"Change is the only constant", they say.

Organisational change comes in a variety

of flavours from incremental improvements to major transformations. We work
with both kinds of change and try to help clients be realistic about the
possibilities.

Organisation consultancy is key to New Paradigm approaches. We accept the

insights from the developing sciences of complex systems and try to apply them to
organisations. We recognize that organisations are like living systems and the
relationships between individuals lie at their heart. When these relationships are
appropriate to its purpose and its environment the organisation will flourish.
When they are not - either because they are dysfunctional or because the
environment has changed - it is necessary to review and reform them. In other
words, the paradigm needs to be changed.

Incremental improvement
Because organisations exist in changing environments they, too, need to change
just to stand still. Adaptability has become a key organisational competency in
almost every sector. Sometimes this requires a major organisational
transformation; usually it requires the ability to be ever-flexible, able to change
constantly in almost imperceptible ways. Traditional organisations had structures
and procedures which were intended to prevent incremental change. Today such
structures hinder more than help yet it is hard to move to a more flexible
approach.

We can offer models of new ways of organising and practical approaches which
can help organisations move to new kinds of flexibility and responsiveness.

You can get some idea of our approaches to organisational change by reading The
Nature of Organisational Change and Towards a Model of Self-Organized
Transformation.
New Definitions of Organisational Development
Today's organizations operate in a rapidly changing environment. Consequently, one of the most
important assets for an organization is the ability to manage change -- and for people to remain
healthy and authentic. Consider the following definition of OD:

“Organization Development is the attempt to influence the members of an organization to

expand their candidness with each other about their views of the organization and their
experience in it, and to take greater responsibility for their own actions as organization members.
The assumption behind OD is that when people pursue both of these objectives simultaneously,
they are likely to discover new ways of working together that they experience as more effective
for achieving their own and their shared (organizational) goals. And that when this does not
happen, such activity helps them to understand why and to make meaningful choices about what
to do in light of this understanding.”
-- Neilsen, “Becoming an OD Practitioner”, Englewood Cliffs, CA: Prentice-Hall, 1984, pp. 2-3.

Experts might agree that the following definitions of OD represent the major focus and thrust of
many of today's OD practitioners.

"Organization development is a system-wide application of behavioral science knowledge to the

planned development and reinforcement of organizational strategies, structures, and processes
for improving an organization's effectiveness."
-- Cummings and Worley, "Organization Development and Change", Sixth Edition, South-
Western Publishing, 1997, p.2.

"Organization Development is a body of knowledge and practice that enhances organizational

performance and individual development, viewing the organization as a complex system of
systems that exist within a larger system, each of which has its own attributes and degrees of
alignment. OD interventions in these systems are inclusive methodologies and approaches to
strategic planning, organization design, leadership development, change management,
performance management, coaching, diversity, and work/life balance."

ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT
the management of change
WHAT IS OD?

Beckhard (1) defines Organization Development (OD) as "an effort, planned, organization-
wide, and managed from the top, to increase organization effectiveness and health
through planned interventions in the organization's processes, using behavioral-
science knowledge." In essence, OD is a planned system of change.
Planned. OD takes a long-range approach to improving organizational performance and
efficiency. It avoids the (usual) "quick-fix".
Organization-wide. OD focuses on the total system.
Managed from the top. To be effective, OD must have the support of top-management. They
have to model it, not just espouse it. The OD process also needs the buy-in and
ownership of workers throughout the organization.
Increase organization effectiveness and health. OD is tied to the bottom-line. Its goal is to
improve the organization, to make it more efficient and more competitive by
aligning the organization's systems with its people.
Planned interventions. After proper preparation, OD uses activities called interventions to
make systemwide, permanent changes in the organization.
Using behavioral-science knowledge. OD is a discipline that combines research and
experience to understanding people, business systems, and their interactions.

We usually think of OD only in terms of the interventions themselves. This article seeks to
emphasize that these activities are only the most visible part of a complex process, and to
put some perspective and unity into the myriad of OD tools that are used in business today.
These activities include Total Quality Management (an evolutionary approach to
improving an organization) and Reengineering (a more revolutionary approach). And
there are dozens of other interventions, such as strategic planning and team building. It is
critical to select the correct intervention(s), and this can only be done with proper
preparation.

WHY DO OD?

• Human resources -- our people -- may be a large fraction of our costs of doing
business. They certainly can make the difference between organizational
success and failure. We better know how to manage them.
• Changing nature of the workplace. Our workers today want feedback on their
performance, a sense of accomplishment, feelings of value and worth, and
commitment to social responsibility. They need to be more efficient, to
improve their time management. And, of course, if we are to continue doing
more work with less people, we need to make our processes more efficient.
• Global markets. Our environments are changing, and our organizations must
also change to survive and prosper. We need to be more responsible to and
develop closer partnerships with our customers. We must change to survive,
and we argue that we should attack the problems, not the symptoms, in a
systematic, planned, humane manner.
• Accelerated rate of change. Taking an open-systems approach, we can easily
identify the competitions on an international scale for people, capital,
physical resources, and information.

WHO DOES OD?

To be successful, OD must have the buy-in, ownership, and involvement of all stakeholders,
not just of the employees throughout the organization. OD is usually facilitated by
change agents -- people or teams that have the responsibility for initiating and
 managing the change effort. These change agents may be either employees of the
organization (internal consultants) or people from outside the organization
(external consultants.)

Effective change requires leadership with knowledge, and experience in change

management. We strongly recommend that external or internal consultants be used,
preferably a combination of both. ("These people are professionals; don't try this at
home.")

Bennis (2) notes that "external consultants can manage to affect ... the power structure in a
way that most internal change agents cannot." Since experts from outside are less subject
to the politics and motivations found within the organization, they can be more effective in
facilitating significant and meaningful changes.

WHEN IS AN ORGANIZATION READY FOR OD?

There is a formula, attributed to David Gleicher (3, 4), which we can use to decide if an
organization is ready for change:

Dissatisfaction x Vision x First Steps > Resistance to Change

This means that three components must all be present to overcome the resistance to change
in an organization: Dissatisfaction with the present situation, a vision of what is
possible in the future, and achievable first steps towards reaching this vision. If any
of the three is zero or near zero, the product will also be zero or near zero and the
resistance to change will dominate.

We use this model as an easy, quick diagnostic aid to decide if change is possible. OD can
bring approaches to the organization that will enable these three components to surface, so
we can begin the process of change.

OD IS A PROCESS

Action Research is a process which serves as a model for most OD interventions. French
and Bell describe Action Research as a "process of systematically collecting
research data about an ongoing system relative to some objective, goal, or need of
that system; feeding these data back into the system; taking actions by altering
selected variables within the system based both on the data and on hypotheses; and
evaluating the results of actions by collecting more data." The steps in Action
Research are (6, 7):

Entry. This phase consists of marketing, i.e. finding needs for change within an
organization. It is also the time to quickly grasp the nature of the organization,
identify the appropriate decision maker, and build a trusting relationship.
Start-up and contracting. In this step, we identify critical success factors and the real issues,
link into the organization's culture and processes, and clarify roles for the
 consultant(s) and employees. This is also the time to deal with resistance within the
organization. A formal or informal contract will define the change process.
Assessment and diagnosis. Here we collect data in order to find the opportunities and
problems in the organization. This is also the time for the consultant to make a
diagnosis, in order to recommend appropriate interventions.
Feedback. This two-way process serves to tell those what we found out, based on an
analysis of the data. Everyone who contributed information should have an
opportunity to learn about the findings of the assessment process (provided there
is no apparent breach of anyone's confidentiality.) This provides an opportunity
for the organization's people to become involved in the change process, to learn
about how different parts of the organization affect each other, and to participate
in selecting appropriate change interventions.
Action planning. In this step we will distill recommendations from the assessment and
feedback, consider alternative actions and focus our intervention(s) on activities
that have the most leverage to effect positive change in the organization. An
implementation plan will be developed that is based on the assessment data, is
logically organized, results- oriented, measurable and rewarded. We must plan for
a participative decision-making process for the intervention.
Intervention. Now, and only now, do we actually carry out the change process. It is
important to follow the action plan, yet remain flexible enough to modify the
process as the organization changes and as new information emerges.
Evaluation. Successful OD must have made meaningful changes in the performance and
efficiency of the people and their organization. We need to have an evaluation
procedure to verify this success, identify needs for new or continuing OD activities,
and improve the OD process itself to help make future interventions more
successful.
Adoption. After steps have been made to change the organization and plans have been
formulated, we follow-up by implementing processes to insure that this remains an
ongoing activity within the organization, that commitments for action have been
obtained, and that they will be carried out.
Separation. We must recognize when it is more productive for the client and consultant to
undertake other activities, and when continued consultation is counterproductive.
We also should plan for future contacts, to monitor the success of this change and
possibly to plan for future change activities.

It would be nice if real OD followed these steps sequentially. This rarely happens. Instead,
the consultants must be flexible and be ready to change their strategy when
necessary. Often they will have to move back and repeat previous steps in light of
new information, new influences, or because of the changes that have already been
made.

But for successful OD to take place, all of these steps must be followed. It works best if they
are taken in the order described. And, since learning is really an iterative, not a sequential
process, we must be prepared to re-enter this process when and where appropriate.
Possible Organizational Development Activities
("Interventions") to Use in Change Management
Processes
The field of Organization Development uses a variety of processes, approaches, methods,
techniques, applications, etc., (these are often termed "interventions") to address organizational
issues and goals in order to increase performance. The following partial list of interventions is
organized generally in the order presented by Cummings and Worley in their "Organization
Development and Change" (West Publishing, 1993). The following types of interventions are
often highly integrated with each other during a project for change.

How People Choose Organizational Development Activities

There are no standard activities that always successfully address certain types of issues in
organizations. Many times, the success of a project lies not with having selected the perfect
choice of activities, but rather with how honest and participative people were during the project,
how much they learned and how open they were to changing their plans for change.

However, there are some basic considerations that most people make when selecting from among
the many choices for organizational development, or capacity building, activities. Considerations
include:

1. First, does the change-management method (if one was used) suggest what
organizational development activities to use now, for example, the method of
strategic management might suggest that a SWOT analysis be done,
strategic goals be established along with action plans for each goal, and then
implementation of the action plans be closely monitored.
2. Is the activity most likely to address the findings from the discovery, that is,
to solve the problems or achieve the goals? To find out, review any research
about use of the activity, discuss the potential outcomes with experts and
also with members of the organization. Consider posing your questions in
online groups of experts about change.
3. Does the nature of the activity match the culture of the organization? The
best way to find out is to discuss the activity with members of the
organization.
4. Does the change agent and key members of the organization have the ability
to conduct the activity? For example, technostructural and strategic
interventions sometimes require technical skills that are not common to
many people.
5. Does the activity require more time to conduct than the time available in
which to address the problem or goal? For example, a cash crisis requires
immediate attention, so while a comprehensive strategic planning process
 might ultimately be useful, the four to five months to do that planning is
impractical.
6. Does the client's organization have the resources that are necessary to
conduct the activity, considering resources such as funding, attention and
time from people and facilities.

The following article provides another set of considerations.

Four Change Management Strategies (scroll to near the bottom of the article)

Before you and your client select types of interventions for the project, be aware of your strong
biases about how you view organizations. Without recognizing those biases, you might favor
certain types of interventions primarily because those are the only ones you can readily see and
understand, even if other types of interventions might be much more effective in your project.
Understand the Preferred Lens Through Which You View Organizations

Human Process Interventions (Group and Individual Human Relations)

With today's strong emphasis on humanistic values, the following interventions are getting a
great deal of attention and emphasis during efforts for change. They focus on helping members
of the organization to enhance themselves, each other and the ways in which they work together
in order to enhance their overall organization. Although the types of interventions selected for a
project depend on a variety of considerations and the interventions in a project often are highly
integrated with each other, the following human process interventions might be particularly
helpful during change projects in organizations where there is some combination of the
following: many new employees, different cultures working together, many complaints among
organizational members, many conflicts, low morale, high turnover, ineffective teams, etc.