• Study patterns of group behavior, social problems, and the influence of leadership on a group.

• Scientific methods can be used to gather data about groups and intervene in their processes

• Alternative ways of managing.

• Explicit and implicit assumptions influence managers.

• Employees are involved in noticing defects and taking action to prevent or correct them.

• Decipher how things are done, and the hidden meanings and assumptions that characterize how organizational members interpret and make sense of what is happening.

• Connecting OD practitioner work to larger, organization wide goals.

• Ability to adapt to change.

• Address the organization’s vision, mission, goals, and strategy.

• Problem solving.

• Self-reflection.

• Single-loop learning: correcting mistakes as they occur.

• Double-loop learning: question or modify to prevent errors the next time.

• Deuteron learning: members understand how and when they learn - develop an environment in which learning can occur.

• Effectiveness of organization.

• Employee engagement - an individual’s involvement and satisfaction with work and their enthusiasm for work.

• Ability to develop and be flexible.

• Timely, effective, and sustained changes within the organization.

• Ability to sense the need for change.

• Fast. Flexible. Focused.

• Collaboration with others.

• Culture and values can be seen as a person's beliefs and experiences.

• These help guide an individual in their decision making.

• OD culture, values and ethics are used to help direct choices about:

  • What client engagements to accept

  • What data gathering strategies should be employed

  • How the feedback to a client should be managed

  • What interventions should be selected

  • How the intervention that is chosen should be designed (Anderson, 2019)..

• They guide choices on how to proceed. They help when we are uncertain of what to do or when we have difference choices regarding what to do.

  • They offer a larger vision. They help us to meet a purpose that is greater than just one individual, and rather a community.

• They focus on ways to ensure growth, development, learning, and self-evaluation.

• They promote dialogue and clarity.

• Ethics guide practitioners in how to implement and enact values.

• Ethics involves putting these values into play to help create the change desired within an organization and doing so in the most humane manner.

(Anderson, 2019)

• Participation, involvement, and empowerment.

• The importance of groups and teams.

• Growth, development, and learning.

• Valuing the whole person.

• Dialogue and collaboration.

• Authenticity, openness, and trust.

(Anderson, 2019).

• When I think about an organization, the first thought that crosses my mind is "what do they do?"

• It is not until after that initial thought of what do they do that I start to think about why they do what they do.

• When we can identify the purpose of an organization, we are able to identify the importance of that agency and “sell” those services to others.

• "What you do proves what you believe" (Sinek, 2009).

• St. Joseph’s Addiction Treatment Center - When I first heard of this organization, my thought was “they treat people who suffer from drug and/or alcohol addiction.”

• Once I started to work for St. Joseph’s – and get more familiar with the field of addiction – I began to think differently and my thinking eventually shifted to “promoting healing and recovery for individuals, families, and communities."

• LaDonna Powell shares the issues within the Allied Universal Organization and the impact this had on employees. (Joffe-Walt, 2018).

• Joffe-Walt's podcast interview with LaDonna connected to the other course material that has been discussed thus far.

• Sinek (2009) explains that most companies discuss the what and the how. However, they often discuss the why last, or not at all. Allied Universal identified a single purpose: “to keep people, businesses, and communities safe so we can all thrive together” (Allied Universal, 2021).

• Organizational Effectiveness and Employee Engagement - how effective an organization is in achieving what it intended to achieve/produce, as well as an individual’s involvement and satisfaction with work/their enthusiasm with work (Anderson, 2019). As evidenced in Joffe-Walt (2018), LaDonna decided to take over employee training. She was engaged with employees and had high hopes of changing the culture at Allied Universal.

• “By humanistic we mean that individuals deserve respect, are trustworthy, and want to achieve personal growth and satisfaction. Humanistic values also include a belief in the equity and equality of people, democratic principles, and a belief in human dignity and worth” (Anderson, 2019, p. 51). The management of Allied Universal demonstrated the opposite of a humanistic approach based on the way they treated women, people of other races, and other minorities. In addition, they did not create a trusting environment and did not create respect between workers – rather they created feelings of being unsafe and less then.

• To begin, I would want to emphasize the value of creating authenticity, openness, and trust. “Being authentic means being straightforward, genuine, honest, and truthful about one’s plans, opinions, and motivations” (Anderson, 2019, p. 58).

  • • If the priority of Allied Universal is to keep people, businesses, and communities safe (Allied Universal, 2021) they need to establish a rapport which entails being authentic, trustworthy, and open with others about your intentions.

  • I would also work to emphasize the importance of valuing the whole person. “Respecting the whole person means acknowledging and recognizing diversity and the benefits that individual differences bring to an organization” (Anderson, 2019, p. 55).

    • “Our relationships with our employees and clients are at the core and heart of everything we do, every day” (Allied Universal, 2021). If this is the motto that Allied Universal wishes to believe, and implement, they would need to recognize the importance of valuing the whole person, and acknowledging that other people have thoughts, feelings, and are human beings and should be treated as such.

Levels

• Change can be planned or unplanned and can occur at different levels (Anderson, 2019):

  • Individual

  • Group/Team

  • Intergroup

  • Organizational

  • Suprasystem (multiple organziations are implicated)

Types

• First Order

  • Alterations or changes to existing practices

• Second Order

  • Modifications in the frameworks themselves

• Episodic

  • Distinct periods of change

• Continuous

  • Idea that the organization never truly stops changing

• Tries to gain an understanding of how subparts within an environment relate to one another (Anderson, 2019).

Value

• Offers useful explanations for human behavior in organizations while paying attention to roles and structures rather than individual characteristics (Anderson, 2019).

• By understanding the system and its dynamics, the OD practitioner have a more appropriate place to start interventions for change

• OD practitioners can be more deliberate about the changes being proposed and the possible negative results that can be predicted

Lewin's Three Phase Model of Change and Force Field Analysis

• Unfreezing --> Moving --> Refreezing

• Current practices need to be released to be changed, and once changed they are "refrozen" as newly adopted regular practices

• There may be forces supporting the change, and some resisting the change

Nadler-Tushman Congruence Model

• Emphasis on the transformational process and reflects interdependence

• Points to areas that affect one another so that changes in other parts of the system can be noted/controlled

Burke-Litwin Model of Organizational Performance and Change

• Specifies the variables that would be affected by a given change

• Takes into account first-order and second-order change

Weisbord's Six-Box Model

• Depicts the interrelationships among six of an organization's component parts (Purpose, Structure, Rewards, Relationships, Helpful Mechanisms, and Leadership)

• Helps illustrate how symptons can be seen in a ystemic light

(Anderson, 2019)

• Social construction view argues the organization is a concept developed out of our own actions and language.

• This approach sees change as a continuous process rather than a specific project.

• Offers a useful explanation for human behavior.

• Emphasizes the active role members take in creating an organization.

• Helps OD practitioners see the importance of communication in creating change.

• Stresses that organizational change has as its foundation a change in meaning.

(Anderson, 2019)

Expert Model

• Consultants are hired for specialized content knowledge in a particular field

Doctor-Patient Model

• Consultants are hired when consultants possess content knowledge and clients want to be told what the solution is

Mechanic Model

• Consultants are hired when the client wants the consultant to deal with all elements of the problem and to propose and implement a solution

(Anderson, 2019)

An OD consultant plays multiple roles within a consulting engagment (facilitator, coach, teacher, researcher)

Skills and Competencies

• Interpersonal Skills and Personal Characteristics

• Organizational Behavior

• Data Collection & Analysis

• Training & Development

• Business & Management Knowledge Areas

• General Professional Skills

• Consulting Skills

• Interventions

(Anderson, 2019)

Action Research

"The process of using social scientific reserach practices to gather data about groups, intervene in their processes, and evaluate the results of the intervention" (Anderson, 2019, p. 117)

Action Research Process

• Problem Definition and Diagnosis

• Action Planning

• Taking Action

• Evaluation Results

Consulting Process

• Entry

• Contracting

• Data Gathering

• Diagnosis

• Feedback

• Intervention

• Evaluation and Exit

(Anderson, 2019)

Design thinking (Stevens, 2021):

• Is user-centric

• Focuses on humans first and foremost

• Seeks to understand people’s needs and come up with effective solutions to meet those needs

• Fosters creativity and Innovation

• Create Process for How Client Will Participate

• Consultant and Client Identify a Mutual Interpretation of the Problem

• Analyze the Data - Determine which analysis to use

  • Deductive Analysis

    • Acknowledge benefits and drawbacks to different models

    • Determine which model to use

  • Inductive Analysis

    • Create theme headlines that explaine the content of the data

    • Code Data

  • Statistical Analysis

    • Review statistics

    • Interpret meaning of statistics - avoid bias

(Anderson, 2019)

• Address any Ethical Issues

• Select and Prioritize Themes to Share with the Client

  • Relevant

  • Influenceable or Manageable

  • Descriptive

  • Selective

  • Sufficient and Specific

• Contracting Process

  • Address how and when feedback will be presented to the client

• Structure Meeting

  • Determine environment meeting will be held

  • Determine day for meeting, time of meeting, length of meeting

• Feedback Meeting

  • Present information to client

  • Share positive data

  • Provide appropriate amount of detail

  • Share statistics that illuminate the trends

  • Confront the tough issues

  • Address any client resistance

(Anderson, 2019)

• Identify What Interventions are and Their Purpose

• Understand Reasons for Intervention Failure

  • Create plan to prevent this

• Acknowledge Considerations for Selecting an Appropriate Intervention

  • Determine if intervention match data and diagnosis

  • Idenitfy client's readiness to change

  • Decide where to intervene first

  • Determine appropriate depth of intervention

  • Consider sequence of activities

• Identify Ethical Issues

  • Create plan to address ethical issues

• Structure/Plan Intervention

  • Determine approach to change

    • empirical - rational approach

    • Normative - reeducative approach

    • Power - coercive approach

  • Create opportunity for learning

  • Give free choice

  • Provide clear and explicit outcomes

  • Identify different types of intervention and select most appropriate

    • Individual intervention

    • Team intervention

    • Whole organization intervention

(Anderson, 2019)

For my checklist, I:

• Read through chapters 8 and 9 of the course textbook.

• While doing so, I took notes of the different steps I was able to identify through my reading.

• After reading, I went online to a checklist template.

• I selected a template that included some color and “pop,” however was not too distracting (in my opinion).

• I revisited my notes, looking at the different steps I had written down.

• I eliminated the duplicates, however kept note of what order they presented in the reading.

• I then used arrows to structure the steps in an order that made sense to me and that I believe would be useful in the OD process.

• Once I had my steps in order in my notes, I began to fill in the online template with my steps.

• Once I had my steps within the template, I added my name at the bottom as the author, the title of this course, and the reference for our course textbook. I saved my checklist as a PDF file.

• For the case of Logan Elementary School, the principal, Nancy, wanted to make improvements such as:

  • Improving relationships among faculty and staff

  • Build consistency in approach among teachers at each grade level

  • Improve the relationship between the school and the community (Anderson, 2019).

• I put myself in the shoes of the practitioner who was asked to interview staff, faculty members, and parents over one weeks’ time.

  • The goal of this was to better understand the issues facing the school.

  • From there, I was able to collect, analyze, sort, interpret, select, and prioritize the data obtained.

  • After this, I worked to structure a meeting with Nancy to review the data as well as discuss what themes were observed through these interviews.

Through my diagnosis I discovered:

• 100% of the feedback from grades 2 thru 4 were concerns

• 100% of the feedback from grade 5 pertaining directly to Nancy was positive

• For the teachers of unknown grades, 80% of the feedback was concerns

• For staff, 33% of the feedback was concerns

• For parents, 100% of the feedback directly related to Nancy was positive

• The following are the main concerns that I identified and prioritized, based on the feedback from teachers, staff, and parents at Logan Elementary School:

  • Perceived favoritism/lack of support (30% of the concerns)

  • Faculty meeting (34% of the concerns)

  • Budget cuts and their impact (19%)

• Schedule a meeting with Nancy for Monday afternoon at 1:00 PM.

  • Length of meeting: 2 hours

  • Location: reserved office space at the Logan High School

• Provide Nancy with positive remarks that came from the interviewees regarding what is going well within the school.

• Discuss with Nancy the common themes within the data and provide addition feedback regarding each concern. These concerns will include:

  • Perceived favoritism/lack of support (30% of concerns)

  • Faculty meetings (34% of concerns)

  • Budget cuts and their impact (19% of concerns)

• Process information with Nancy

• Determine next steps

• Conclude meeting