins by assuming that human organizations are not static organizations but dynamic living organisms. They are more than an organization chart, job descriptions and things to do. They are made up of people. Sometimes we talk about 'building' organizations but just as often we talk about 'growing' them, implying that they have a life of their own, which is true.

OQM addresses what it means for an organization not only to be alive and growing but be healthy as it grows. It encourages the healthy growth of organizations by applying natural principles through three key dimensions of organizational life: the structural ("Organization"), the human ("Organism") and the spiritual ("Spirit").

All these dimensions make a vital contribution to the health of the organization and its people.

One of the things OQM does is explore the balance between the organic and organizational. On the one hand, organizational structures can be archaic. They no longer fulfil their original purpose and exist just for their own sake. Even so they are maintained at all costs. In some cases the structures even directly attack the organic nature of the organization. They restrict the life which is trying to unfold and develop. On the other hand, organizations may have structures which supposedly promote organizational development but actually produce similar problems because they fail to impose any restrictions on growth. An analogy would be cancer cells – unstructured life – producing vigorous growth but ending in the death of the whole organism.

OQM goes further. The structural and human dimensions are regular subjects of discussion about the nature of organizations (though there are new things to learn about them with OQM). But why the spiritual dimension? OQM maintains that the picture is not an holistic one until spirituality is included. Whoever recognizes that organizations are dynamic living organisms made up of people, cannot afford to lose sight of the fact that God is the Creator of all life if they want to encourage sustainable living structures within those organizations. God is the author of the natural principles that sustain life and health – the life in nature, the life of organizations and the life of the people in those organizations. For this reason, seeking God's perspective on, and will for, all parts of an organization's development is essential.

OQM can thus be summed up as holistic management on the foundation of spiritual values, where life and people are centre-stage and account is taken of the whole "system" with all its interconnections.