Have you ever search Organizational Development on Google or Bing? If you do you probably got definitions like theory, research, and practice of expanding organizational effectiveness, or planned systematic change to expand knowledge and effectiveness of individual employees. But what does it all mean?
Here is how I define Organizational Development: continuous process to help organizations to reach their goals and be more effective by developing employees. The development of employees includes a series of trainings to that expand employee’s skills and knowledge.
Now that you have the definition, let’s break it down. I have identified and defined 8 essential steps that breakdown the organizational development process:
1.
Define: What are some of the major issues or successes within the organization. At this time, you want to identify potential stakeholders and organizational influencers that are instrumental to the change effort. Also, what goal is the organization trying to accomplish.
2.
Diagnosing Issues: What is going on within the organization currently vs where does the organization what to go? Sample Questions to ask:
a. What is the mission of the organization? Does this mission match its vision and climate and culture?
b. What are the goals or outcomes of the organization? Do the goals align with the mission, visions, and culture of the organization?
c. What are the policies, procedures, and technologies used in the organization? Do the policies, procedures, and technologies align with the goals of the organization? If not, why? What changes should be made?
d. What are the external environment factors that affect the organization?
e. Is the organization ready to take action, why or why not?
3.
Identify Needs: Based on you diagnoses identify what the organizational needs including possible resistant to change, budget, and time frame for project. Sample questions to ask are:
a. Who will be involved?
b. What resources will be needed?
c. When will the change effort start, end?
d. Where will the organization be mostly affect?
e. How long will the process take?
4.
Develop: Create an action plan for change, which includes but is not limited to: communication plan, resource needs (i.e. employees, IT, etc.), roles and responsibilities of everyone involved, employee involvement, budget with safety net, and risk factors(obstacles)/potential resistance.
5.
Deployment: Put you plan into action a continuous monitor your effort to ensure goals are met at each stage of the project.
6.
Celebrate Wins and Make Changes: During every part of the project especially in the deployment stage celebrate the wins at each milestone and communication where you are to employees. During the deployment stage, you will also see what is working and what is not, if something is not working, identify what went wrong and CHANGE it.
7.
Evaluation and Hand off: Evaluate the success of your project, which can be done through a survey or speaking with the sponsors and employees. In handing off a project, remember to give the organization a few tips to continue managing the change.
8.
Check-in: Set up a follow-up visit 3 or 6 must after the change to check and see how the organization is doing. Remember change efforts continuous.
Organizational development is a continuous process and there is no one size fits all plan. Remember, you are dealing with the human aspect of an organization and each individual brings their own attributes such as work habits, communication stays, and job knowledge. As a change agent, you must learn to bring the message to your audience in a method in which they understand to meet their individual needs. So be ready to change how you communicate and the methods in which you do it.
Also, remember organizational development can be used in your personal life as well. Imagine how returning to school affects your family and what changes will have to be made to meet your goal. Or a new baby and coordinating childcare and your work schedule. Its organization development, you probably thought I could not tie in a personal aspect.
Whether it is in your personal or professional life, try my 8 steps and tell me what you think. You can also look at
Resistance to Change,
Risk Assessment, and
Team Dynamic and Dysfunction to help build your action plans.
Kay
"You are your biggest supporter and harshest critic. When you have to choose between the two, always choose the supporter." -Kay Lackey