What makes an organisation run well?
WHY IT WORKS: Organisational development edition
What is Organisational Development?
A valid question as the phrase is not common vernacular. Organisational Development (OD) is a method to make an organisation as effective as possible in achieving its mission. By gathering information about how things are working and the context within which your organisation sits you can design or transform your organisational system (strategy, structure, culture, processes) so that all parts are aligned to organisational values and working towards achieving the goal or mission. This systems thinking approach allows you to achieve two things: avoiding pitfalls by solving problems before they happen (1) and maximising the impact of your time and resources.
So when do you use it? Often when there is an opportunity or threat straining existing ways of working (a step up in growth or a market downturn), you identify a need for new processes (for instance merging two companies), or a strategic pivot (due to new regulation, market changes or new entrants). Typically when one might call in the management consultants. That’s why you may not hear the phrase ‘organisational development’ very often, because it has been hidden behind this black box of management consulting. But not anymore! Let’s break it down:
Step 1. Assess the problem. This is all about gathering data on the issue and why it exists.What is/are the root cause(s) of the symptoms we see, how do they connect and where do they sit within your organisation or broader context? Tools like ‘desktop analysis’ of existing systems, surveys or interviews can be useful here. We want to be sure to understand why things are set up the way they are, relationships between elements, and any strategies that have been tried in the past.
Step 2: Plan and implement. Then we design the solution that will get you to where you want to be, by addressing the root cause and just as importantly not causing unwanted disruptions elsewhere in your ecosystem. You want to bring people into the design process to get to the most robust solution. You will tap into different perspectives and feedback, which will begin the process of readying your teams for implementation (so efficient). Communication plans, training, new process rollouts all happen here.
Step 3: Evaluate and adjust. The job is never ‘done’ at implementation. Just like budgets vs actuals, we had hypothesized impacts that we now need to measure in real life, and make changes based on that data. Start gathering feedback, looking at the numbers, tracking changes as soon as your rollout begins. Unforeseen impacts, context changes, or new data can all be managed.
Why does it work?
With OD you take a wide lens across the whole organisation. This ensures alignment across the organisation, that priorities are clear and pathways to achieve impact are cleared of obstacles. With a base in organisational (or industrial) psychology, you also take into account the human factor - the je ne sais quoi that differentiates organisations from Sims and makes them infinitely more complex.
When change happens or issues arise it can be tempting to go full solution mode and address what you can immediately see, e.g. we’ve had a market downturn, we simply cannot afford to continue as we are. Often the solution is to reduce headcount and save costs quickly. Approaching the system holistically means understanding what lies beneath - the current position, context, internal drivers and all potential outcomes of proposed actions. Using this information allows you to scope a range of possible solutions and make decisions fully aware of the potential trade-offs. Sometimes it may still make sense to reduce headcount and deal with reduced capacity or confidence in the business, legal and separation costs, and survivor guilt impacting productivity, morale and retention. In other cases you may be able to make strategic pivots, reduce waste in processes, or temporarily redeploy resources to accelerate planned rollouts that would negate that market downturn for your organisation.
Could you operate without OD? Absolutely. Would you have more efficient functions, better cultural alignment and happier staff with OD? Absolutely. Think about it like this - it is scientifically documented that meditation is good for you (2). People swear by it. However if you’ve never done it before, it can be hard to understand what you need to do and how to get started - speaking from personal and shared experience here. Using guided meditation gives you a framework to start from - a shortcut to effective practice. You can try out different approaches that have worked for others, figure out what works best for you to get optimal results and sally forth. With more experience you can confidently decide to develop your own approach or continue to leverage existing tools and frameworks. There is nothing preventing you from having a go by yourself by trial and error, or researching and reading, or even not starting at all! The show would go on. Are you infinitely better off by having taken that guided approach? Absolutely.
Taking an OD approach to your organisation and leveraging support will give the best outcomes, but it is also an investment (see management consultants above). As with any investment there will be cost-value considerations that impact whether you can and how you should use them. At auggy we offer accessible expertise that you can leverage for different scales of challenge and purposes. Because why wouldn’t we want everyone to be part of an organisation achieving goals and living values?
Read more
Heath, D. (2020). Upstream: The quest to solve problems before they happen. Avid Reader Press
Jamil, A., Gutlapalli, S. D., Ali, M., Oble, M. J. P., Sonia, S. N., George, S., Shahi, S. R., Ali, Z., Abaza, A., & Mohammed, L. (2023). Meditation and Its Mental and Physical Health Benefits in 2023. Cureus, 15(6), e40650. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.40650