Organizational Change and Development (Module-1) Pages: 84

Organization Overview
A company overview or organization overview (also known as company information or a
company summary) is an essential part of a business plan. It’s an overview of the most
important points about your company—your history, management team, location,
mission statement and legal structure. It usually appears after the executive summary in
your business plan.

This is typically the shortest chapter of a business plan document, but that doesn’t
reduce its importance. If you’re presenting this plan to people outside of your company,
this is your opportunity to introduce yourself and your business, and you are going to
want to put your best foot forward

Organizational Perspective

An organizational perspective is the way that an organization defines the roles and the
personnel that are needed and responsible for given processes within the body of the
organization. This would be job descriptions, skills, or educational requirements that are
required to hold different positions. This also includes the plans for growth and expansion and
what will be needed to accomplish those goals.

Organizational design for excellence in Strategy execution

Is your organization showing a lack of flexibility in meeting external market demands?

Is your organization experiencing a lack of internal collaboration among various teams?

Is your organization witnessing a slow informational flow and poor-quality decision -

making?

Despite having a well – articulated Strategy, if your organization is exhibiting one or

more of above characteristics, it could be due to poor Organizational design. If not
addressed swiftly, it will hamper your Strategy execution and will ruin the financial
performance of the organization.

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In simple words, Strategy execution refers to a state of getting things done in the
desired manner, delivering maximum value and achieving competitive advantage. This
requires organizations to streamline the operations, drive appropriate behaviors in
people and ensure a seamless flow of communication and coordination. For instance,
when Tata group bought Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford motors in 2008, Jaguar was
going through a serious crisis. The vehicles were found to have outdated retro designs
and inefficient engines. Between 2008 and 2012, Jaguar could sell only 50,000 units,
the least number of vehicles sold in its history. When Tata took over, it articulated a
three point clear strategy that is improving liquidity, controlling cost and launching new
products.

However, Tata could successfully execute its strategy and could turn the company
around, only after Jaguar and Land Rover were restructured into a single legal entity. In
2013, it formed the Jaguar Land Rover Automotive Limited. It was followed by several
other changes in its Organizational design, including its systems and processes. Some
of the significant ones include movement of one of its production unit from UK to
Slovakia, upgradation of its Solihull plant to produce electric vehicles and
implementation of SAP Success Factors Talent management solution to create a digital
experience for its employees. In March 2018, the joint entity made a record sales of
more than 9000 units in a month and emerged as a role model for its Organizational
design.

So, what is Organizational design?

Organizational design is a systematic approach to integrate and align various elements

like strategy, business model, systems, structures, people and procedures to meet
business objectives. This encompasses more than just a restructuring. According to
Mckinsey, around 70% of large transformational programs implemented by
organizations, derail within the first couple of years. This is due to the failure in creating
a complementary Organizational design to meet the strategy. This conclusion is further
substantiated by research at the University of Austria, which shows significant and
positive correlation between a processes oriented Organizational design and Strategy
execution.

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Also, research at Stanford University has shown how an Ambidextrous organizational
design leads to better innovations both in exploiting existing capabilities and exploring
newer opportunities to remain relevant.

How to approach designing an organization?

To design an organization for execution excellence, one must consider aligning the
elements of three specific dimensions - Contingencies, Considerations and
Configuration. Let us explore each dimension in detail:

Contingencies

A contingency is defined as an eventuality which is uncertain. An effective

Organizational design starts with the understanding of origin of its demand generation.
Further, it requires a careful study of various external agencies that are likely to alter the
demand for its products or services. For instance, if the demand forecasts a change in
its customer demographics or change in Federal regulations, the same will affect the
Business model and the larger strategy. An effective Organization design is something
which must be equipped to rapidly adapt to such eventualities and changes in strategy.

Consider the case of Jeffrey Immelt, the retired Chairman of General Electric, who
shares in a famous HBR blog, how GE got repositioned as a Digital manufacturing
startup from its Classic conglomerate status. The changes were made to meet the
lately growing demand on manufacturing “Connected machines”. The organization got
redesigned to execute its strategy such as divestment of non – Industrial units, focus on
Technology lead organic growth, placement of local employees for its overseas
operations and built capabilities around Digital manufacturing processes.

In Google, when Engineering teams started experiencing a lot of internal conflict on

capital allocation for developing various differentiated products such as Google Search,
Google Waymo, Google Glass etc., they formed a separate parent entity named the
Alphabet and allowed each unit like Google Search, Waymo to run it operations
independently.

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These examples show how great organizations prepare to overcome various
eventualities and execute their strategy positively, through effective Organizational
design.

Considerations

An effective Organizational design takes care of two types of considerations. The first
category, also called the harder considerations, include:

 Boundaries (What needs to be developed in - house and what needs to be

outsourced)
 Division and allocation of tasks based on similarities and differences
 Flow of Information and authority to take decisions

The second set of considerations are the softer ones that indirectly drive specific
behaviors in people. They are

 Organizational Culture and Leadership

 Total Rewards and Compensation philosophy
 Competency development

Aligning these hard and soft considerations to the Organizational design is very critical
for a seamless execution. When Employees do not see an alignment between these
considerations to the larger strategy of organization, they do not see a merit in changing
their own behaviors, thus collectively fail as an organization.

Knowing this, when Satya Nadella undertook a major restructuring at Microsoft, his
primary focus was to create a more meaningful sense of purpose and create a culture
which will sustain its mission “To empower every person and every organization on the
planet to achieve more”. The company also brought changes in their performance
management and rewards philosophy to reinforce the new culture.

Through various hard and soft elements of consideration, Satya Nadella redesigned
Microsoft as a “Cloud first; Mobile first” Organization, to execute its long – term strategy.

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It is therefore not a surprise to see Microsoft having tripled its share price in just four
years and became 800 Bn USD Organization.

Configuration Configuration plays another important role in ensuring that a Business

Strategy truly becomes ground reality through an appropriate reporting structure. This
requires an optimal configuration of the following elements:

 Degree of Span of control and formal procedures that exist in an Organization

 Degree of centralized and decentralized operating units
 Degree of specialties or centers of Expertise (COE)

During configuration, organizations need to be careful about the consequences of each

design. For instance, if an organization promotes cost control and operational efficiency,
it can adopt a more formal and centralized design. The retail giant Amazon, adopts
more formal hierarchies and centralized functional teams to drive efficiency and cost
control. The organization employs more than 500,000 people worldwide to serve more
than 300 million customers.

The 140 years old Swedish Networking organization, Ericsson shares another
interesting story of creating agile teams to secure faster delivery of projects. In 2011,
the organization undertook a massive exercise of restructuring its 100,000 employees in
to 100 agile teams. Earlier, the organization used to take approximately five years to
complete a typical network project for its customers. After implementing an agile
structure, Ericsson could deliver projects in much smaller 3 – 5 weeks milestones and
show flexibility to make faster changes, to meet its customer requirements. It is found
that the organization is twice faster in realizing its revenue targets by defining
appropriate organizational structure.

Like Jim Collins who famously said “Building a visionary company requires one percent
vision and 99 percent alignment”, you can build a visionary Organization, when the
elements of Contingencies, Considerations and Configuration are appropriately aligned.
By adopting the 3C Organization design, you can shape a lasting organization that can
exemplify Strategy execution, deliver maximum value and attain competitive advantage.

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What is Strategic Design?
It’s the year 2020 and humanity is reeling from the 21-century’s first global pandemic.
Countries across the world have been brought to a standstill. The economy is tanking,
unemployment is skyrocketing, and most distressingly, people are dying in huge numbers.
The systems of our world weren’t designed for this.
“There is a deep contradiction to such systems being so strong that they can
construct the modern world and yet so brittle that they break within hours. This can, in
part, be conceived of as a design problem.”
— Dan Hill, 2012
Why are our systems so fragile? In difficult times we can see which systems are not
designed well, but in times of crisis, we can see that many systems were not designed at
all.
Can the field of design do anything in the face of problems like unemployment, healthcare,
and global pandemics?
There is a movement within design that attempts to tackle these big-picture problems. This
movement isn’t about making pretty signs to take to protests. It isn’t about designing graphic
assets for social media.
This movement redefines design to take on problems that used to be exclusively in the
domain of lawyers, management consultants, and policymakers.
This movement is called strategic design, and it’s purpose-built for big messy 21st-century
problems. It's a future-oriented practice that enables designers to make real change in the
world.
How do you define strategic design?

Strategic design is the application of traditional design principles to systemic problems.

This approach to design sets out to change the cultures of decision-making and address the
problems that don’t have neatly defined clients.
Strategic design posits that designers with their human-focused approaches are even more
suited to solve humanity’s big problems than traditional strategists, business consultants,
and policy makers.
In the corporate setting, strategic designers bridge business and design to innovate within
organizations. At the same time, they are also responsible for discovering new, uncharted

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spaces in systems that can be leveraged to improve product ecosystems and launch new
ventures.
The strategic designer works at the intersection of organizational issues and user problems,
designing policies that guide solutions for both business and user problems.
Real innovation comes from understanding the complexities around products. Innovative
ideas like the Segway or Google Glass were designed well, but they failed due because
they didn’t understand culture and policy. You need to understand more than the user and
the product to create innovation. You have to understand the context.

“Strategic design seeks to arm designers with 21st-century design methods.”

Designers recognize the power of design to manipulate ideas into a product, but only
strategic designers can manipulate products into systemic change. Big problems like
education or healthcare are fuzzy and interdependent, living within the system of products
and policy and everywhere in between. Only by designing in the realms of product AND
policy will you be able to tackle a problem as big as education or global health.
Strategic design adopts a systems-oriented view of problems. With a systems view, all
problems reside within a network containing many interdependent factors at play.
Strategic Designers understand that there are many levers for change within a system. The
system of immigration, for example, provides levers for change in areas like transportation
or healthcare. 21st-century problems don’t live neatly within a single department, and
strategic design uses the complex nature of systems to create resilient change across the
broader framework of these structures.
Where does the practice of Strategic Design come from?
Strategic design, as we’re defining it, comes from a blend of practices and their intersection
with policy as the broader context, most notably the practice of architecture and urban
planning.
Until recently, architecture was one of the few design disciplines that required constant
partnership with policy due to the amount of regulation inherent in building codes.
It’s no surprise that the most massive thing that humans build can create the most
significant change to the environment it exists in. In the same way that a building can impact
a community or neighborhood, strategic design creates a framework for facilitating changes
to the culture, policies, and environment with which it interacts.

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“Strategic design goes far beyond the aesthetics end of the value chain and into the
contextual systems involved.”

Strategic designers take inspiration from conceptual artists who use objects to challenge the
systems we live in. Here at the Fountain Institute, we believe that a designed artifact
specifically created to enact change in culture is a method shared by both conceptual artists
and strategic designers.
By imbuing change into something small, strategic designers can construct a Trojan Horse,
capable of sneaking ideas into much larger systems. An example from the art world:
Conceptual artist Olafur Eliasson uses objects from nature in his works. In his work, Ice
Watch, he placed glacial ice in the middle of a town square to raise awareness around
global warming.
Strategic designers might achieve the same effect through the design of a sustainable
business venture that raises awareness around global warming. Both artists and designers
use the concept of the Trojan horse to influence systems.

Organizational Politics

Organizational politics are informal, unofficial, and sometimes behind-the-scenes efforts to sell
ideas, influence an organization, increase power, or achieve other targeted objectives (Brandon
& Seldman, 2004; Hochwarter, Witt, & Kacmar, 2000). Politics has been around for millennia.
Aristotle wrote that politics stems from a diversity of interests, and those competing interests
must be resolved in some way. “Rational” decision making alone may not work when interests
are fundamentally incongruent, so political behaviors and influence tactics arise.

Today, work in organizations requires skill in handling conflicting agendas and shifting power
bases. Effective politics isn’t about winning at all costs but about maintaining relationships while
achieving results. Although often portrayed negatively, organizational politics are not inherently
bad. Instead, it’s important to be aware of the potentially destructive aspects of organizational
politics in order to minimize their negative effect. Of course, individuals within organizations
can waste time overly engaging in political behavior. Research reported in HR Magazine found
that managers waste 20% of their time managing politics. However, as John Kotter wrote
in Power and Influence, “Without political awareness and skill, we face the inevitable prospect

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of becoming immersed in bureaucratic infighting, parochial politics and destructive power
struggles, which greatly retard organizational initiative, innovation, morale, and performance”
(Kotter, 1985).

In our discussion about power, we saw that power issues often arise around scarce resources.
Organizations typically have limited resources that must be allocated in some way. Individuals
and groups within the organization may disagree about how those resources should be allocated,
so they may naturally seek to gain those resources for themselves or for their interest groups,
which gives rise to organizational politics. Simply put, with organizational politics, individuals
ally themselves with like-minded others in an attempt to win the scarce resources. They’ll
engage in behavior typically seen in government organizations, such as bargaining, negotiating,
alliance building, and resolving conflicting interests.

Politics are a part of organizational life, because organizations are made up of different interests
that need to be aligned. In fact, 93% of managers surveyed reported that workplace politics exist
in their organization, and 70% felt that in order to be successful, a person has to engage in
politics (Gandz & Murray, 1980). In the negative light, saying that someone is “political”
generally stirs up images of back-room dealing, manipulation, or hidden agendas for personal
gain. A person engaging in these types of political behaviors is said to be engaging in self-
serving behavior that is not sanctioned by the organization (Ferris et al., 1996; Valle & Perrewe,
2000; Harris, James, & Boonthanom, 2005; Randall et al., 1999).

Examples of these self-serving behaviors include bypassing the chain of command to get
approval for a special project, going through improper channels to obtain special favors, or
lobbying high-level managers just before they make a promotion decision. These types of actions
undermine fairness in the organization, because not everyone engages in politicking to meet their
own objectives. Those who follow proper procedures often feel jealous and resentful because
they perceive unfair distributions of the organization’s resources, including rewards and
recognition (Parker, Dipboye, & Jackson, 1995).

Researchers have found that if employees think their organization is overly driven by politics,
the employees are less committed to the organization (Maslyn & Fedor, 1998; Nye & Wit, 1993),
have lower job satisfaction (Ferris et al., 1996; Hochwarter et al., Kacmar et al., 1999), perform

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worse on the job (Anderson, 1994), have higher levels of job anxiety (Ferris et al., 1996; Kacmar
& Ferris, 1989), and have a higher incidence of depressed mood (Byrne et al., 2005).

The negative side of organizational politics is more likely to flare up in times of organizational
change or when there are difficult decisions to be made and a scarcity of resources that breeds
competition among organizational groups. To minimize overly political behavior, company
leaders can provide equal access to information, model collaborative behavior, and demonstrate
that political maneuvering will not be rewarded or tolerated. Furthermore, leaders should
encourage managers throughout the organization to provide high levels of feedback to employees
about their performance. High levels of feedback reduce the perception of organizational politics
and improve employee morale and work performance (Rosen, Levy, & Hall, 2006). Remember
that politics can be a healthy way to get things done within organizations.
What is the cultural of your organization?
An organization's culture defines the proper way to behave within the organization.
This culture consists of shared beliefs and values established by leaders and then
communicated and reinforced through various methods, ultimately shaping employee
perceptions, behaviors and understanding.

Organizational culture is the collection of values, expectations, and practices that guide
and inform the actions of all team members. Think of it as the collection of traits that
make your company what it is. A great culture exemplifies positive traits that lead to
improved performance, while a dysfunctional company culture brings out qualities that
can hinder even the most successful organizations.
Don’t confuse culture with organizational goals or a mission statement, although both
can help define it. Culture is created through consistent and authentic behaviors, not
press releases or policy documents. You can watch company culture in action when you
see how a CEO responds to a crisis, how a team adapts to new customer demands, or
how a manager corrects an employee who makes a mistake.

The importance of culture to your company

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Organizational culture affects all aspects of your business, from punctuality and tone to
contract terms and employee benefits. When workplace culture aligns with your
employees, they’re more likely to feel more comfortable, supported, and valued.
Companies that prioritize culture can also weather difficult times and changes in the
business environment and come out stronger.
Culture is a key advantage when it comes to attracting talent and outperforming the
competition. 77 percent of workers consider a company’s culture before applying,
and almost half of employees would leave their current job for a lower-paying
opportunity at an organization with a better culture. The culture of an organization is
also one of the top indicators of employee satisfaction and one of the main reasons that
almost two-thirds (65%) of employees stay in their job.

Consider Microsoft and Salesforce. Both technology-based companies are world-class

performers and admired brands, and both owe this in part to prioritizing culture.
Microsoft, known for its cut-throat competitiveness under Steve Balmer, has
been positively transformed by Satya Nadella, who took over as CEO of the company in
2014. He embarked on a program to refine the company culture, a process that
upended competitiveness in favor of continuous learning. Instead of proving
themselves, employees were encouraged to improve themselves. Today
Microsoft’s market cap flirts with $1 trillion and it is again competing with Apple and
Amazon as one of the most valuable companies in the world.
Salesforce puts corporate culture front and center and has experienced incredible
growth throughout its history. Marc Benioff, Salesforce’s founder and CEO, established
philanthropic cultural norms that have guided the company over the past two
decades. All new Salesforce employees spend part of their first day volunteering and
receive 56 hours of paid time to volunteer a year. This focus on meaning and mission

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has made Salesforce one of the best places to work in America according to Fortune,
and it hasn’t compromised profits either: Salesforce’s stock price has surged year after
year at an average of over 26% annually to date.
Qualities of a great organizational culture

Every organization’s culture is different, and it’s important to retain what makes your
company unique. However, the cultures of high-performing organizations consistently
reflect certain qualities that you should seek to cultivate:

• Alignment comes when the company’s objectives and its employees’ motivations
are all pulling in the same direction. Exceptional organizations work to build continuous
alignment to their vision, purpose, and goals.
• Appreciation can take many forms: a public kudos, a note of thanks, or a
promotion. A culture of appreciation is one in which all team members frequently
provide recognition and thanks for the contributions of others.
• Trust is vital to an organization. With a culture of trust, team members can express
themselves and rely on others to have their back when they try something new.

• Performance is key, as great companies create a culture that means business. In

these companies, talented employees motivate each other to excel, and, as shown
above, greater profitability and productivity are the results.
• Resilience is a key quality in highly dynamic environments where change is
continuous. A resilient culture will teach leaders to watch for and respond to change
with ease.
• Teamwork encompasses collaboration, communication, and respect between
team members. When everyone on the team supports each other, employees will get
more done and feel happier while doing it.

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• Integrity, like trust, is vital to all teams when they rely on each other to make
decisions, interpret results, and form partnerships. Honesty and transparency are critical
components of this aspect of culture.
• Innovation leads organizations to get the most out of available technologies,
resources, and markets. A culture of innovation means that you apply creative thinking
to all aspects of your business, even your own cultural initiatives.
• Psychological safety provides the support employees need to take risks and
provide honest feedback. Remember that psychological safety starts at the team level,
not the individual level, so managers need to take the lead in creating a safe
environment where everyone feels comfortable contributin
g.Now that you know what a great culture looks like, let’s tackle how to build one in your
organization.

What Is Organization Development?

Organization development (OD) is an effort that focuses on

improving an organization’s capability through the alignment of
strategy, structure, people, rewards, metrics, and management
processes. It is a science-backed, interdisciplinary field rooted in
psychology, culture, innovation, social sciences, adult education,
human resource management, change management, organization
behavior, and research analysis and design, among others.

Organizational development is a critical and science-based process that helps organizations

build their capacity to change and achieve greater effectiveness by developing, improving, and

reinforcing strategies, structures, and processes.

Organization development involves an ongoing, systematic, long-

range process of driving organizational effectiveness, solving
problems, and improving organizational performance. It is also one

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of the capabilities identified in the Talent Development Capability
Model.

The ultimate goal is improved performance within the organization as a whole. Start-up
companies are an example of how organizational development works. As the
company establishes its goals and objectives, it can also identify what employees can
do better for future success.

Organizational Growth

Organizational growth is something many businesses strive for, regardless of their size. It has
the potential to provide companies with a variety of benefits, including greater ability to
withstand market fluctuations, increased power and greater efficiencies from economies of
scale. Understanding the key stages of organizational growth can be essential to ensuring the
longevity of your company. In this article, we discuss what organizational growth is, explore its
benefits and drawbacks and learn its stages.

What is organizational growth?

Organizational growth is a stage a company reaches when it can consider expansion and may
look for additional options to generate more revenue. Organizational growth is often a function
of industry growth trends, business lifecycle and the owners' desire for equity value creation.
There are many ways a company or organization can achieve growth, including:

Joint venture alliance

This strategy can be effective for small and medium-sized businesses with limited resources.
Such partnerships can help a small company get the resources they need to keep up with the
rapid changes in supply, demand, competition and other factors. Building joint alliances or
ventures can provide organizations flexibility to move on to different projects once they
complete the first, or restructure agreements to keep on working together.&

One type of alliance arrangement is subcontracting, which allows companies to focus on those
aspects of their company that they perform best. Joint ventures and other business alliances

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can provide partners with innovative ideas, new approaches, new markets and access to new
technologies, which can help companies involved in the partnership to grow.

Licensing products

An organization may want to expand and grow by licensing its most advanced product or
technology. This strategy may be ideal for companies with their own proprietary technologies,
as competitors might replicate whatever a company develops or manufactures at some point.
Licensing is one method that companies can use to maximize the benefit that they can get from
their technology. It's also a way to get access to the resources necessary to fund research and
development efforts in the future.

Tapping into new markets

Some companies are able to enjoy significant organizational growth by gaining access to new
markets. Increasing the demand for a company's service or product, especially in a market
where competition has yet to fully develop, can spur significant growth for a small company.

Outside financing

Many companies, especially smaller ones, utilize outside financing sources to fund their
expansion. They search for capital from venture capital firms, government agencies, private
investors or banks to grow their business.

Product expansion

Organizations use growth strategies that work with their products or services to support growth
and boost revenue. Product expansion is one such strategy where an organization can expand
its product or services or redesign products to boost sales and profits. For example, a tech
company can apply product expansion strategies when a technology emerges or when older
forms of technology become outdated.

Forward acquisition

Organizations can also use mergers and acquisitions as a means for profitability and growth. A
forward acquisition growth involves buying component companies that are essentially a part of

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an organization's distribution chain. For example, if you own a supermarket, you can use a
forward acquisition to purchase additional properties to convert to your supermarket brand.
This allows your business to move competition out of the way while gaining access to new
markets.

Advantages of organizational growth

Some advantages of organizational growth include:

Attracts new customers

One of the best reasons for organizational growth is to reach out to new markets or a new
group of customers. While a successful company already may already have a solid customer
base, there's always the opportunity to add more customers when it grows, especially if that
growth involves the introduction of new services or products.

Economies of scale

Another benefit of organizational growth is economies of scale. When your company grows,
suppliers and vendors may provide you with discounts or special offers because your company
is ordering in bulk. In many cases, the more you order from vendors or suppliers, the bigger the
discount. This means you can get more products or supplies at a very reasonable price and you
can save money for growing your organization to become even more profitable.

Establishes revenue streams

Organizational growth may mean the opportunity to offer a wider variety of services and
products. In doing so, your company can diversify its revenue streams which means you are not
exclusively reliant on selling one core service or product.

Offers branding opportunities

Branding is about ensuring your company's targeted audience associates specific characteristics
with your service or product. You can achieve branding through outreach marketing—the
practice of seeking out organizations or individuals that have a shared interest in what your
business has to offer—that focuses on online channels where your audience gathers. When you

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grow your company, you also can increase the likelihood of reaching a wider audience by
applying marketing strategies that can help increase your company's awareness among existing
and prospective customers.

Disadvantages of organizational growth

Some disadvantages of organizational growth include:

 Shortage of resources: Your company may need to take out a loan to meet expansion
costs, such as buying new equipment or office space.

 Compromised quality: Increasing your production output may affect quality, which can
lead to a loss of sales or customers.

 Loss of control: As your company grows, it may be necessary to delegate management

duties or distribute the workloads between different locations.

 Increase capital requirements: As your company grows, you may need to have a larger
workforce, more equipment or facilities and more investments.

 Increased employee turnover: If your employees are given an additional workload, their
morale could decrease, their productivity could drop or they could leave your company.

What is organizational relevance, and why does it matter?

In a business setting, relevance refers to an organization’s pertinence, its

meaningfulness, its importance to employees, customers and all stakeholders.
Organizational relevance tends to have a finite shelf life, and, as a result, must
continually be re-earned. There are many factors that contribute to a business’s
success and longevity, perhaps none more than sustaining relevance with stakeholders.

Twenty years from now, some of the most recognized companies in the world today will
not exist. Household name brands will become footnotes in history. To corroborate this
statement, consider businesses and brands that have disappeared in your community
or nationally over the past 20 years – Toys R Us, Blockbuster, Plymouth or Palm, for

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starters. Some series of factors unfolded, company leaders missed or misread the
environment, and consequently failed to address diminishing relevance.

An Innosite study on corporate longevity noted the 33-year average tenure of

companies on the S&P 500 in 1964 fell to 24 years by 2016 and is forecast to shrink to
just 12 years by 2027.

Losing relevance is unintentional, and that’s part of the problem — lack of intention to
sustain relevance. Out of sight, out of mind. Leaders often keep long lists of important
priorities yet overlook the essential elements of earning and sustaining relevance with
their stakeholders.

How do organizations earn and sustain relevance?

Earning relevance starts with vision. One of the greatest responsibilities of leadership is
driving continual evolution of the organization toward a well-defined future state. Without
clear vision, activities and processes, leaders and businesses inevitably drift. When
organizations begin with a clear picture of their contribution to the world and why it
matters, they establish a destination. Everything else follows vision — priorities,
initiatives, processes, activities and results.

An actionable future-state vision provides AIM, meaning it is:

 Aspirational: Future-focused picture of how your organization will contribute to

the world
 Inspirational: Team members feel motivated to play a role in bringing the vision
to life
 Meaningful: Each day, team members can determine how to align their decisions
and actions toward vision fulfilment

Absent a clear future-state picture, organizations can be busy and engaged in urgent
activities. Where will those activities lead? To paraphrase the Cheshire Cat in “Alice in

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Wonderland,” if you don’t know where you want to go, it doesn’t matter which path you
take.

Organizational vision answers the question: What do we want our company to be?

Vision guides priorities, activities and inspires engagement. What a company does
(mission), why they do it (purpose), and how they fulfill the mission (strategy) are
informed by the vision. Strategy defines the organization’s path from the current
environment to a future state, from today’s reality to aspirations for tomorrow, with vision
as the target.

It is said management is about finding answers; leadership is about asking questions.

Perhaps the most important question for leaders today is: All things considered, how do
we earn and sustain relevance with our stakeholders and fulfill our organization’s
vision?

The Evolution of Organizational Development: Past,

Present, and Future

Let’s start with the beginning of change management and

organizational development.

Past

In the early part of the last century, Kurt Lewin developed a body of
ideas that became the foundation of change management.

These include:

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 Action research. Action research is a form of participatory
problem-solving. By working together, a group is able to more
effectively analyze, address, and fix problems.

 Group dynamics. Group dynamics refers to how groups behave

and interact. This psychological approach helps change managers
understand how employees react to change. In turn, this helps
managers address employee resistance and other barriers to
change.

 Force field theory and analysis. This framework looks at factors

that influence a situation – an individual, goals, and forces that
either hinder or enable an individual’s movement toward that goal.

 The 3-stage change process. Kurt Lewin’s change model has

informed many other subsequent change frameworks. This
framework identifies three main stages in any change process –
unfreezing previous processes, transitioning to a new state, and
refreezing the new status quo.

Throughout the latter half of the 20th century, a number of scholars

further developed these ideas.

Those developments led to change management theories as they exist

today.

Present

What does organizational development look like today?

Here is a snapshot:

20
 Change management. Change management is the business
discipline devoted to managing change, mitigating risk, executing
change projects, maximizing project ROI, and so on. Today’s change
practitioners use methods developed from the ideas covered above,
such as John Kotter’s 8-step change model or Prosci’s ADKAR model.

 Organization development. Organization development (OD), is

another field devoted to executing and managing change projects.
Many of the foundational ideas are the same and it shares many of
the same aims. However, its specific methods and objectives can be
distinct from those of change management.

 Digital change. Today, all businesses are becoming digital. And

change management is also digitizing, through the use of data,
analytics, automation, and other digital tools and processes. To stay
relevant and effective, change managers should begin digitizing
their own approaches to organizational development.

We are clearly in the midst of a digital revolution – and change

management will continue to evolve and change during the coming
years.

Future

What does the future hold for the evolution of organizational

development?

Here are a few things to look for:

 More AI, data, and analytics. Today’s most cutting-edge change

managers implement data, analytics, and AI. These can be used to

21
 predict project outcomes, improve team synergy, analyze project
performance, and much more.

 Continual change. The digital revolution is far from over. To keep

up with an economy in transition, businesses should prepare
themselves for continual, ongoing change. In the coming years,
expect more technology-driven changes – not less.

 Lifelong learning. Today’s businesses are already facing a digital

skills shortage. And in the coming years, the digital skills gap will
widen and become a permanent feature of business. To keep
employees relevant, effective training will be more important than
ever.

Given these trends, how should change managers prepare for the
future of organizational development?

Preparing for the Future of Organizational Development

Here are a few ideas:

 Digitize. The digital ecosystem demands digital tools, technology,

and techniques. The most effective change managers will be
digitally fluent. Change management will always remain human-
centered. But effective use of technology will also become a
requirement.

 Implement modern business practices and processes. Agile

change management, business agility, lean business processes, and
other adaptable business approaches get great results. In the future,
such modern business practices will likely become the norm.

22
 Onboard, train, and engage. Since lifelong learning is set to
become common, businesses should prioritize training. Well-trained
employees will be more skilled, more productive, and more satisfied.
To build robust training programs, combine the right tools with
effective training solutions – such as digital adoption platforms.

 Evolve your organizational change management

function. Poor change management gets poor results. But, as we
have seen, the future only holds more change. Effective change
management therefore, will become a strategic differentiator.

For more information about the future of change management and

organizational change, visit our main change management blog.

Final Thoughts

Today, technology is driving many business changes.

It has fueled the development of new business processes, new

products, and new ways of thinking.

To stay relevant, change management must utilize digital technology

to its fullest extent.

This means digital strategy, digital transformation, and digital

adoption.

However, at the same time, the human experience is becoming more

important as a revenue driver.

Effective change managers will be able to juggle both of these

elements – the human side and the digital side.

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What is Planned Change?
Planned change or developmental change is undertaken to improve the
current way of operating. It is a calculated change, initiated to achieve a
certain desirable output/performance and to make the organization more
responsive to internal and external demands.
 Enhancing employees’ communication skills
 technical expertise
 building teams
 restructuring the organization
 introducing new technologies
 introducing new products and services
 challenging the incentive system
 improving employee welfare measures and the like fall into this category.
This type of change, where the future state is being consciously chosen, is
not as threatening. However, it does require a system/subsystem level
(techno-social) support to survive.

What is Change?
Change is a constant, a thread woven into the fabric of our personal and
professional lives.

Change occurs within our world and beyond — in national and international
events, in the physical environment, in the way organizations are structured
and conduct their business, in political and socioeconomic problems and
solutions, and in societal norms and values.

What is Change Management?

Change management is a systematic approach to dealing with the transition
or transformation of an organization’s goals, processes or technologies.

Theory of Planned Change

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Frameworks describe the activities that must take place to initiate and carry
out the successful organizational change.

Three theory of planned change:

 Lewin’s change model

 Action research model
 Positive model
Lewin’s Change Model
One of the earliest models of planned change was provided by Kurt
Lewin. Lewin’s model provides a general framework for understanding
organizational change.
Kurt Lewin suggests that efforts to bring about planned change in an
organisation should approach change as a multistage process. This model of
planned change is made up of three steps:

 Unfreezing
 Change/Moving
 Refreezing

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 Lewin’s Change Model

Unfreezing
This step usually involves reducing those forces maintaining the
organization’s behaviour at its present level. Unfreezing is sometimes
accomplished through the process of “psychological disconfirmation”
By introducing information that shows discrepancies between behaviors
desired by organization members and those behaviours currently exhibited,
members can be motivated to engage in change activities.

Moving
This step shifts the behaviour of the organization, department, or individual
to a new level. It involves intervening in the system to develop new
behaviors, values, and attitudes through changes in organizational structures
and processes.

Refreezing
This step stabilizes the organization at a new state of equilibrium. It is
frequently accomplished through the use of supporting mechanisms that
reinforce the new organizational state, such as organizational culture,
rewards, and structures.

26
Action Research Model

Action research model is traditionally aimed both at helping specific

organizations implement planned change and at developing more general
knowledge that can be applied to other settings.
It places heavy emphasis on data gathering and diagnosis prior to action
planning and implementation, as well as careful evaluation of results after
the action, is taken.

The Action Research Model involves eight steps for planned change
management.

Problem Identification
This stage usually begins when an executive, senses that the organization
has one or more problems that might be solved with the help of an OD
practitioner.

Consultation with a Behavioral Science Expert

27
During the initial contact, the OD practitioner and the client carefully assess
each other.

Data Gathering and Preliminary Diagnosis

This step is usually completed by the OD practitioner, often in conjunction
with organization members. It involves gathering appropriate information
and analyzing it to determine the underlying causes of organizational
problems.

Feedback to a Key Client or Group

Because action research is a collaborative activity, the diagnostic data are
fed back to the client, usually in a group or work team meeting.

The feedback step, in which members are given the information gathered by
the OD practitioner, helps them determine the strengths and weaknesses of
the organization or unit under study.

Joint Diagnosis of the Problem

At this point, members discuss the feedback and explore with the OD
practitioner whether they want to work on identified problems.

A close interrelationship exists among data gathering, feedback, and

diagnosis because the consultant summarizes the basic data from the client
members and presents the data to them for validation and further diagnosis.

Joint Action Planning

Next, the OD practitioner and the client members jointly agree on further
actions to be taken. At this stage, the specific action to be taken depends on
the culture, technology, and environment of the organization; the diagnosis
of the problem; and the time and expense of the intervention.

Action
This stage involves the actual change from one organizational state to
another. It may include installing new methods and procedures, reorganizing
structures and work designs, and reinforcing new behaviours.

Such actions typically cannot be implemented immediately but require a

transition period as the organization moves from the present to a desired
future state.

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Data Gathering After Action
Because action research is a cyclical process, data must also be gathered
after the action has been taken to measure and determine the effects of the
action and to feed the results back to the organization. This, in turn, may
lead to re-diagnosis and new action.

Positive Model
The positive model focuses on what the organization is doing right. It helps
members understand their organization when it is working at its best and
builds off those capabilities to achieve even better results.
The positive model focuses on what the organization is doing right. It helps
members understand their organization when it is working at its best and
builds off those capabilities to achieve even better results.

5 Stages of Positive Model are:

1. Initiate the Inquiry

2. Inquire into Best Practices
3. Discover the Themes
4. Envision a Preferred Future
5. Design and Deliver Ways to Create the Future

29
Positive Model

Initiate the Inquiry

This first phase determines the subject of change. It emphasizes member
involvement to identify the organizational issue they have the most energy
to address.

For example, members can choose to look for successful male-female

collaboration (as opposed to sexual discrimination), instances of customer
satisfaction (as opposed to customer dissatisfaction)
Inquire into Best Practices
This phase involves gathering information about the “best of what is” in the
organization.

30
For example, If the topic is organizational innovation, then members help to
develop an interview protocol that collects stories of new ideas that were
developed and implemented in the organization.
Discover the Themes
In this third phase, members examine the stories, both large and small, to
identify a set of themes representing the common dimensions of people’s
experiences.

For example, the stories of innovation may contain themes about how
managers gave people the freedom to explore a new idea, the support
organization members received from their coworkers, or how the exposure to
customers sparked creative thinking.
Envision a Preferred Future
Members then examine the identified themes, challenge the status quo, and
describe a compelling future.

Based on the organization’s successful past, members collectively visualize

the organization’s future and develop “possibility propositions”—statements
that bridge the organization’s current best practices with ideal possibilities
for future organizing.

Design and Deliver Ways to Create the Future

The final phase involves the design and delivery of ways to create the future.
It describes the activities and creates the plans necessary to bring about the
vision. It proceeds to action and assessment phases similar to those of action
research described previously.

General Model of Planned Change

The three models of planned change suggest a general framework for
planned change as shown in Figure.

31
The framework describes the four basic activities that practitioners and
organization members jointly carry out in organization development.

1. Entering and Contracting

2. Diagnosing
3. Planning and Implementing Change
4. Evaluating and Institutionalizing Change
Entering and Contracting
The first set of activities in planned change concerns entering and
contracting. Those events help managers decide whether they want to
engage further in a planned change program and to commit resources to
such a process.

Diagnosing
In this stage of planned change, the client system is carefully studied.
Diagnosis can focus on understanding organizational problems, including
their causes and consequences, or on collecting stories about the
organization’s positive attributes.

The diagnostic process is one of the most important activities in OD. It

includes choosing an appropriate model for understanding the organization
and gathering, analyzing, and feeding back information to managers and
organization members about the problems or opportunities that exist.

Planning and Implementing Change

In this stage, organization members and practitioners jointly plan and
implement OD interventions. They design interventions to achieve the
organization’s vision or goals and make action plans to implement them.

Evaluating and Institutionalizing Change

The final stage in planned change involves evaluating the effects of the
intervention and managing the institutionalization of successful change

32
programs so they persist. Feedback to organization members about the
intervention’s results provides information about whether the changes
should be continued, modified, or suspended.

Steps in Planned Change

Once managers and an organization commit to planned change, they need to create a
logical step‐by step approach in order to accomplish the objectives. Planned change
requires managers to follow an eight‐step process for successful implementation.

1. Recognize the need for change. Recognition of the need for change may occur
at the top management level or in peripheral parts of the organization. The
change may be due to either internal or external forces.
2. Develop the goals of the change. Remember that before any action is taken, it
is necessary to determine why the change is necessary. Both problems and
opportunities must be evaluated. Then it is important to define the needed
changes in terms of products, technology, structure, and culture.
3. Select a change agent. The change agent is the person who takes leadership
responsibility to implement planned change. The change agent must be alert to
things that need revamping, open to good ideas, and supportive of the
implementation of those ideas into actual practice.
4. Diagnose the current climate. In this step, the change agent sets about
gathering data about the climate of the organization in order to help employees
prepare for change. Preparing people for change requires direct and forceful
feedback about the negatives of the present situation, as compared to the
desired future state, and sensitizing people to the forces of change that exist in
their environment.
5. Select an implementation method. This step requires a decision on the best
way to bring about the change. Managers can make themselves more sensitive
to pressures for change by using networks of people and organizations with
different perspectives and views, visiting other organizations exposed to new

33
 ideas, and using external standards of performance, such as competitor's
progress.
6. Develop a plan. This step involves actually putting together the plan, or the
“what” information. This phase also determines the when, where, and how of the
plan. The plan is like a road map. It notes specific events and activities that must
be timed and integrated to produce the change. It also delegates responsibility
for each of the goals and objectives.
7. Implement the plan. After all the questions have been answered, the plan is put
into operation. Once a change has begun, initial excitement can dissipate in the
face of everyday problems. Managers can maintain the momentum for change by
providing resources, developing new competencies and skills, reinforcing new
behaviors, and building a support system for those initiating the change.
8. Follow the plan and evaluate it. During this step, managers must compare the
actual results to the goals established in Step 4. It is important to determine
whether the goals were met; a complete follow‐up and evaluation of the results
aids this determination. Change should produce positive results and not be
undertaken for its own sake.

Keep in mind that a comprehensive model of planned change includes a set of activities
that managers must engage in to manage the change process effectively. They must
recognize the need for change, motivate change, create a vision, develop political
support, manage the transition, and sustain momentum during the change.

There are three types of planned change

—individual, group, and organizational. A planned change at the individual level

could stem from:

Fig. 3.4 Different types of planned change

34
 Change in job assignment
 Transfer of an employee to a different location
 Change in the maturity level of a person in the organization

A planned change at the group level could take place due to:
 Trade unions
 Inefficient work design
 Lack of communication in the organization work environment

Planned organizational change could happen due to or be:

 Strategic change
 Structural change
 Process-oriented change
 People-oriented ...

What are the critics of Planned Change?

Due to its focus on group involvement and trial-and-error testing, planned change
initiatives are often criticized as slow, static and only suitable for times of stability,
not dynamic inter- relatedness and complexity.

35
 How do you motivate employees to change their behavior?
Here are five ways to support effective change in others.
1. Adopt a practice of providing both coaching and feedback. ...
2. Put the ball in the employee's court. ...
3. Focus on one issue at a time. ...
4. Identify the barriers to the employee's success. ...
5. Focus on the bigger picture.

Three Methods to Motivate Employees with Organizational Change

An organizational change can take many forms, from a simple change in your
business philosophy to a sweeping formal alteration of your business product or
service offerings. Motivating employees through an organizational change requires a
singular devotion to maintaining workforce morale. Keeping employees happy through
even a small change in operations can be difficult, unless you, as a business owner,
place value in the opinions and personal development of each employee.

Organizational Change Processes

1. Change within your organization is not necessarily a physical alteration of your

business, a wholesale change in the way your company brings in money, or a shift in
how your business manufactures products. Organizational change can apply to
culture, business strategies and human resources management. These noncorporeal
changes occur both in the minds of your workers and within the philosophies of how
you, as the owner, choose to do business. According to Management Help's website,
motivating your employees through an organizational change rests on your ability to
create an environment conducive to higher spirits and personal empowerment.

Facilitate Employee Learning

1. Simply providing additional training to familiarize employees with organizational

changes isn't sufficient to motivate workers and increase knowledge. According
to Businessballs.com, a business information website, focusing on the development of

36
 employees in terms of emotional maturity, integrity and compassion allows employees
to feel personally invested in the organizational changes. Employees who feel more
invested in the process of company change show higher levels of motivation and
internalize new methods of operation. This allows for a smoother transition and helps
your company increase overall productivity.

Align Employee Goals

1. Aligning the business goals of your company with the personal goals of your
employees can help you increase workforce motivation through an organizational
change. For example, stating the goals of your business in terms of building positive
community relationships and sustaining responsible profit levels allows workers to
identify with those business goals, because they can apply the concepts to personal
desires. Workers who understand and approve of your company's goals work harder
to help your business achieve those milestones. By contrast, employees won't work as
hard to achieve goals they view as dishonest or amoral.

Keep Communication Open

1. Transparency goes a long way toward assuaging employee doubts about an

organizational change, and allows workers to feel more involved with your company's
new initiatives. Scheduling question-and-answer sessions with employees can also
help disseminate information, and throw water on rumors before office gossip can
damage workplace morale. Speaking plainly and avoiding spin in your answers helps
eliminate vague language that can cause confusion. Employees see right through an
owner who doesn't speak using direct language. Keeping communication open and
positive during an organizational change keeps workers motivated, and may even lead
to new ideas you didn't consider when first implementing this change.

Implications of Change
So what do the three inconvenient truths and the three dynamics of change discussed
so far mean for you? Based on my experience with a large number and wide variety of

37
executives, from Asia to Europe to the Americas, I think there are least six key
implications:

1. Start with yourself.

2. Don’t be late.
3. Expect resistance.
4. Have an informed point of view (POV).
5. Master through deliberate practice.
6. Remember, good may not be good enough.

1. Start with Yourself

Take a look at the following list of potential changes. Which ones apply to you?

 Transforming a business unit that succeeded for years by focusing on technological

prowess into a unit that must now focus on customer insight and service
 Leading an organization from domestic competition onto the global battlefield
 Accelerating growth by focusing not just on building things, but on all the services
that go with after-sales support
 Changing the culture from one of considered deliberations to fast, first-moving
decision-makers
 Redesigning jobs to incorporate new technology
 Changing the unit’s leadership style from a command-and-control focus to one that
is more network-centric and inclusive
 Something else equally daunting

If you have been asked to lead any one of these major changes (hopefully not all of
them at once), then I have little doubt that you are the right person for the job. At the
same time, in my experience I have not met many leaders in these sorts of situations
who didn’t need to change something about themselves in order to better bring about
the change in the organization. Conversely, when I talk with people below the person
who is tasked with leading the change, I consistently get a two-part message that I think
is food for thought for any leader of change. The first message I consistently get is, “I

38
get the needed change, and I see that it requires some changes in me, but I can also
see some changes I think it requires in our leader.” The second message I quite
frequently hear is, “Even though I can see the need for some changes in our leader, I
don’t see those changes happening and I don’t see evidence that the leader even sees
the need for personal change.” In effect, to them the leader is saying, “Do as I say, not
as I do.” It may be worth reminding ourselves that this approach never worked for our
parents when we were children, nor does it work for us as parents with our children. The
principle of “leading by example” is relevant in most situations but it seems to be
particularly important when it comes to leading change. As a consequence, my
experience is that successful change not only requires first changing individuals, but it
also requires the leaders of change to set the example by changing themselves.

2. Don’t Be Late
The old saying, “Better late than never, but better never late,” is generally good advice
but of particular value in terms of change. Given the speed, magnitude, and
unpredictability of change these days, if you are a bit slow as an individual or
organization, there is an increasing chance that you simply will not have the opportunity
to recover. For example, in a study I did with a colleague of the largest and fastest
growing companies, I found that if a firm fell off the growth train, the odds that it could
recover, run and catch up, and jump back on were about 24 percent in the 1980s, about
16 percent in the 1990s, and about 8 percent from 2000 to 2010.

We don’t have to look far to see the consequences of failing to respond to changes.
Firms that used to dominate their industry and some that created their industry have
fallen precipitously. Dell, Blockbuster, Kmart, Kodak, and Motorola, in the U.S.; ABB,
Nokia, and De Beers in Europe; and Sanyo and Sony in Japan are just a few examples
of companies that faltered, brought in new leaders to champion change, and still failed
to recover. Any of these companies may yet recover and revitalize just as IBM and
Nissan did (at least for a decade). However, the cost of recovering in terms of lost
shareholder value, reputation, and jobs for employees is inevitably higher than if the
companies and their leaders had met the challenge of change earlier.

39
3. Expect Resistance
Try this simple experiment: Stand face-to-face with someone and then have both of you
raise your arms to shoulder height, palms forward. Now touch your palms to those of
the other person and have them do the same to you. Not long after the palms touch,
what happens? Invariably, as soon as you feel pressure in your palms coming from the
other person, you press back—you resist. The other person does the same. It is almost
a reflex reaction.

So it is with change. As soon as we (again, including myself) feel some pressure,

almost instinctively we push back; we resist. Not only that, but the harder people are
pushed to change, it seems the more forcefully they resist. It is almost as if we are all
unconscious disciples of Newtonian physics and automatically feel obliged that for every
action to change, we must exhibit an equal and opposite reaction to resist.

Although I will put forth in this book things we can do to avoid building up unnecessary
resistance in others and what we can do to overcome resistance, some level of
resistance is to be expected.

4. Have an Informed Point of View (POV)

In my research and consulting, I certainly have come across individuals who seem to
have some natural aptitude for leading change, and conversely I have come across
those who seem to have little if any natural aptitude. However, I have not come across
any leaders who are consistently good at leading change who have no tool(s) or
framework for guiding their actions. Change is too hard, too expensive, and takes too
long, and the rate of change, its magnitude, and its unpredictability are too great to
make leading change by intuition, gut feel, or hairs on the back of the neck a consistent
and effective approach.

What I try to provide in this book is a simple but powerful framework and set of tools.
However, if you don’t like them, you won’t hurt my feelings (plus you already bought the
book so the royalty payment has been made). Still, my experience and research
suggest that you should develop a point of view, a model, a theory, and some practical

40
tools based on someone else’s work or on your own research and experience, and that
without such you are unlikely to consistently lead successful change.

5. Master Through Deliberate Practice

Scholars who have studied high performers in sports, music, medicine, and other
professions have discovered that becoming highly proficient requires deliberate
practice. Deliberate practice has four main ingredients:

 Repetition—To become good at anything, including leading change, repetition is

required. No one reaches expert proficiency the first time they try something. Even
when someone does relatively well at first, there is a reason we call it “beginner’s
luck.”
 Concentration—You do not improve by mindlessly repeating certain behaviors.
You have to concentrate on what you are doing, how it feels, what happens as a
consequence of your efforts, and so on. You have to think about what you are
doing.
 Stretching—In addition to thinking about what you are doing, you have to try to
stretch your performance, increase your effectiveness, and elevate your efficiency
as you practice.
 Feedback—Despite all the good that repetition, concentration, and stretching
provide, in order to make the necessary adjustments for enhanced future
performance, we need feedback.

So how do these four principles relate to leading change? Relative to repetition, the nice
thing about implementing change is that it our times are dynamic enough that there are
literally scores of small opportunities to practice specific behaviors in leading change.
Take advantage of them. However, you have to think about each of these and pay
attention to what is happening with you and others as you execute these behaviors.
With each small opportunity to understand and overcome someone’s resistance to
change, reward someone’s early change efforts, and so on, you should try to stretch,
improve, and have more consistency in your efforts. And, finally, as you repeat,
concentrate, and stretch, you have to make sure you look out for, invite, seek, and

41
otherwise get feedback along the way. The consequences of not leading change
effectively today and in the future are too grave to wait until the end and rely on the
ultimate feedback of overall success or failure to guide your future efforts.

The bottom line is that the size, speed, and unpredictability of change are greater than
ever before. Whether there are ten forces flattening the world, or seven drivers of a
borderless business environment, or five mega-trends, the fact remains that the
challenge of change is here to stay and is only going to get more daunting.
Consequently, the costs of not becoming a change master and the benefits of being
among the best are just too great to ignore.

6. Remember, Good May Not Be Good Enough

Given the speed, magnitude, and unpredictability of change today and in the future, we
may soon have to have “safe harbor” declarations that past leading change
performance is no guarantee of future performance. The frustrating but inescapable fact
of the matter seems to be that no matter how good we have been at leading change in
the past, the future will demand even more of us. Good today may not be good enough
for tomorrow. Therefore, past success, even for a given individual manager, may not a
good predictor of future performance when it comes to leading change. However,
excellent deliberate practice today may be a good predictor that the person’s level of
proficiency will improve enough to meet the rising demands and deliver change success
tomorrow.

Steps In Planned Change in Organizational Development

Once business leaders commit to planned change in organizational

development, they need to create a logical step-by-step approach to
accomplish the objectives. Planned change requires managers to follow an
eight-step process for successful implementation, which is discussed below:

Identify the need for change

Identifying or recognizing the need for change happens at the top
management level or in peripheral parts of the organization. The change

42
may be necessitated due to internal or external forces, and the senior
management team determines it.

Develop goals of the change

it is important to note that you need to determine why the change is
necessary before any action is taken. The goals that change need to be
defined before starting the planned change in organizational development.
Both business opportunities and problems must be evaluated. Then it is
important to define the needed changes in terms of culture, structure,
technology, products, and services.

Appoint a change agent

As the name implies, the change agent is the person who takes leadership
responsibility to oversee and implement the planned change in
organizational development. He may be selected from the management
team or externally. The change agent must realize the need for
organizational development & change, be it a product, service culture, or
other areas. He should be open to new ideas, Creativity & Innovation, and
supportive of implementing those ideas into actual practice.

Analysis of the organization’s current state

in this step, the change agent gathers data to analyze the organization’s
current state. This data gathering has only one sole intention: to prepare
existing employees for organization change and development. Preparing
employees for this planned change requires direct and forceful feedback
about the negatives of the organization’s current state compared to the
desired future state. It also involves sensitizing employees and stakeholders
about the need for the planned change. This will motivate them to overlook
the organization’s current deploring state and adopt the new planned
change.

Select the implementation method

43
This step requires deciding on the best way to bring about organization
development and change cummings. Different possible methods of
implementation will be presented. Once all the queries are solved, the
chosen plan is selected for implementation. Managers and business leaders
must ensure that they are open and self-motivated towards change. They
understudy organizations that have implemented new ideas, talk to people
with different views and ideas, and use external performance standards such
as competitors’ progress.

Developing a plan
As the name implies, thorough planning takes place in this step. This phase
also determines the when, where, and how of the plan, otherwise known as
the specifics of the plan. The plan acts like a road map or GPS map,
providing direction for the organization. It considers specific events and
activities that must be integrated to produce the planned change. It also
delegates responsibility for each of the goals and objectives.

Implementation of the selected plan

There could be multiple plays and innovation strategies in the entire process,
some of which may be rejected or selected. After much deliberation and the
right questions answered, the selected plan is implemented. Day-to-day
problems faced by employees during the implementation of change can
dilute the excitement of the change. It is the responsibility of business
leaders and managers to maintain the excitement for the change by
providing the required resources for the employees. They can also
encourage the employees to develop new skills and reiterate the change by
having a strong support system for those employees who drive the change in
their teams.

Follow-up and evaluation

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During this step, managers and business leaders must compare the results
to the established goals in step 4. Therefore, it is important to sincerely
determine whether the goals were met. If necessary, a complete follow-up
should be done to determine the completion since a positive result is
expected by implementing a planned change in organizational develop

Benefits Of Organization Development and Change

Increasing productivity and efficiency comes with many benefits. One of the
best ways to encourage positive results in these metrics is using a well-
thought-out organizational development structure. Organization
development and change are used to equip an organization with the right
tools to adapt and respond positively to changes in the market.

The benefits of organization development and change cummings

include the following:

Continuous development
Entities that participate in organizational change & development continually
develop their digital business models. Organizational development creates a
constant pattern of improvement in which strategies are developed,
evaluated, implemented, and assessed for results and quality.

Increased vertical and horizontal communication

One considerable merit of organizational development is effective
communication, interaction, and feedback in an organization. An effective
communication system aligns employees with the company’s core values,
objectives, and goals. An open communication system enables employees to
understand the importance of change in an organization. Active
organizational development increases communication in an organization,
with feedback shared continuously to encourage improvement.

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Employee growth
Organization development and change emphasize effective communication,
which is used to encourage employees to effect necessary changes. Many
industry changes require employee development programs. As a result,
many organizations are working toward improving the skills of their
employees to equip them with more market-relevant skills.

Increased profit margins

Organization development and change influence the bottom line in many
ways. As a result of increased productivity and innovation, profits and
efficiency increase. There is a reduction in overall cost because the
organization can better manage employee turnover. Finally, after the
alignment of an entity’s objectives, it can focus entirely on development and
product service quality, leading to improvement in customer satisfaction.

Conclusion

Organization development and change are necessary for every organization,

and its implementation has to be done methodically. The number of steps in
planned change may vary, depending on the organization and the type of
industry. Nonetheless, organizations must be prepared for the change.
What is Planned Social Change

The term planned social change refers to the change in social setup; such
change is already prepared, to bring positive change. For bringing
planned social change positively, in any social setup or cultural trait change
agent keeps different things in mind, such as: Community’s social and
cultural values, cultural traits, environment, human ecology, social set up
and anthropological knowledge to study, custom and traditions, norms and
values, folk ways and mores etc.

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Planned social change can be brought in any field of institution or social
life, such as health, education, food, population, drug addiction, attitude,
behavior, politics and other social activities.
Change agent can play a significant role in bringing a change in some
spheres of life. The first problem faced by change agents is that how to
decide whether .or not some proposed changes would be beneficial for the
target population. Surprisingly, this decision is not always easy to make. In
certain cases, such as, where improved medical care is involved the benefits
afford to the target group would seen to be unquestioned. We all feel sure
that health is better than illness but even this may not always be true For
instance, consider a public health innovation such as inoculation against
disease Although, it would undoubtedly have a beneficial effect upon tree
survival rate of a population, a reduction in the mortality rate, might be
unforeseen consequences that would, in turn, produce new problems. Once,
the inoculation program were begun the number of children surviving would
probably increase. But if, the rate of food production could rot be
proportionately increased, given the level of technology, capital and land
resources possessed by the target population, then the death rate this time
from starvation might rise to its previous level and perhaps even exceed it.
In such a case the inoculation program would merely be changing the cause
of death at least in long run. The point of this example is that even if a
program of planned social change has beneficial, consequences in the short
run a great deal of thought and investigation had been given to its effects
over a long period of time.

A population’s health can actually be harmed when foreign health car is

introduced in to a culture with provision for other related customs. For
instance:

In W. African rural community women traditionally continued to work in the

fields during pregnancy. Then in an attempt to improve paralleled care,

47
pregnant women were kept away from their work, but no substitute program
of proper physical activities was introduced, the women actually suffered
increased chances of all health and infant mortality rate.
Where the long-range consequences of a proposed cultural change are
obviously detrimental, high chances of damages, change agents may
determine that the change is not favourable to the community even if the
people desire it. Accordingly, they would advise that the program be
dropped.

To determine overall benefits of planned social changes: we must also

understand the basic aspects of a society’s culture, which will probably be
influenced by such programs.
Resistance to Planned Change
It is clear that if even a target population is aware of the possible benefits
and consequences of the proposed change, it is not always a simple task to
get ready and convince the local people to accept an innovation or to change
their behavior. Thus the local people reject the innovation, which become
useless. Because of the uncertainty of acceptance and rejection, the future
success or failure of a project of planned change is often difficult to
ascertain. In other words, the mere physical installation of any kind of
facilities is not sufficient to call the project successful. To be completely
successful, the people for whom they were intended must actually use those
new facilities.

The Difficulties of Instituting Planned Change

Before an attempt can be made at cultural innovation, the innovators must
determine whether or not the target population is aware of the proposed
planned changes benefits and consequences. In many situations where
significant health problems exist, target population is not always aware of
these problems. Their lack of awareness can become a major barrier to
solving the problems.

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For instance, Health workers face lot foe problems in convincing simply
people that your illness was because of something wrong with your water’s
supply. Many people don’t understand the nature of diseases and don’t
understand how can it be transmitted through an agent such as water
supply.

What is the Role of human relations in Organizational Development?

In this fast paced world, with things changing in every minute, it demands
continuous realignment in order to survive.
Same applies with the HR industry. With the latest remote working came up
challenge of managing a remote workforce. Being an HR is never an easy
job. Since, human resources play a vital role in business performance and
employee experience, organisation development can be said relying on HR
department.
If executed in the right manner, HR could be the gem in organizational
development and innovation.
But what exactly is organisational development? How is it important for an
enterprise like yours? Follow this…
What is Organisational development?
OD or organisational development can be defined as a strategy to revamp
internal communication and relation.
The development generally involves changes for the entity to improve
effectiveness and outcome of any effort put in. primary activities under
development could be training/ learning management, communication, IT,
culture, and similar.
The overall purpose is to yield better operations and promote productivity at
the base.
Importance of Organisational development-

49
Timely developments at a firm help equip yourselves with better resources
for upcoming challenges and talent requirement. It helps foster better
relations and healthy work culture.
Organisational development also brings your attention towards parameters
like branding and structure. Such dedicated activities can be extremely
worthwhile when it comes to making the mark on today’s date.
So, how could an HR contribute to an organisational change (or say
development)?
Role of Human Relations in organisational development and
innovation:
 Managing compliances
 Talent acquisition
 Planning and structure
 Implementation and development
Managing compliances
A legal trouble like false data or failing to be complaint at payroll can cause
hurdles. Business owners and managers understand this very well. Data
security and compliance management is very important for any HR
department.
Here many companies rely on HR manager to abide by legalities and audits.
Manual HR can be bit difficult and unpredictable at causing errors. A cloud
based HRMS can help you with online data backup and managing compliance
easily.
Talent acquisition
An HR can actively contribute to management by their recruitment skill.
Talent hiring or effective recruitment management can help you easily reach
potential candidate base.
HR expert can plan a fool proof retention strategy to keep their top
performers for long. Staffing is not just about hiring the best, but also
retaining your current force. This helps an HR maintain a good employee
turnover and good work culture.

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Planning and structure
Structure and evaluate best performing values and mission for your company
based on stakeholders like internal customers (employees) and clients.
Recommend a working plan to the management.
Keep on framing and re-assessing these statements with time and demand.
Strategic planning can be extremely useful in future operations and tackles.
HR strategies prevents you from any unexpected situations and makes you
future ready.
Implementation and development
Now it’s time to implement your plans and resources to the road map.
Evaluate your resources for training and development. Design your learning
templates that is directly associated to company goals and mission. Train
staff to be the expert in their areas of focus.
Make this a habit. Keep a track of your employees and ensure regular
learning based on requirements. Ease your learning with an automated LMS
system.
These were some of the best ways an HR manager contributes to
organisational development. Continuous learning and improvisation here can
be extremely value adding.

What is reinvention of an organization?

Reinvention is a process whereby organizations respond to changes in the
environment that threaten their core business model, technologies, cultural
values, and/or operational norms.

What is the importance of reinventing an organization?

It provides substantial detail on the structures, practices and processes the

organisations adopt to encourage human development and sustainability.
Employees are encouraged to find their own roles and play to their strengths.

What is meant when it is said that an organization needs reinvention?

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 Reinventing the organization means building new capabilities of information
asymmetry, customer centricity, innovation everywhere, and agility throughout.
Leaders who can reinvent their organizations will deliver value to all stakeholders.
What are the 3 types of re invention strategies?
In my experience there are 3 types of reinvention that businesses adopt.
 Survival Reinvention. This is when we introduce just enough change to get us
through. ...
 Growth Reinvention. This is when we actively seek better ways to do things, even in the
good times. ...
 It is a combination.
Determining the Need for Change in an Organization The
world we live in is in a state of perpetual change and progress. As the lives of
people gradually change, so do their

expectations and demands as consumers. This means that all markets are
constantly shifting and changing, and the most successful companies are the
ones that can change and adapt alongside, or better yet, drive the change in
the market. While this seems clear, undergoing significant change is not
always an easy process, so it’s important to be able to determine if and
when large-scale change is actually needed.

Here are a few factors that can help you determine if you company needs to
change:

Unsatisfactory Performance

Every organization has its objectives, and it also needs to measure how well
it’s performing in comparison to them. As you could say that the main reason
for an organization to exist is to become a financially sound organization that
can survive on its own, it’s easy to see that if it cannot make money, it’s
probably underperforming. If a company is not performing as expected or
desired, it obviously needs to change to rectify the situation, and to elevate
its performance to a competitive level.

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Encountering Unpleasant Surprises

If a company and its management are regularly surprised by industry news

or unexpected obstacles, there must be a gap between the way the
organization sees the market, and the way the market actually is. This is a
very worrying symptom, and is one of the main reasons businesses that have
been around for while fail. This requires decisive action right away. It means
that the organization is not properly positioned strategically, and that it is in
dire need of fundamental change to become aligned with the market once
again.

Competitors Are Doing Better

Every company should strive to become the market leader, and if there are
rivals that are outperforming it, it means it’s not doing its best. While smaller
companies in markets dominated by bigger players can thrive for extended
periods of time, this can rarely stay permanent. Any business that wants to
ensure its long-term survival needs to constantly strive to improve its market
position. If your market share is not increasing reliably, it is bound to start
dwindling at some point, so taking decisive action as early as possible is the
only way to go.

One mistake companies make is that they are focused on their immediate
competitors, and not scanning the wider business sector to see who could
replace them. Taxi drivers were not looking at Uber, hotels were not looking
at AirBNB, and digital cameras were not looking at cell phone manufacturers.

There Are Inefficiencies

Any inefficiency that exists within a business is something that is making the
business less competitive and less profitable. This is why any inefficiency is a
problem that needs to be remedied as quickly as possible for the company to
be able to remain competitive. No organization can remain successful

53
without being more efficient than its competitors, or stands to be at a
disadvantage.

New Opportunities

As the world is changing, there are constantly new markets and niches
opening up, and new opportunities presenting themselves for the taking.
When new potentially advantageous opportunities are discovered and
identified, finding a way to take advantage of them should be a top priority.
In these cases, triggering internal change so they can be seized upon is the
only logical thing to do. On top of this, companies should constantly be
looking for new opportunities to take advantage of new markets to enter.
When conditions to do this are favorable, change should be welcomed. Often
these opportunities show up during difficult times, so the company ready to
strike during down times is in the best situation to succeed.

New Technology

As new technologies emerge, they present opportunities for doing things in a

better way. If there are new technologies that could reliably make a business
more efficient in one way or another, it is usually a very good idea to invest
the time, effort and resources in adopting them. Those technologies might
vary from new production materials, to new more efficient ways to
communicate and share data. Whatever the technology might be, if it can
really benefit the organization in the long run, it should be pursued
wholeheartedly. It is also a reason why employee turnover increases, when
they realize that the company is not keeping up with reliable and proven
technology changes.

Conclusion

While reading the list of factors above, you will notice that most
organizations in the world probably qualify for at least some of these change

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scenarios. Most of the time, some level of change is always needed. The
businesses that tend to do best are the ones that have openness to change
ingrained in their company culture, which allows a business to stay
competitive in an ever-changing market.

What is an Open System?

In an environment, systems can either be open or closed. An open system is a system that
permits the inflow and outflow of information, materials, and energies between it and the
environment, allowing adaptation to the exchange. The open system definition is based on the
exchange of materials, information, and energies, making it markedly different from closed
and isolated systems. While an open system allows this inflow and outflow, closed systems do
not allow material inflow or outflow. Isolated systems allow neither the exchange of materials
nor energies. Open systems interact with their environment through information, materials, and
energies exchange for system growth and renewal. In closed systems, entropy is high, while in
open systems, entropy is generally low. When open systems take in information, energies, or
materials, they become increasingly complex and heterogeneous resulting in negative entropy

The open system theory states that all organizations are affected considerably by their
environment. The environment of an organization may consist of social forces, political forces,
economic forces, and other organizations. The open system model consists of inputs, outputs,
goals, and processes that enable the system's functioning.

Open systems theory refers simply to the concept that organizations are strongly
influenced by their environment. The environment consists of other organizations that exert
various forces of an economic, political, or social nature.

Open System Examples

Any system that allows the exchange of materials, energy, and information is considered an open
system. Therefore, there can be numerous open system examples, including planets,
corporations, religions, human beings, etc. Human beings allow the exchange of information
with each other and energy exchange when they involve themselves in physical activities.
Corporations depend on their environment for inputs such as customers purchasing their products
or services, suppliers providing raw materials, employees providing labor, etc. However, a rock

55
cannot be an open system because it cannot permit material, energies, or information exchange.
Open systems are defined by their boundaries, environment, and equifinality. In open systems,
equifinality means that a particular goal or outcome can be achieved through various means.
Outputs and outcomes are the products and services produced by corporations or organizations,
e.g., installed dustbins, completed tables, job applicants interviewed, etc. These outcomes and
output impact the environmental conditions. For example, for every successful job application
interviewee, the number of unemployed individuals in the environment reduces.

OPEN SYSTEMS THEORY AND CHANGE

Change in open systems is the process of adapting to shifting circumstances.

Open systems theory provides tools for thinking about change, such as
descriptions and explanations of general patterns and obstacles. Successful
dynamic change involves paying attention to feedback and integrating this
information rather than proceeding with a rigid idea of how change should
occur.
A business that changes its product line by focusing on its most successful
products is effecting dynamic change by shifting in response to information
about customer demand.

What is Systems Thinking?

Systems thinking is an approach to analysis that zeros in on how the different parts of a system
interrelate and how systems work within the context of other, larger systems. It is a holistic
approach that can be used in many areas of research. It can be useful in analyzing a variety of
operational systems, such as medical, political, economic, environmental, and educational
systems.

History of Systems Thinking

The concept of “Systems Thinking” originated in 1956, when the Systems Dynamic Group was
created by Professor Jay W. Forrester at the Sloan School of Management at MIT. It utilizes
computer simulations and different graphs and diagrams to illustrate and predict system

56
behavior. Some of the popular graphics used in the analysis include the causal loop diagram, the
behavior over time graph, the management flight simulator, and the simulation model.

Systems Thinking in the Workplace

When it comes to managing organizations, many find systems thinking an effective approach, as
it sees how different complex entities interact and influence each other and make up the whole
system. Different divisions or teams within an organization connect with and affect each other.
Ideally, they work together toward a goal. Business leaders who are systems thinkers see “the big
picture”, and that is what they focus on to maximize performance within the organization.

Aside from understanding how various components work with and affect each other, systems
thinkers also consider how their actions in any component can affect the system as a whole.
There’s also the concept of supply and demand, where systems thinkers know when and where
their outputs will be needed, as well as the external factors that can affect demand. They also
understand the capacity of their organization to meet the marketplace demand.

An essential component of systems thinking is focusing on feedback. Giving attention to relevant

feedback enables business leaders to come up with solutions to problems and to avoid wasting
resources. Maximizing operational efficiency is a primary goal of using systems thinking
analysis.

When business leaders are systems thinkers, they veer away from the practice of just giving
instructions and controlling the system. For example, systems thinkers recognize the importance
of integrating the personal goals of employees with the overarching business goals of the
company. Therefore, they employ a management style that puts emphasis on recognizing and
rewarding employees’ individual accomplishments, and that seeks to keep employees well-
informed regarding the company’s primary goals and how their contributions are each
individually important in the achievement of those goals.

Creating a Systems-based Organization

57
Not all leaders gain a systems perspective, partly because of the organizational structure. In
many cases, each division or team has its own manager, goals, tasks, budgets, and KPIs. As a
result, teams only focus on tasks assigned to them. Also, many organizations function in a top-
down, command-and-control format. In systems thinking, business leaders allow employees to
understand how the organization works and encourage them to help improve processes to meet
overall corporate goals.

Final Word

Are you a systems thinker? Taking a systems perspective is no easy feat. It involves not only the
senior management – everyone in the organization needs to understand the business goals and
what processes to implement to achieve them. It is essential to develop the practice of seeing the
system as a whole and taking actions that will be beneficial for the entire organization.

Socio-technical Systems

What is the relationship between workers and technology within an organization? In

other words, how do humans and technology work together to form a cohesive system?
In this lesson, we'll talk about the idea of sociotechnical systems theory, which explores
these very questions.

Socio-technical systems (STS) theory is all about how the social and technical
aspects of a workplace fit together. The goal is to optimize both of these so that an
organization can run as smoothly as possible. Basically, STS theory is an approach to
the way that work organizations are designed.

STS theory emphasizes the strategic consideration of both the social and the technical
aspects of an organization, thinking of these two features as intertwined. Ideally,
organizations want to achieve what is known as joint optimization. This means that
rather than simply inputting people into existing technical systems, work places should
be designed in such a way that both people and technology coexist in harmony.

What is Socio-Technical Systems Theory?

58
The socio-technical systems theory states that, when designing an organizational system, both
social and technical are important parts of a complex system that must be considered. These
elements are interdependent.

The theory states that any organization consists of interacting sub-systems. Within any
organization are people with capabilities who work towards goals, follow processes, use
technology, operate within a physical infrastructure, and share certain cultural assumptions and
norms.

Failing to consider both social and technological aspects hinders the ability to effectuate change
within the organization. Understanding and improvement requires the input of all key
stakeholders throughout the system.

Where did Socio-Technical Systems Theory Originate?

The socio-technical perspective originates from pioneering work at the Tavistock Institute and
has been continued on a worldwide basis by key figures such as Harold Leavitt, Albert Cherns,
Ken Eason, Enid Mumford and many others.

What are examples of socio-technical systems?

Examples of STSs include emails, blogs, and social media sites such as Facebook
and Twitter.
What is the goal of the sociotechnical systems approach?

The goal of this approach is to optimize organizational or technological design by

considering the ways in which people interact with technology in a variety of
environments.
Job (work) Redesign - Meaning, Process and its Advantages

Restructuring the elements including tasks, duties and responsibilities of a specific job
in order to make it more encouraging and inspiring for the employees or workers is
known as job redesigning. The process includes revising, analyzing, altering, reforming
and reshuffling the job-related content and dimensions to increase the variety of

59
assignments and functions to motivate employees and make them feel as an important
asset of the organization. The main objective of conducting job redesigning is to place
the right person at the right job and get the maximum output while increasing their level
of satisfaction.

Job Redesign Process

 Revising the Job Content: Job redesigning process involves recollecting and
revising job-related information to determine the inconsistency between person
and the job.
 Analyzing Job-related Information: Once the job analyst is through with
recollecting and revising the job content, analyzing the discrepancies is the next
step. It is done to determine the hindrances in performing job-related tasks and
duties and investigate why an employee is not able to deliver the expected
output.
 Altering the Job Elements: The next step is to amend the job elements. It may
include cut back on extra responsibilities or addition of more functions and a
higher degree of accountability. The basic aim of altering the job content is to
design a job in such a manner that encourages employees to work harder and
perform better.

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  Reformation of Job Description and Specification: After altering the job
elements, a job analyst needs to reform the job description and specification in
order to make sure that the worker placed at a particular place is able to deliver
what is expected of him.
 Reshuffling the Job-related Tasks and Duties: Next is to reallocation of new
or altered tasks and functions to employees. It may be done by rotating,
enriching, enlarging and engineering the job. The idea is to motivate the
performers while increasing their satisfaction level.

Advantages of Job Redesigning

 Enhances the Quality of Work-Life: Job redesigning motivates the employees

and enhances the quality of their work life. It increases their on-the-job
productivity and encourages them to perform better.
 Increases Organization’s and Employees’ Productivity: Altering their job
functions and duties makes employees much comfortable and adds to their
satisfaction level. The unambiguous job responsibilities and tasks motivate them
to work harder and give their best output. Not only this, it also results in
increased productivity of an organization.

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  Brings the Sense of Belongingness in Employees: Redesigning job and
allowing employees to do what they are good at creates a sense of
belongingness in them towards the organization. It is an effective strategy to
retain the talent in the organization and encouraging them to carry out their
responsibilities in a better fashion.
 Creates a Right Person-Job Fit: Job Redesigning plays an important role in
creating a right person-job fit while harnessing the full potential of employees. It
helps organization as well as employees in achieving ets or goals.

Therefore, the purpose of job redesigning is to identify the task significance and skill
variety available in the organization and reallocating the job-related tasks and
responsibilities according to the specific skills possessed by an employee.

The Red Queen Effect in Business

Every business owner recognizes the importance of getting ahead of the

competition. A competitive advantage helps build a stronger client base,
which translates into additional sales and a higher profit. Regrettably, not
every business is able to thrive -- primarily due to the red queen effect.
Despite marketing and promotions, some business owners encounter
challenges when trying to beat out the competition.

Red Queen Effect

The red queen effect is a metaphor used in the business world to describe
the unsuccessful efforts of a company to get ahead of its competition.
Companies typically research or study the competition and then implement
strategies to help boost their company sales and profits. This is an effective
and practical method of outmaneuvering the competition. While this
technique works in theory, companies might not achieve their goals
because the competition engages in the same business practice. Despite a
company's efforts to surpass the competition, the company does not move
forward or grow.
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Draw a Distinction

Drawing a clear distinction between you and your competition is a key way
to overcome the red queen effect in business. While your competition also
works diligently to succeed, initiating a new product or new services can
truly make you stand out and likely attract new business and increase
sales. The ability to think differently and evaluate and accommodate the
needs of your customers can help you stay a step ahead. Interview your
customers or ask them to complete surveys. Find out how you can improve
your product or service.

Implementing Ideas

Companies who lack the ability to develop a concept first can fall behind
the competition. A company might develop an innovative and fresh concept
that's foreign to its competition. While this idea can give the company the
competitive edge it needs to grow, several factors can stand in the way of
growth and prevent a company from moving forward. The company may
have a creative or futuristic service or product, but moving this service or
product past the idea phase typically requires capital, know-how and the
willingness to take risks.

Consideration

As the competition realizes your modified business model and increased

profitability, this will likely move them to action, wherein these companies
might begin to develop their own concepts or ideas to surpass your efforts.
Continually thinking outside the box and constantly considering how you
can improve your business model results in outperforming your competition
and staying ahead.

What is the Red Queen effect strategy?

63
In a Red Queen effect, the innovation of a new startup boosts others who will try to
achieve a new innovation that supersedes the existing innovation as fast as possible, all
in a bid to reach the next predominant position in the market.

Applications in business

In describing the capital investment needed to maintain a

relative placement in the textile industry, Warren Buffett writes:

Over the years, we had the option of making large capital expenditures in the textile
operation that would have allowed us to somewhat reduce variable costs. Measured by
standard return-on-investment tests, in fact, these proposals usually promised greater
economic benefits than would have resulted from comparable expenditures in our
highly-profitable candy and newspaper businesses.

But the promised benefits from these textile investments were illusory. Many of our
competitors, both domestic and foreign, were stepping up to the same kind of
expenditures and, once enough companies did so, their reduced costs became the
baseline for reduced prices industry wide.

After each round of investment, all the players had more money in the game and returns
remained anemic.

In other words, more and more money is needed just to maintain your relative position
in the industry and stay in the game. This situation plays out over and over again and
brings with it many ripple effects. For example, the company distracted by maintaining a
relative position in a poor industry places resources in a position almost assured to get
a poor return on capital.

Implications

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While it may sound obvious, you have to keep on competing in the market place to
win[2]. Firstly, it tells us that you will never win. You may win in the short term, but in the
long term you will never win[3]. While Apple almost wiped out many mobile phone
makers only a few years ago when it launched its iPhone, many competitors have
returned along with others who have products that are superior to Apple’s current
product line[4]. Similarly, Google controls the search engine market in many English
speaking countries. However, IBM’s Watson is evolving to be a formidable challenger[5].

Organizational inertia

What is organizational inertia or momentum?

As the literature would state, an organizational inertia is the tendency an organization
develops over time to continue in its own state of business as usual (BAU)
operations

Organizational inertia has two components: resource rigidity and routine rigidity (Gilbert,
2005). It is the inability of a company to change its resource investment pattern,
while routine inflexibility is the lack of change in organizational processes and
procedures for using invested resources.

What causes Organizational inertia?

The root causes of organizational inertia are a faulty mindset and an ineffective
company structure.

Organizational Inertia is a property by virtue of which the organization

remains in its pace constantly. It will be moving in all dynamics with a same
speed. Sometimes it may also appear that the whole organization is just
static and not moving at all. The vibrancy is not seen.
The organizational inertia is developed because of the following,
a) The organization has grown too big for its managing capacity and the
growth is beyond its sustainable level.

65
b) The organization has lost its total agility and flexibility and has become
too hard to be flexible.
c) The organization has matured and saturated to the peak so that all its
processes, procedures and even the culture has been frozen and the
organization feels there is nothing to achieve beyond any further.

d) The last is, the organization is just moving at some lousy speed and unless
the external force ( like OD intervention) is used nothing changes.

Levers of Change for Accelerating Business

Transformation

According to Prosci, a “lever” is a type of tool that is used to drive success in

another area.

An employee training plan, for instance, can be used to help fuel the
adoption of new processes, procedures, skills, and, ultimately, change. The
end goal of the training plan, in other words, is not simply to provide
employees with new skills, but to drive the organizational change program
forward.

This definition of “lever” underpins Prosci’s perspective on the levers of

change, which we will explore below.

Prosci’s 5 Levers of Change

Prosci’s five change management levers include:

 A communication plan. In Prosci’s approach, a communication

plan is essential for building awareness of the need for change and a
desire to support that change. The more effectively change

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 managers can communicate these points, the more employees will
engage with and support the project.

 A sponsorship roadmap. Prosci points out that, compared to other

contributing factors, sponsorship has the largest impact on the
outcomes of a change project. To be effective, sponsors must
be change leaders who actively engage with a project, build support
teams within the upper echelon of the organization, and
communicate clearly with employees about the project. A
sponsorship roadmap can provide sponsors with the structure they
need to achieve these aims.

 A coaching plan. This plan outlines the necessary actions to take

to ensure managers involve themselves in a program. Among other
things, managers roles will include: communicating how the change
affects employees, identifying and managing resistance to change,
reinforcing change, and leading by example.

 A training plan. Organizational changes often involve new

processes, procedures, and mindsets. To enact change, therefore,
employees must develop new skills and capabilities that close the
gap between old expectations and new ones. Effective employee
training should provide employees with the knowledge they need to
successfully implement the change program and meet new
performance goals.

 A resistance management plan. Employees resist change for a

variety of reasons. Oftentimes, however, that resistance stems from
fear, such as the fear of incompetence or inadequacy. A resistance
management plan starts by identifying these causes, then
developing solutions that tackle those problems directly, rather than
simply addressing the symptoms of resistance.

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These levers are part of Prosci’s proprietary approach to change
management, and they form the basis for the second stage of their 3-
phase organizational change process. This process focuses on top-down
organizational planning, and goes hand-in-hand with their other well-known
change model, the ADKAR model.

Other Levers of Change

The plans listed above are only a few of the frameworks and templates that
should be included in a change management toolbox, however.

Other must-have templates and levers of change include:

 Change management frameworks. Change models, or

frameworks, such as Prosci’s ADKAR model or the Kotter 8-step
model, are essential tools for organizational change programs.
These frameworks outline a series of steps to take when
implementing any change program, ensuring that managers
implement the most crucial project activities. The effective use of
these tools can make a significant difference in project performance
– or, in some cases, it can mean the difference between success and
failure.

 Change readiness assessments. A change readiness

assessment, as the name suggests, helps determine how ready the
organization is for a particular change. Areas to assess
include organizational culture, employee skills, existing business
processes, technology, and any other factors that could impact the
change project. The readiness assessment will help change
managers understand the gap that exists between the
organization’s current state and where it needs to be. That
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 information, in turn, will help managers create effective roadmaps
for change.

 Technology acceptance questionnaires. Digital transformation

efforts almost always involve the implementation of new tools and
technology. Technology acceptance questionnaires assess how
willing and ready employees would be to adopt a new technology.
These questionnaires, therefore, can be helpful when choosing
digital technology, designing training programs, and rolling out new
software.

 Digital adoption plans. In a workplace context, digital adoption

plans outline a structured approach to implementing new technology
in the enterprise. An effective adoption plan addresses the key
stages of the user journey as they adopt new tools, such as
onboarding, training, and long-term support. Having a structured
adoption plan can significantly improve employee training efforts,
workforce productivity, and the outcomes of business programs such
as digital transformation initiatives.

Tools such as these can not only improve the outcomes of a change
program, they can also streamline workflows for managers and reduce the
complications that are an inevitable part of any change program.

Overcoming Resistance to Change:

Change can generate deep resistance in people and in organization, thus

making it difficulty, if not possible, to implement organizational
improvement. At a personal level, change can arouse considerable anxiety
about letting go of the known and moving to an uncertain future. People may
be unsure whether their existing skills and contribution will be valued in the
future, or have significant questions about whether they

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can learn to function effectively and to achieve benefits in the new situation.
At the organization level, resistance to change can come from three sources.
Technical resistance comes from the habit of following common producers
and the consideration of sunk costs invested in the status quo. Political
resistance can arise when organization changes threaten powerful
stakeholders, such as top executive or staff personal, or call into question
the past decisions of leaders. Organization change often implies a different
allocation of already scare resources, such as capital, training budgets and
good people. Finally cultural resistance takes the form of systems and
procedures that reinforce the status quo, promoting conformity to existing
values, norms, and assumptions about how things should operate.
There are at least three major strategies for dealing with resistance
to change.

1.Empathy and support.

A first step in overcoming resistance is to learn how people are experiencing

change. This strategy can identify people who are having trouble accepting
the changes, the nature of their resistance, and possible ways to overcome
it, but it requires a great deal of empathy and support. It demands
willingness to suspend judgment and to see the situation from another’s
perspective, a process called active listening. When people feel that those
people who are responsible for managing change are genuinely interested in
their feelings and perception, they are likely to be less defensive and more
willing to share their concern and fears. This more open relationship not only
provides useful information about resistance but also helps establish the
basis for the kind of joint problem solving needed to overcome barriers to
change.

2.Communication.

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People resist change when they are uncertain about its consequences. Lack
of adequate information fuels rumors and gossip and adds to the anxiety
generally associated with change. Effective communication about changes
and their likely result can reduce this speculation and allay unfounded fears.
It can help members realistically prepare for change. However,
communication is also one of the most frustrating aspects of managing
change. Organization members constantly receive data about people,
changes and politics. Managers and OD practitioners must think seriously
about how to break through this stream of information. One strategy is to
make change information salient by communicating through a new different
channel. If most information is delivered through memos and emails, the
change information can be sent through meeting and presentations. Another
method that can be effective during largescale change is to substitute
change information for normal operating information deliberately. This sends
a message that changing one’s activities is a critical part of a member’s job.

3.Participation and involvement.

One of the oldest and most effective strategies for overcoming resistance is
to involve organization members directly in planning and implementing
change. Participation can lead both to designing high quality changes and to
overcoming resistance to implementing them. Members can provide a
diversity of information and ideas, which can contribute to making the
innovations effective and appropriate to the situation. They also can identify
pitfalls and barriers to implementation. Involvement in planning the changes
increases the likelihood that members’ interest and needs will be accounted
for during the intervention. Consequently, participants will be committed to
implementing the changes because doing so will suit their interests and
meet their needs. Moreover, for people having strong needs for involvement,
the act of participation itself can be motivating, leading to greater effort to
make the changes work.

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Change Management and Performance Management:
how to get the Best out of People

Resistance to change is normal. The successful management of change is

defined by the ability of people to move towards, and accept, the vision for
change. It sounds simple. The manner in which the terms ‘Performance
Management’ and ‘Change Management’ are thrown around the office these
days you could be forgiven for thinking that the processes have been so well
developed that they are always successfully implemented.

But according to New York Times bestselling author John Kotter, 70% of
change initiatives in organisations and businesses fail.

Why? In most cases the principal reason for failure, is simply a failure to
communicate.

Regardless of whether it is a change management process or a performance

management process, bad implementation and execution of any process
causes stress within the workplace.

Workplace stress is costing the Australian economy at least $14.81 billion a

year – 3.2 days a year, per worker are lost to workplace stress. 1

A great deal of time and money has been spent by many research
institutions on how to implement effective change management and how to
get the most out of employee performance management, yet recent
research indicates that neither are being implemented effectively.

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According to a public survey by Deloitte, only 8% of companies report that
their performance management process drives high levels of value, while 58
percent said it is not an effective use of time. 2

What is clear is that the meaning of change management and performance

management is different to an employer and an employee.

Unless something is done at the beginning of the process to bring both the
employer and the employee closer together, both parties will often travel
down different paths and fail to arrive at the same destination.

WHAT DOES ‘CHANGE MANAGEMENT’ MEAN TO EMPLOYEES?

For most employees, their first reaction to change management is ‘Am I

going to be made redundant?’ It is rarely received as a good thing. After all,
since when has advancement in technology increased the headcount within
an organisation?

Change is therefore met with resistance by employees who are often highly
suspicious and sceptical of any new process. This resistance quickly develops
a life of its own and starts to create its own narrative. Employees can be
heard uttering phrases such as, “Change won’t work because it takes far too
long to do it the new way,” “it has so many teething problems it will never do
what it was supposed to do,” “I don’t like the new system, it is too hard, too
difficult, the old way was quicker…” If the resistance is allowed to fester,
employees will look to senior management to see whether they truly believe
the change is worthwhile.

Unfortunately, if the resistance is not managed at the beginning and it is

allowed to build momentum, senior management will be themselves fatigued
with the change or simply overwhelmed by the negative feedback and
therefore they too believe it will never succeed. It becomes a self-fulfilling
prophecy.

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WHAT DOES ‘CHANGE MANAGEMENT’ MEAN TO EMPLOYERS?

In most cases the need for Change Management means that something
within the organisation could be improved, leading to greater efficiencies
and increased profits.

Efficiencies may be achieved in a variety of ways, including technological

advancement or an automation of process or sometimes a restructuring of
the organisation .

Usually, whatever has been scored as ‘room for improvement’ is costing the
organisation in lost productivity or loss of revenue. In many cases it does not
necessarily mean that the business is losing money, but rather that it could
be doing better.

Senior management spend weeks and months identifying the source of the
problems within the organisation and come up with a plan to resolve issues
or improve current ways of working. Ultimately the goal is to increase profits.

A perfect example of this is Deloitte’s recent overhaul of its performance

management process. Deloitte’s had identified that their existing process
was not delivering the benefits that it was designed to do. When they started
to analyse the data they discovered that when they tallied the number of
hours the organisation was spending on performance management, they
found that completing the forms, holding the meetings, and creating the
ratings consumed close to 2 million hours a year. 3

At first glance, the correlation between improving the performance

management process and improving profits might not appear obvious.
However, the statistics are that if your workforce is engaged, the
organisation is likely to enjoy a 26 percent higher revenue per
employee.4 Furthermore, it was found that organisations with highly engaged
employees earned 13 percent greater total returns to shareholders. The

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divide between what is motivating management and what motivates
employees can be vast.

WHAT DOES ‘PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT’ MEAN TO EMPLOYERS?

Successfully implemented and managed at an organisational level, this

process will assist the organisation to improve productivity and efficiency.
This translates to an increase in profits.

The actual process contains many elements covering the life cycle of the
employment. It should determine what the initial performance requires,
ensure that the performance levels are benchmarked and that those levels
are maintained if not improved upon. It should evaluate the organisational
needs and ensure that training and development is identified and
implemented. This in turn will drive a high-performance culture, determining
remuneration levels, bonus and promotions. Of course, where those
standards are not being met, it will also provide for disciplinary procedures
and terminations.

Its purpose is to ensure that employees’ activities and outcomes are

congruent with the organisation’s business objectives. Effective Performance
Management measures the progress being made towards the achievement
of the organisation’s business objectives.

WHAT DOES ‘PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT’ MEAN TO EMPLOYEES?

Performance Management is perceived by many employees as a derogatory

term. To most employees it means little more than the dreaded annual
appraisal. An annual event that will determine their salary, their bonus or
indeed whether they still have a job.

In many organisations, managers are promoted on the basis of their

technical proficiency and not their staff management skills. They are poorly

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equipped to either praise staff and encourage high performance or have
constructive conversations with staff to set expectations and improve
performance.

Poorly prepared managers approach a meeting with staff in a similar manner

to a disciplinary meeting – they go in to the meeting armed with examples of
when the employee did something wrong and see the appraisal as their
opportunity to address the mistake.

Employees are left feeling that they have been blindsided and rather than
have an opportunity to have a constructive discussion about their strengths
and goals for the future. They feel compelled to defend their existence. As a
result, no-one wins, the business does not achieve its organisational goals
and employees are left feeling under valued and disengaged.

COMMUNICATION IS KEY

Regardless of whether you are implementing a Change Management process

or a Performance Management process, the difference between success and
failure comes back to one simple action: ‘Communication.’ Unless senior
management takes the time to understand what motivates an employee and
their stake in any change, the implementation of the process is highly likely
to fail. It is the responsibility of team leaders to manage change in a way
that employees can cope with. To achieve that, managers must be equipped
with the critical tools to be able to do this.

Change is not just about following process. It is about being able to

successfully manage the emotional response that it generates. All too often
we see senior managers promoted on the grounds of technical competency
but without proper regard to the communication or human management
skills required. Faced with managing change, they often find themselves out
of their depth. The human race is a complicated species. How people

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communicate and interact with each other depends on a variety of different
elements. There is no written manual to give to managers. Understanding
the workforce and responding to their needs will take time.

The first thing senior managers need to learn is to listen to their workforce.
Once they understand the needs of the workforce, they can use this data to
interpret how best to respond and communicate with their workforce.
Communication can take a variety of forms including:

 formal announcements from the senior leadership team delivered at

town hall meetings;

 announcements on notice boards;

 using social media to up-date the workforce on a regular basis;

 weekly up-dates given in person;

 informal check-ins with employees;

 organising team building events; and

 arranging one to one meeting by phone, skype or in person.

Managers need to be able to communicate extremely well. Therefore, they

need to be comfortable with the message and the different ways it can be
delivered.

Importance of Communication in Change Management

For implementing a change program successfully, communication is the key

and one of the most complex parameters as it involves an exchange of ideas
and feelings with people in an organization through various mediums. It is
one of the toughest issues which an organization is faced with during the
entire process of implementation of change. Effective communication must
involve the following components:

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  The message which is being sent by the individual must be clear and
vividly presented. The message must radiate authenticity and
genuinity.
 The recipient of the message must listen attentively, ask questions for
clarifications and share feedback on the interpretation of the message.
 The method of delivery of the message must be compatible with the
circumstances of both the sender of the message as well as the
recipient.
 The message content must be able to connect well with the beliefs and
thoughts of the recipient for being able to be acceptable.

In any change management program, it is the people who are fundamentally

being affected by the change initiatives and it is the people who extend their
cooperation and support to make the change happen. Without the
involvement and motivation of the key stakeholders, it is impossible to
expect success from any change program, as it is them whose interests are
either positively or negatively affected due to the change initiatives.

The stakeholders’ involvement, commitment, and acceptance in the entire

change process is very important for achieving successful results from the
change management program. For this, the stakeholders must be made well
informed about the purpose or the objectives of change, and they should be
provided an opportunity to share their own ideas in the process of
implementation of a change program. Research has proven that if a change
is implemented in a consultative and an open manner it results in much
effective outcomes in the overall process.

The Purpose of Change Communication

Research has proven that in the absence of a proper communication plan,

the entire change process may turn into a fiasco. Overcommunication or no

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communication are both undesirable as due to this the whole effort of
change can be derailed.

In the absence of sufficient two-way conversation or effective communication

across all the levels, the change effort may fail to meet its objectives. If a
communication plan is designed efficiently and clearly, it helps in building
awareness and in getting the subsequent support in the entire program.

The communication continuum presented below shows how effective

communication influences the stakeholders in building commitment towards
the change.

The communication plan must be an integral part of the change plan

addressing the questions of how, what, when and why of change from the
people’s perspective. Like the other documents of planning, the
communication plan should also be documented and be subjected to periodic
reviews.

The importance of Stakeholder Analysis in Change Process

Stakeholder Analysis can be considered as the foundation tasks before

preparing and implementing a communication plan during a change process.
The more complex the nature of change is, stakeholder analysis becomes all
the more an imperative task as any implementation of change might be
subjected to resistance due to one or several reasons from the stakeholders.
Stakeholder analysis helps in minimizing the possible resistance from the
participants in the change process by understanding the requirements and
expectations of the key stakeholders who are directly or indirectly being

79
affected by the change. Stakeholder analysis can be useful in the following
ways:

 Identifying the key stakeholders or the stakeholder groups as well and

their influence on the change.
 Understanding the prevalent attitudes towards their change and how
this may influence the overall process.
 Identifying the needs of communication and the possible risks involved
if the needs are not met.
 Determining the various methods for communicating the messages as
well as the timing of delivery of these messages.

Fundamentals involved in Change Communication

The following factors participate in communicating change approaches
successfully:

Communicating the Change Vision Clearly and Doing it Early: This is

the most important stage as it involves communicating the vision of change
and what the organization will achieve at the end of the change effort. The
vision should be described in simple form, must be clear and must be able to
influence people strongly in implementing decisions. The earlier the vision
for the change is communicated, the easier it will be for the people to be
able to adapt and understand the nuances of change.

Highlighting the Benefits and the Impacts of Change: Effective

communication plan during a change process helps in controlling the inertia
or fears due to a change by explaining how the change will affect the people
associated with it and why it is being implemented.

Ensuring that the Leaders of the Organization actively communicate

in the entire process of change: The leaders of the organization must
convey how important the change is and must reflect their personal and
visible commitment towards the entire process of change, as this will be

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sending a powerful message to the key stakeholders about how seriously an
organization is committed towards the implementation of change.

Using various channels or mediums for communicating the message

of change: Care should be taken in understanding how people learn about
change from different mediums of communication. For visual learners,
documented materials may best appeal and help them in understanding the
change vision and for effective listeners, importance should be given to the
presentation style and selection of words for impressing such category of
stakeholders.

Providing Opportunities for Exchange of Dialogue or

Conversation: Providing opportunities for discussion and facilitating a two-
way communication with the stakeholders creates a sense of ownership and
fosters a sense of responsibility among the stakeholders.

Repeating the Messages of Change Periodically: Regular

communication of the change message facilitates a greater understanding of
the objective of the change and there will be a much greater probability that
people will act in accordance with the requirements of the changing situation
and extend their cooperation accordingly.

Greenfield

Greenfield is a term that originated from the construction industry to

reference land that has never been used or is undeveloped. With land that is
greenfield, there is no need to demolish or rebuild any existing building or
infrastructure. The use of the term has evolved and is now used. In other
industries. For the most part, a greenfield project is one that lacks
constraints imposed by prior work.

In the IT world, greenfield describes a software project that is developed

from scratch rather than built from an existing program. It is often

81
contrasted with "brownfield," which describes software built from an
existing program.

Greenfield engineering or greenfield construction is the process of

developing a new building or structure over a piece of land that has
never been developed. There are many advantages of developing
over greenfield but not so much when you are talking about
Brownfields. Brownfield engineering is related to developing or
building over a property that was previously developed and requires
additional steps and planning.

Greenfield Engineering

Greenfield areas are normally undeveloped areas highly recommended for

new construction. The benefits of greenfield construction relate to pristine
pieces of land with little to no contamination that contain no structures in the
premises. The most beneficial advantage is that there is no cost related
to environmental remediation and is ready to start building right away.

The most important drawback is that greenfield are usually located outside
city centres that might require additional infrastructure upgrades but those
are offset by more accessible land costs. Another advantage is that they
offer larger pieces of real estate ideally for future expansion and their zoning
classification is easier to be changed or adjusted as required. Keep in mind
that greenfield usually require deforestation and could affect environmental
sensitive areas including the habitat of endangered species.

Greenfield construction advantages:

 Ample space to build

 Better planning due to open land access
 Less unknown
 No contamination
 Sizing of property is not an issue

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  Low property cost
 Future expansion possibilities
 Flexibility to use larger equipment
 Road posting might affect deliveries and schedule

However, some of the drawbacks are:

 No accommodations for crews, per-diem might be required

 Additional infrastructure costs
 Limited local suppliers
 Deforestation and environmental permits could take longer due to
impact to sensitive areas
 Additional costs due to location, and temporary offices (power,
facilities and warehouse space)

What is green fielding?

Green fielding refers to a situation when an MNC establishes a new site of

production or service provision in Another Country. In this case the MNC will
need to recruit a workforce and establish internal structures to manage the
overseas operation.

Organizational Development Practitioners

Organizational Development Practitioners are people who are entrusted with
the job to carry out the planned change process in the organization. These
are the people with the ultimate responsibility to development and create
organizational wide effectiveness through challenging and changing its
current practices. OD Practitioner normally refers to people who do
Organizational Development.
Organizational Development Practitioners are people who are entrusted with
the job to carry out the planned change process in the organization. These
are the people with the ultimate responsibility to development and create

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organizational wide effectiveness through challenging and changing its
current practices. OD Practitioner normally refers to people who do
Organizational Development. These are the people who support in favor of
the change initiative and assist others to implement Organizational
Development interventions. Normally the Organizational Development
Practitioners are either the OD Specialist or Leaders and Managers who bring
change in their work domain.

OD Specialists

These are people who a specialist in the field of Organizational Development

 Normally Referred to as OD Consultants

 Can be Both Internal and External
 OD Practitioner may be from HR department or Separate OD
groups may exist in the organization

Leader or Managers

Leaders and Managers may apply OD techniques to their domain of work and
work as OD Practitioners, it is important as this would help highlight the need
and importance of the change initiative, and aid in lessen the resistance to
Change. Organizational Development Practitioners may be Internal or
External, Both have its advantages and disadvantages.

Types of Organizational Development Practitioners

1. External OD Practitioners

Advantages

 Brought in from outside so not associated with the system, which

makes them less dependent on the system and makes them work
independently

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  They are more formal in their approach and since they are
Specialist they are more Involved in the process, as this is what
they to for living
 Sees from Different point of view, with Objectivity
 Greater freedom of operation
 Viewed by top managers to have more positive influence, as they
cannot be influenced with ease, and are not really a part of the
organizational structure
 Less Influenced by power politics of the organization
 More Independent and Risk Takers

Disadvantages

 Outsiders are unfamiliar with the organizational culture, Norms,

Practices
 May have difficulty in Obtaining the information due to lack of
information on data repository and informal channels of
communication

2. Internal Practitioners

Advantages

 Familiar with Organizational culture and norms

 They know the Structure of the Organization
 They know the people
 Have personal interest in making organization succeed

Disadvantages

 Lack of Specialized Skills

 Lack of Objectivity as they may be influenced by the Management
 May not have necessary power and authority
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Sharon ema OD Process Consulting: What are the Competencies, Values, and
Roles OD Consultants Need to Practice to Effectively Help Clients?
Here is a competency framework that will help OD consultants when
working with clients.

OD Process Competencies are general areas of knowledge and skills

needed to effectively help clients through the process of change. These
competencies include relationship building, contracting, data collection and
data analysis, feedback reporting, action planning, implementation of
change, transfer of knowledge, research, organization systems, facilitation,
measurement and evaluation, and transferring the change process so the
client can manage it systemically.

One important competency area is Ethical Values. Values give you

guidelines to manage your OD conduct when interacting with the client.
Values help you create effective relationships, agreements, roles and
responsibilities, deliverables, outcomes, and behaviors. OD ethical
guidelines provide you with the standards that define our professional
conduct as OD professionals.

Another OD competency describes the Role of the OD Process

Consultant. OD Professionals must recognize the role they will play when
working with clients. Edgar Schein shared his model for OD Process
Consulting and described two consulting roles: The Traditional Role and the
Process Consultant Role. Typically, the traditional role calls for
an Expert or Doctor to prescribe a solution, or a Pair of Hands to
implement the action plan.

The role of the OD Process Consultant calls for the consultant to help the
client identify their needs and assist the senior leadership team by guiding

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them through the process of change. The OD Process consultant acts as an
internal or external consultant to help the organization determine its new
strategic direction for change. Influence skills are important to gain buy-in
and commitment. Facilitation skills are necessary when leading meetings,
facilitating group discussions, and conducting strategic planning sessions.

Often times OD Process consultants use a combination of both expert and

process consulting. OD process consultants bring their collective experience,
wisdom, and expertise to help organizations. A word of caution though,
carefully share your expertise or suggestions when appropriate and then
move back into the process consulting role by asking probing and inquiry
questions to determine what change they’d like to see in their organization.

The key to success as an OD Process Consultant is in building a strong

relationship with the client to help them gain clarity and a deep
understanding of their problem by using a humble inquiry approach.
Remember to be their advocate and trusted advisor offering your help
through the process of change.

Another important competency for an OD Process Consultant

is contracting. A contract identifies how you will work with the client and
client team, your roles, responsibilities and expectations. It defines the
deliverables or outcomes and level of commitment needed to be successful
and gain agreement. It also details the resources needed and the timeline.
Contracts define how conflicts will be resolved, if they arise, and how to
negotiate any changes to the contract. The contracting role is critical to the
success of any client relationship.

The OD Process Consulting role is critical to the success of building the client
relationship. Several key competencies are needed to be successful:
Interpersonal Communication Skills – building empathy and rapport, and

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asking open-ended probing questions. Having an OD mindset to understand
the client’s needs and readiness. Influence skills to encourage the client to
do something about their problem. Facilitation skills to build collaboration
and commitment, and problem-solving skills to help them solve their own
problems.

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