Defining Organization Development for Practical Purposes

Exactly how can we tell potential clients what we do? How do we share the enormous power that organization development has for creating and managing organizational change? Most of the definitions I've read in OD texts are too abstract to be of much use with bottomline, task-oriented clients. Too often they think of OD as "touchy-feely." Or they think it's the latest jargon for team building, retreat facilitation, or training--all of which are a part of OD, none of which are OD. So here is my definition based on what has worked in my experience with 50+ clients and too many students to count.
Organization Development: Collaborating with organizational leaders and their groups to create systemic change on behalf of root-cause problem-solving toward improving productivity and employee satisfaction through strengthening the human processes through which they get their work done.
What I like about this definition is that it offers the essence of (1) what we do, (2) the results we are after, and (3) how we do it. Exploring these three items can also help us understand and explain several critical aspects of what we do and don't do as OD practitioners.

1. What we do: We "support leaders and their groups." The operational word here is "support." Many of our potential clients come to us with the notion that we will fix whatever their issue is for them. After all, we are "the experts." And, we are experts! We are experts who understand how to create and facilitate human processes that will support leaders in identifying and solving their own problems. That expertise says that our clients must lead their own projects in collaboration with us as process designers and facilitators.
Maintaining these roles (client as leader and us as process designer and facilitator) can be problematic. We want to show our clients that we can fix it for them. We may fear that they will throw us out on our ears if we don't do what they have asked us to do. To combat such thoughts remember that:

• They asked us for our help in doing something they don't know how to do (whether they want to admit it or not)!
• We are experts in the realm of organizational and human processes.
• We are more than powerful enough to be full, collaborative partners with the highest level muckety muck that you might encounter. They are just people!
2. The results we are after: We are after " systemic change on behalf of root-cause problem-solving toward improving productivity and employee satisfaction." This is the most powerful aspect of our work. Systemic change gets at the root cause of organizational problems that are in the way of full productivity and high performance. Human systems are not like machines. When machines malfunction, the process of choice is to locate the malfunctioning component(s), then fix or replace them. In human systems, such fault-finding processes tend to promulgate more problems, rarely solutions. In human systems a "malfunctioning component" can only exist with the support of the rest of the system. When a client suggests to me a single-point solution (such as, please train my supervisors), I respond with something like... "I see what you're after. It would probably be a good idea to find out what's going on that has so many of your supervisors demonstrating poor management skills. Things like poor hiring practices and poor accountability management are often behind such problems. If we can get at the root causes the problem will go away forever. What do you think?" I've never had a client turn down such an approach (assuming, of course, that I have the right client, but that's a topic for another paper). The results of systemically-oriented solutions are powerful, longer-lasting, promote organizational well-being, and, therefore, are memorable. That last is critical; it is the key to having a successful practice whether you are an internal or external practitioner. Clients call me back for other situations and pass my name on to others because the quality of my work keeps my client always focused on systemic, root-cause solutions.
   
3. How we do it: We do it "through improving the human processes through which people in organizations get their work done." Any task gets done through some process and the quality of the result is often directly related to the quality of the process used to accomplish that result. We must educate our clients in understanding that organization development is very much a task-oriented field. To be of any value we must enhance the business goals of our client organizations. That is the only reason for our existence as OD practitioners. How we enhance those business goals is through improving how the people tasked with accomplishing those goals collectively go about their business. The beauty of OD is that we really don't need to know very much. In fact my ignorance is my most important tool. As I ask my clients to explain to me their business and what works and doesn't work in how they get their work done, they discover the holes in their thinking and fill them in. As clients--after much truth-telling coaching from me--bring everyone together to share data, ideas and knowledge they discover--through my deft facilitation--that they have collected enough good information to invent effective root-cause solutions. That is over-simplified, but still an accurate description of how OD works.
   

That description of how OD works points to what sets us apart from other consulting processes that involve studying the client's problems, then presenting "expert" recommendations in a report that is as likely to simply gather dust in some drawer. People will implement solutions that they have invented and in which they, thereby, believe. Those are the solutions that we help invent!
In summary I offer some do's and don'ts:

SOME DON'TS
1. Don't try to fix it or do it for them.
2. Acknowledge, but don't trust your client's diagnosis or solution ideas.
3. Don't not gather your own systemic data.
4. Don't soften or avoid difficult data during feedback.
5. Don't smooth over or avoid conflicts.
6. Don't take sides.

SOME DO'S
1. Be true to our definition of OD: supporting organizational leaders and their groups to create systemic change through improving the human processes through which they get their work done.
2. Be the expert in the process of managing change in human systems.
3. Be a full partner with your clients.
4. Tell the truth, don't hedge. Your clients can handle it, and they will respect you for it.
5. Turn training and other non-OD requests into OD contracts.
6. Be true to yourself and your fundamental magnificence.

OD is easy--sort of. Have fun with it!