OD INTERVENTIONS

The role of OD practitioners

What are interventions?

The intervention is the procedure the OD consultant uses, after diagnosing an organizational situation and providing feedback to management, to address an organization problem or positive future.

Intervention
To intervene is to enter into an ongoing system of relationships, to come between or among persons, groups, or objects for the purpose of helping them
(Chris Argyris (1970) Intervention theory and method. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley)

Intervention

Intervention is any event, directed toward improving organizational effectiveness, that disrupts an organizations normal way of operating (Smither, R. et al.
(1970) Organization Development: Strategies for Changing Environment. New York, NY: HarperCollins)

Interventions sometimes involve a consultant from outside the organization, but many times management itself intervenes to make organizational changes.

Deciding on appropriate OD initiatives

OD Interventions

The techniques that OD practitioners use to bring about change. Specific activities, resulting from the process of diagnosis and feedback, that OD practitioners use to bring about change.

Diagnosis and Intervention for OD

Organization Vision, Mission, Strategies

GAP

Strategy for change

Intervention Plan

...

...

...

...

A successful OD intervention

Communicate more openly Collaborate more effectively Take more responsibility Maintain a shared vision Solve problems more effectively Show more respect and support for others Interact with each other more effectively Be more inquisitive Be more open to experimentation and new ways of doing things
Source: Porras&Hoffer (1986)

Environment Organization or Sub-organization

Individual Team

Process
Global

Entry

Start-up
Assessment and Feedback

Organization-wide
Implementation

Action Planning

Community and National

Evaluation Adoption

Separation
Source: McLean, G. (2006) Organization Development: Principles, Processes, Performance.

In a larger sense

Diagnosing and giving feedback are themselves forms of intervention. Just the fact that management has recognized a problem and asked someone skilled in OD to study the situation and make recommendations is likely to bring about some kind of change.

Chris Argyris

The founder of intervention theory

To intervene is to enter into an ongoing system of relationships to come between or among persons, groups, or objects for the purpose of helping them.

Argyris, C. (1970) Intervention theory and method. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

In other words,

Just undertaking the study of system is likely to have some impact on the way the system operates. In a sense, intervention is any event, directed toward improving organizational effectiveness, that disrupts an organizations normal way of operating.

Who intervene?

Interventions sometimes involve a consultant from outside the organization, But many times management itself intervenes to make organizational changes.

Case study: Euro Disney

Management quickly intervened after it became apparent that the resort was losing $1 million a day. In fall, 1993, Euro Disneys CEO, Philippe Bourguignon, invited his 9000 employees cast members in Disney jargon to suggest ways to improve operations in the park. Euro Disney employees responded with a surprising number of suggestions.

One of the recommendations being implemented cut the number of souvenir items stocked in the stores from 30000 to 17000. employees also suggested the stores carry more Mickey and Minnie souvenirs and fewer artistic items. Along the same lines, the number of different food items available to visitors was reduced from 5400 to 2000.

The goal of the intervention which result in Euro Disneys first profits in the summer of 1995 is to cut costs by as much as $51 million.

Aside from specific techniques

Intervention can also be thought of as a process. As an OD practitioner begins the process, he/she bring four sets of attributes to the organizational settings.

OD practitioner and 4 sets of attribute

1.

The practitioner bring the set of values that are the foundation of the OD including

the belief that people are the cornerstone of success in any organization endeavor, that most workers desire personal growth and would like their jobs to be interesting and challenging, that organizations are systems of interdependent parts where changes in one area can bring unexpected changes in another.

OD practitioner and 4 sets of attribute

2.

The OD specialist has a set of assumption about the individuals, groups, and organization and how they operate.

Many times these assumptions are affected by the theoretical school to which the practitioner belongs. For example, some OD specialists may interpret organizational behavior from a sociotechnical systems approach, whereas others may be more comfortable using Lewins unfreezing-moving-freezing model.

OD practitioner and 4 sets of attribute

3.

The practitioner has goals for him/herself and for the organization of values.

Particularly after the OD specialist has made a diagnosis, these goals may differ from the goals expressed by higher management when they contact the specialist. In the process of planning the intervention, however, the OD consultant and management work to make certain they are in agreement about their goals.

OD practitioner and 4 sets of attribute

4.

The OD practitioner knows a variety of structured activities and techniques to use in reaching those goals. These specific structured activities and techniques are interventions.

Although certain interventions are used more frequently than others, the number and variety of interventions are always expanding. As new situations arise, and as the environments in which organizations operate change, new interventions are developed to address organization problems. For example, virtually no interventions for diversity training existed even ten years ago, but diversity is now a major area of activity for OD practitioners.

OD interventions

Individual level Team/Group Process Global Organization-wide Community and National

Source: McLean, G. (2006) Organization Development: Principles, Processes, Performance . CA: San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Individual interventions

Laboratory Training Group (T-Groups) Coaching Mentoring Self-Awareness Tools Reflection Training, Education and Development Leadership Development

Multirater (360-Degree) Feedback Job Design Job Descriptions Responsibility Charting Policies Manual Values Clarification and Value Integration Conflict Management Action Learning

Source: McLean, G. (2006) Organization Development: Principles, Processes, Performance . CA: San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, pp.109-12.

Team/ Work Group interventions

Dialogue Sessions Team Building Team Development/ Effectiveness Meeting Facilitation

Conflict Management/ Confrontation Meeting Fishbowls Strategic Alignment Assessment

Source: McLean, G. (2006) Organization Development: Principles, Processes, Performance . CA: San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, pp.109-12.

Process interventions

Six Sigma Continuous Process Improvement/TQM Process Reengineering Benchmarking Sociotechnical Systems (STS)

Source: McLean, G. (2006) Organization Development: Principles, Processes, Performance . CA: San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, pp.109-12.

Organizational interventions

Organization Design Company-wide Survey Learning Organization/Organizational Learning Culture Change Accountability and Reward Systems Succession Planning Valuing Differences/Diversity

Strategic Planning, including Environmental Scanning and Scenario Planning Mission, Vision, and Values Development Large-Scale Interactive Events (LSIEs) Open Systems Mapping Future Search Open Space Technology Meetings

Source: McLean, G. (2006) Organization Development: Principles, Processes, Performance . CA: San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, pp.117-21.

Global interventions

Virtual teams and Virtual Teams Building Cross cultural Teams and Cross-cultural Team Building Cultural Self-Awareness Cross-cultural Training Storytelling/Sharing Joint ventures International Diversity Job Assignments Blending

Source: McLean, G. (2006) Organization Development: Principles, Processes, Performance . CA: San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, pp.114-15.

Appreciative inquiry COPs

Open space

Knowledge caf

Knowing Consultants is important

It is also important to recognize that

consultant

whether internal or external has a particular area of expertise, And that he or she often relies on that particular expertise to solve organizational problems. For example, some consultants specialize in teambuilding, some in personnel selection, some in strategic planning, and so forth.

One lesson

One of the critical aspects of making an intervention successful is being certain the person responsible for implementing change has a good knowledge of intervention appropriate to the situation.