Organizational Development, or simply OD, is any systematic, planned process or effort toward the goal of improving organizational productivity, customer/public loyalty or team effectiveness.
Tools that OD practitioners employ to achieve organizational goals include any of the following, and usually a combination of several of these, among others:
Training (in all of its forms, in the classroom and online)
Feedback from others in the workplace (including 360 feedback: managers, peers, direct reports)
Assessments (using published inventories and profiles)
Executive coaching
Mentoring
Leadership development
Team forming and team building
Performance management (feedback on results achieved and behavior in the workplace)
Succession planning (designating successors for key positions)
Recruitment, selection and hiring
Compensation and benefits
Managing turnover
Organizational architecture (building org charts, reporting channels, team structures…)
Organizational integration (the nuts and bolts of leading and managing mergers)
Culture change (the traditions, practices, and expectations of behavior in an organization)
Change leadership and change management
The list could go on and on…. However, going back to our one-sentence definition, focus on the words “systematic, planned process or effort.” OD that adds value starts with targeted outcomes that support implementing an organization’s strategies today and anticipate how the organization must position itself for future success.
So, OD practitioners need not only the knowledge to plan OD and the skill to implement their methods, but also enough business acumen and a credible familiarity with their client organization’s sector (for-profit, not-for-profit, government…), business, industry and operating environment. “Credible,” means we can speak knowledgeably about the organization’s current state, and anticipate accurately at least the short term future.
CorrValues practices OD with these principles in mind, designing and recommending solutions that have high probability of positive impact, require the minimum investment to achieve targeted outcomes and apply evidence-based methods to achieve common sense results.
