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OD INTERVENTIONS

The role of OD practitioners

What are interventions?

The intervention is the procedure the OD consultant

uses, after diagnosing an organizational situation

and providing feedback to management, to

address an organization problem or positive future.

Intervention

“To intervene is to enter into an ongoing system of

relationships, to come between or among persons,

groups, or objects for the purpose of helping them”

(Chris Argyris (1970) Intervention theory and method. Reading, MA:

Addison-Wesley)

Intervention

“Intervention is any event, directed toward improving

organizational effectiveness, that disrupts an

organization‟s normal way of operating” (Smither, R. et al.

(1970) Organization Development: Strategies for Changing Environment. New York,

NY: HarperCollins)

Interventions sometimes involve a consultant from

outside the organization, but many times

management itself intervenes to make organizational

changes.

Deciding on appropriate

OD initiatives

OD Interventions

The techniques that OD practitioners use to bring

about change.

Specific activities, resulting from the process of

diagnosis and feedback, that OD practitioners use

to bring about change.

Diagnosis and Intervention for OD

Organization Vision, Mission, Strategies

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GAP

Strategy for change

Intervention Plan

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A successful OD intervention

Communicate more openly

Collaborate more effectively

Take more responsibility

Maintain a shared vision

Solve problems more effectively

Show more respect and support for others

Interact with each other more effectively

Be more inquisitive

Be more open to experimentation and new ways of doing things

Source: Porras&Hoffer (1986)

IndividualTeam

Organization or Sub-organization

Process

Global

Organization-wide

Community and

National

Entry Start-up

Assessment and Feedback

Action Planning

Implementation

Evaluation

Adoption

Separation

Environment

Source: McLean, G. (2006) Organization Development: Principles, Processes, Performance.

In a larger sense…

Diagnosing and giving feedback are themselves

forms of intervention.

Just the fact that management has recognized a

problem and asked someone skilled in OD to study

the situation and make recommendations is likely to

bring about some kind of change.

Chris Argyris

The founder of intervention theory

To intervene is to enter into an

ongoing system of relationships

to come between or among

persons, groups, or objects for

the purpose of helping them.

Argyris, C. (1970) Intervention theory and method. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

In other words,

Just undertaking the study of system is likely to have

some impact on the way the system operates.

In a sense, intervention is any event, directed

toward improving organizational effectiveness, that

disrupts an organization‟s normal way of operating.

Who intervene?

Interventions sometimes involve a consultant from

outside the organization,

But many times management itself intervenes to

make organizational changes.

Case study: Euro Disney

Management quickly intervened after it became apparent that the resort was losing $1 million a day.

In fall, 1993, Euro Disney‟s CEO, Philippe Bourguignon, invited his 9000 employees – “cast members” in Disney jargon – to suggest ways to improve operations in the park.

Euro Disney employees responded with a surprising number of suggestions.

One of the recommendations being implemented cut the number of souvenir items stocked in the stores from 30000 to 17000.

employees also suggested the stores carry more Mickey and Minnie souvenirs and fewer „artistic‟ items.

Along the same lines, the number of different food items available to visitors was reduced from 5400 to 2000.

The goal of the intervention – which result in Euro Disney‟s first profits in the summer of 1995 – is to cut costs by as much as $51 million.

Aside from specific techniques…

Intervention can also be thought of as a process.

As an OD practitioner begins the process, he/she

bring four sets of attributes to the organizational

settings.

OD practitioner and 4 sets of attribute

1. The practitioner bring the set of values that are

the foundation of the OD – including

the belief that people are the cornerstone of success

in any organization endeavor, that most workers

desire personal growth and would like their jobs to be

interesting and challenging,

that organizations are systems of interdependent

parts where changes in one area can bring

unexpected changes in another.


2. The OD specialist has a set of assumption about

the individuals, groups, and organization and how

they operate.

Many times these assumptions are affected by the

theoretical school to which the practitioner belongs.

For example, some OD specialists may interpret

organizational behavior from a sociotechnical systems

approach, whereas others may be more comfortable

using Lewin‟s unfreezing-moving-freezing model.


3. The practitioner has goals for him/herself and for

the organization of values.

Particularly after the OD specialist has made a

diagnosis, these goals may differ from the goals

expressed by higher management when they contact

the specialist.

In the process of planning the intervention, however,

the OD consultant and management work to make

certain they are in agreement about their goals.


4. The OD practitioner knows a variety of structured activities and techniques to use in reaching those goals. These specific structured activities and techniques are interventions.

Although certain interventions are used more frequently than others, the number and variety of interventions are always expanding. As new situations arise, and as the environments in which organizations operate change, new interventions are developed to address organization problems.

For example, virtually no interventions for diversity training existed even ten years ago, but diversity is now a major area of activity for OD practitioners.

OD interventions

Individual level

Team/Group

Process

Global

Organization-wide

Community and National

Source: McLean, G. (2006) Organization Development: Principles, Processes, Performance. CA: San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Individual interventions

Laboratory Training Group (T-Groups)

Coaching

Mentoring

Self-Awareness Tools

Reflection

Training, Education and Development

Leadership Development

Multirater (360-Degree) Feedback

Job Design

Job Descriptions

Responsibility Charting

Policies Manual

Values Clarification and Value Integration

Conflict Management

Action Learning

Source: McLean, G. (2006) Organization Development: Principles, Processes, Performance. CA: San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, pp.109-12.

Team/ Work Group interventions

Dialogue Sessions

Team Building

Team Development/

Effectiveness

Meeting Facilitation

Conflict Management/

Confrontation Meeting

Fishbowls

Strategic Alignment

Assessment


Process interventions

Six Sigma

Continuous Process Improvement/TQM

Process Reengineering

Benchmarking

Sociotechnical Systems (STS)


Organizational interventions

Organization Design

Company-wide Survey

Learning Organization/Organizational Learning

Culture Change

Accountability and Reward Systems

Succession Planning

Valuing Differences/Diversity

Strategic Planning, including Environmental Scanning and Scenario Planning

Mission, Vision, and Values Development

Large-Scale Interactive Events (LSIEs)

Open Systems Mapping

Future Search

Open Space Technology Meetings


Global interventions

Virtual teams and Virtual Teams Building

Cross –cultural Teams and Cross-cultural Team Building

Cultural Self-Awareness

Cross-cultural Training

Storytelling/Sharing

Joint ventures

International Diversity

Job Assignments

Blending


COPs

Open space

Appreciative inquiry

Knowledge café

Knowing „Consultants‟ is important

It is also important to recognize that…

consultant – whether internal or external – has a

particular area of expertise,

And that he or she often relies on that particular

expertise to solve organizational problems.

For example, some consultants specialize in

teambuilding, some in personnel selection, some in

strategic planning, and so forth.

One lesson…

One of the critical aspects of making an

intervention successful is being certain the person

responsible for implementing change has a good

knowledge of intervention appropriate to the

situation.