| Organisational Development, often referred to as ‘OD’ for short, can sometimes seem a bit of a mystery to people in terms of what it is! So this month we are going to take a look at what this might involve and how it can benefit your organisation.
The broad focus of OD is culture and change, and the continuous development needed for success. This includes the structure of a business, and how to successfully respond to the ever-changing business environment.
Organisational Change can help with evolving, adapting or improving a business in line with its strategic goals. By its very nature it often involves change or transformation.
OD is an evidence-based practice, and often the role of an OD Consultant will be to help businesses look for evidence of why something needs to change, or why a business thinks it has a requirement for change.
OD sits closely with, and sometimes overlaps with Human Resources (HR) and Learning and Development (L&D).
Examples of OD
- Changes to the structure, culture, strategy and processes of an individual job through to an entire business.
- Understanding how the business can be more effective. Gathering evidence – does anything need to change in the first place?
- The improvement of organisational effectiveness by involving members of the business in understanding the challenge, whilst enabling them with new skills, knowledge and ways of thinking to develop and grow.
- Looking at being the best we can as a business.
- The facilitation of change in a flexible, adaptive and often participative way. It’s about making change with people, not ‘doing change to’ people. .
- Sustainability, so consistent change in the right direction continues beyond the life of the initial change initiative.
Source: Roffey Park
How you can be more ‘OD’ focused in your business:
- Always keep an eye on whether today’s operational activities are serving the business’ future vision
- Balance short-term needs with longer term benefits. It is easy to get stuck in day to day activities.
- Try to connect all activities with the business strategy. Are you being strategic? Are you future proofed?
- Consider whether your structures, processes are future-proofed and how they could be more so.
- Help people understand ‘why’ change is important
- See through what you start.
How we can help:
In some circumstances it can be helpful to have support in design and delivery of OD for your business with input from an external OD Consultant.
Please do get in touch with us if you would like to talk about your OD business needs. |
