Organizational Development
Tools and Techniques
Is OD the same as training?
No, the two fields compliment each other. OD involves analyzing 3 areas of an organization: its people, its processes, and its planning. Training on the other hand, typically only involves the people component. Training people will not solve every issue. Sometimes the issue requires a change in the process, and/or further strategic planning efforts.
What can OD do for my department?
Often described as "change agents," OD consultants facilitate the following types of activities:
- Strategic Planning
- Surveys/Assessments/Action Research
- Teambuilding
- Goal Setting
- Group Facilitation
- Leadership Development
- Executive Coaching
- Management Development
- Creative Problem Solving
- Succession Planning
- Conflict Resolution
- Process Analysis & Redesign
- Interpersonal Communication
- Human Resources Management
- Restructuring
- High Involvement Work Teams
- Systems Design
- Training & Development
- Total Quality Management
- Continuous Improvement
World Café:
Most meeting places are sterile, cold, and impersonal. We will create a warm, inviting environment with natural light and comfortable seating. We will honor our long traditions of human hospitality by offering food and refreshments. Hospitable space also means "safe" space--where everyone feels free to offer their best thinking. Creating a hospitable space begins with the invitation to attend a Café. We will include the theme or central question we'll be exploring in our Café in our invitation. The question will be stated as an open-ended exploration, not a problem-solving intervention. We will use color, hand printing, graphics and other ways to make it stand out from the deluge of paper and e-messages we all receive.
Read more at the World Café Website
Open Space Technology:
In these times of swirling change, conversation qualifies as real work and is essential for powerful, profitable action. As specialization and customization increase, complex webs of relationships and information emerge, pressure for frontline decision-making and on-time delivery rises, and individual control seems to be slipping away, it's never been more important to be deeply connected with our partners at work. Open Space Technology is a simple, powerful way to catalyze effective working conversations and truly inviting organizations -- to thrive in times of swirling change.
Read more about Open Space Technology.
The Parker Team Player Assessment (PTPS)
The Parker Team Player Survey (PTPS) allows individuals to examine their primary team player style – contributor, collaborator, communicator or challenger. The PTPS is an excellent tool for use in all team applications where individuals’ different preferences can influence team effectiveness.
What it measures
The PTPS measures an individual’s style as a team player. The survey results lead to the identification of the individual’s preference for one of four different team player styles. The PTPS can be used to assess current strengths and provide a basis for increasing team effectiveness.
Applications
- Enhancing team communication
- Increasing team effectiveness
- Improving team leadership
- Conflict and relationship management
- Team building
Read more about PTPS:
Double Loop Learning
Because things don’t always work out just right we have a discipline called
“problem-solving.” This discipline is what we think of to use in order to set things right.
A great deal of our problem-solving repertoire is intuitive, drawing heavily on practical, common sense. If our boat springs a leak far from shore, we become extremely creative about how to survive, often without a second thought to our way of inventing a workable solution.
But too often, our problem-solving efforts fall short when we apply them to complex, ambiguous organizational messes. Our attempts to clean up these messes may backfire on us, making them worse, or at best no better, while simultaneously triggering new messes elsewhere in the organization. Double loop learning can help to address the root cause of problems.
