7 Reasons Why OD Consulting Must Involve Both
A common question I get asked in that setting is, ‘how would you handle…(an organization development issue)?’ My response is always the same; unless the Scope of Work first includes work on financial matters, which is the other side of the organization coin, I probably won’t accept the project. Why, show me what you think is a people problem, and I’ll show you a money problem. Show me what you think is a money problem, and I’ll show you a people problem. If the client is not willing to address both sides of that coin simultaneously, I am not willing to work on half of a problem.
So back to the 7 main reasons why I don’t accept strictly OD consulting…(not necessarily in this order):
- …if the leader is not currently or unwilling to serve as the exemplar.
- …if there is an insistence on attempting to salvage people with absurd counseling.
- …if somebody in the organization has simply gotten the client excited about the latest and greatest, a popular acronym, or a cool management style, i.e. ‘good to great’, ‘self direction’, ‘value added’, ‘world class’, etc.
- …if the business has not developed a ‘Strategy’.
- …if organization development, decision making, innovation, or problem solving is not related to the ‘Strategy’.
- …if management believes that business planning and career development are the same.
- …if the client is not willing to assign accountability with consequences, or there is a requirement for a consensus.
Since how we are all wired has not changed since day one, I don’t believe you have to develop an intricate organization model or create Byzantine decision making procedures in order to turn any organization in to a profitable, well-oiled machine. Allegorically, you need a spine and a pennant.