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...think twice before spending money on organisational development. It?s better to invest that money and time on buying equipment, software, or simply on employee entertainment...


What is the key to success for an organisation? Is it the attitude of the employees? The level of talent in the team? A good brand? The answer lies in the various tools that can be used to improve the functioning of the organisation. One such tool is the Organisation Development Process (ODP), which guides the activities and processes necessary for the development of an organisation. An effective ODP can help your organisation achieve its objectives, while an ineffective ODP can lead to a high employee turnover rate.



Organisation Development framework is one large canvas that encompasses a list of key elements like learning & development, change management, processes, policies, leadership & managerial capabilities etc. It requires to be approached with a larger perspective. If you are willing to deep dive, read on!


Organisation Development Process is often linked with a solution to an existing problem. But it is much larger a canvas, as I mentioned earlier. Approaching Organisation Development Process with a hoodwinked perspective to resolve existing issues or short-term requirements may yield you a short-term success and a false sense of achievement.


???Visualize a lake that is choking with sludge and garbage. If you are asked to find a solution, which of the following would you choose?

  

a. Clean the sludge and garbage

   b. Construct a fence around the lake

    c. Penalize people for littering and dumping garage in the water body

   d. Keep dustbins around the lake

   e. All of the above


If you choose any one of the above solutions or if your option is ?e?, you may see results, but would the solution be optimal? Let?s look at this situation from a different perspective. If you are asked to find a solution to maintain a healthy ecosystem of the lake, which of the following would you choose?


   1. Educate people about the importance of keeping the water body clean

   2. Deploy natural and organic ways to remove sludge

   3. Implement a long-term solution to reduce the formation of sludge

   4. Involve residents in the upkeep of the lake

   5. All of the above




I am sure by now you would have got a hint about what I am implying. Yes. You are right. It's all about the perspective. When the perspective changes, your vision changes, and you get new insights. The new insights may lead to long-term sustainable and cost-effective solutions compared to recurring expenses of quick fixes. Of course, you may want to include ?e? also as part of the larger solution.


Let?s look at the organisation development process from a broader perspective. It?s a process that is competent enough to facilitate leaders to visualize opportunities and threats that the organisation may face in the coming years; prepare people, processes, and policies to harness the opportunities and overcome the challenges; Monitor, control, and review strategy implementation effectively to identify shortcomings proactively.





1. DEFINE ORGANISATION GOALS


This is the step that sets the perspective right. A SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic & time-bound) Organisational Goal should clarify the company's purpose. This purpose is the true north of the organisation, and anything it thinks, speaks, and does should be in line with this goal.


Organisation goal helps you from getting carried away with a new opportunity or existing problem. Remember, the organisation development process is not a root cause analysis process. Hence, don?t base it on finding a solution for an existing problem but base it on the organisation's broader vision. While taking a step towards a new opportunity or a problem, check if your actions are aligned with the organisation's goal. Your organisation?s goal will guide you like a north star, a lighthouse, even during difficult times.



2. ASSESSING ORGANISATIONAL COMPETENCIES


Now that you have defined your organisational goal, you need to assess whether the organisation is competent enough to achieve the goal. You may also want to set the goals based your assessment on:





3. DESIGN LEARNING ARCHITECTURE


The organisation development process should help create a system capable of identifying opportunities, threats and dealing with them. The backbone of such a system is called ?Organisational Learning Architecture?. The entire organisational development structure is built on the learning architecture.


Learning architecture is about how various stakeholders of an organisation support and complement each other in continuous learning. In other words, it shows the structure of how an organization learns.


Till such time all stakeholders play their role in supporting each other; it is almost impossible to bring in any change in an organisation. The learning architecture not only focuses on the learning requirements but also on providing the right environment to nurture talent in an organisation.



4. DEVELOP & IMPLEMENT SOLUTION


It is this area where many organisations falter, and it is not about how much they invest into this step, but it is about:




5. MONITOR, CONTROL AND REVIEW


This step is again connected to organisational competencies. You have to answer these questions before rolling out solutions:






This step should help you with evaluating return on investment and publish the reports. Mid-course corrections are not possible without performing this step. In fact, if you don?t have the ability to publish ROI reports, you should think twice before spending money on organisational development. It?s better to invest that money and time on buying equipment, software, or simply on employee entertainment.