Organisational Development
Empowering the workforce
through organisational development
The success of any organisation’s plans for growth or change must include its people. Organisational development (OD) is about empowering the entire workforce – not just management – to transform systems. Instead of imposing change on employees, we use OD to involve them in the process of change. In so doing we shift the employment relationship to one of engagement.
On a deeper level, OD is about behavioural science, the study of an organisation’s ‘society’ and the relationship with its systems. As such, applying behavioural science principles and practices will increase individual and organisational effectiveness.
A fulfilled and engaged workforce is a high performing one. So it’s a matter of striking a balance between improving the working experience for the individual and maximising the benefit they can bring to the organisation’s overall performance.
It stands to reason, therefore, that OD is the prequel to transformation not a bolt-on at the end.
Culture and collaboration
Tusk organisational development focuses on the culture of a business as well the organisational, process-related aspects. Our services flex according to the individual context in which our clients operate. Our approach is to use your available data and design every change and ‘intervention’ together. By combining our technical skill-set and experience with your organisational insight, we create a powerful collaboration.
There are 3 phases to our development service:
- Diagnostic phase
- Evaluation phase
- Intervention phase
1. Diagnostic phase
The diagnostic phase provides us with the data – a clear basis for decision-making. We study your entire workforce – roles, the systems you use and the culture within which you operate. Where are the shining examples, where are the chinks? It’s designed to get everyone to question the current reality and begin imagining a different future. The stages are:
- Organisational Diagnostics
- Change Readiness Assessments
- Culture Diagnostics
The data we collect will be task-specific but we’re prepared for where it might lead us and the revisions we might need to undertake the right activity.
Key considerations are:
- Who owns the data and who will analyse it?
- What kind of processes should be used for collection and how do we resource it?
2. Evaluation phase
Evaluation is a continuous process so it’s vital that mechanisms are in place to take stock of progress and what has been achieved so far. Evaluation of the process is, therefore, a big part of ensuring a successful outcome.
We look at the raw data with our clients. Then we evaluate and draw conclusions, and we do this together. This gets round the problem of ‘subjective’ interpretation. It also means we encourage our clients to face uncomfortable, negative truths head on. Such as what are the ‘politics’ and where’s the power located in the organisation?
Key considerations are:
- Evaluating methodologies and progress against outcomes after each intervention. For example, checking that cost benefit has been delivered, monitoring the status of stakeholder relationships and peer-to-peer learning.
- Putting effective tracking mechanisms in place to review progress – including ownership of, and responsibility for, the data.
3. Intervention phase
Once we’ve completed an analysis of the current reality within the organisation, we now begin work on enabling the organisation to achieve sustainable performance.
Key considerations are:
- Given the culture of the organisation, how should intervention be planned?
- What intervention (tools and techniques) will provide the best fit to the organisation and deliver the outcome required?
- What population within the organisation will be targeted by the intervention, individuals, group, intergroup or the whole organisational system?
As with all our work, development is specific to every organisation at a particular point in time – Tusk solutions are never pre-packaged.
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