Organization Development
Organization Development (OD) is a dynamic yet designed approach to systems change in organizations and communities. It builds the capacity to achieve and sustain a desired future. It cultivates shared underlying beliefs in human potential and the importance of creating work settings that allow both people and the organization to thrive. OD optimizes the use of human talent in service to an organization's vision, mission, goals, and strategies. It helps people work and live more effectively together. For more information on OD, go to www.odnetwork.org.
Organization Development and the Orion Partnership
Since 1984, the two of us—Bud Orr and Kathleen Ryan—have worked as organization development consultants with executives as they create high performance, collaborative, and trust-based work environments. Several over-lapping and reoccurring themes have surfaced in all our work:
- Building and leading a strong organizational culture that is adaptive to change
- The challenge of genuine engagement—bringing together groups of highly motivated individuals who make the work of their groups a top priority
- Staying focused on long term goals while responding to urgent, short-term demands including reduced resources
- The impact of change upon change
- Effective teaming at the top
- Developing leaders who are focused on both results and people
- The way in which values and emotions influence an organization's ability to achieve its goals
- Creating an environment where people engage in conversations about tough, complex issues and reach successful resolutions
Key elements of this work have included:
Assessment: establish a base-line understanding of the characteristics of the organization's culture, leadership and on-going improvement or change efforts
Setting Direction: facilitate the development and widespread ownership of a vision, mission, and values
Planning: assist with the development of strategic, operational, or culture change plans so that the vision, mission, and values are realized
Executive Development: serve as a sounding board, provide feedback and coaching, and facilitate team development at the executive level
Alignment: facilitate and support changes in organizational systems so they contribute to—rather than contradict—the vision, mission, values and operational plans
Skill Building: help individuals throughout the organization build the essential leadership skills necessary in a fast paced, collaborative, high-performance workplace
Participation: design and facilitate small and large group activities (50-500 participants) that can foster relationships, enhance learning and information flow, engage people from all different sectors and levels of an organization in creating a positive vision of the future
“Organization Development builds the capacity to achieve and sustain a desired future.”