What is Organization Development (OD)?

Organization Development, commonly referred to as "OD," has been explained as a general

consideration of how work is done and what the people who carry out the work believe and
feel about their efficiency and effectiveness. The emphasis is on "development," which means
that people's capability in creating their own improvement, learning and development is
enhanced.

Mincu & Associates' philosophy is that the ultimate answers reside within the client
organization itself. As skilled OD consultants, we draw upon process knowledge and
appreciative inquiry to bring out that internal awareness and expertise. Rather than providing
the answers, Mincu & Associates brings expert process that allows the client to learn to
provide its own answers. This process might be a combination of several of the areas
described in more detail below.

• Assessment & Feedback Reports

• Systems Thinking
• Leadership Development
• Team Development
• Communication
• Managing a Transition
• Participative Redesign
• Competency Development

Is OD Consulting the same as Management Consulting?

OD consulting differs from traditional management consulting in its approach and philosophy.
Management consultants typically approach from an "expert" point of view. Managers of the
client organization are left with a plan of recommendations that has been created by the
consultants, drawn from their expert knowledge. The consultants usually do not get intimately
involved in implementation of the plan, or help the organization's people develop capacity to
change by themselves.

Organization Development consulting is more of a partnership approach, where our goal is to

develop our client organization's innate capability to generate learning and transformation on
their own. We provide the tools to help them do so, in a way that is customized to each client's
needs and corporate culture.

Assessment and Feedback Reports

Assessment determines how key stakeholders in the organization perceive an identified

situation, leader, event, or environment. Assessments might be done through a survey, or a
combination of one-to-one or focus group interviews. Stakeholders can be identified as peers,
leaders, subordinates, and customers.
 Most visible problems initially identified in organizations are only symptoms of a deeper
situation. The outcome of a solid assessment is a surfacing of the underlying problems, so that

real solutions can be arrived at.

The Mincu Approach

I use the interview process to create a comprehensive feedback report to management on how
stakeholders at all levels in the organization perceive issues. For example, a thorough assessment
report based on confidential interviews can indicate the desirable direction of a change process by
giving participants' answers to the following questions:

• How clear is the organization vision or strategic goal?

• How is a leader perceived, in style and effectiveness?
• How is the organizational culture impacting performance?
• How are the interpersonal dynamics between team members or business units; is there tension
that is affecting work outcomes?
• How are policies and procedures helping or hindering the organization in achieving desired
outcomes?
• How are the business realities in the environment today impacting the organization, in a way
that is not being addressed?

My reports are well-organized, easy to read and assimilate quickly, are timely, and include realistic,
actionable recommendations. From the information generated, I work with clients to design a program
that will truly address their situation for both short and long-term, and not simply provide a band-aid
or quick fix.
Systems Thinking

Peter Senge (The Fifth Discipline, 1990) introduced the term "Systems Thinking," in describing the
concept that an organization and all of its parts are an interrelated system. Although this idea may
seem obvious, most organizations operate in practice as if their units and processes are separate
parts!

In business organizations, departments often are set up as "silos," each with its own management,
responsibilities and budgets. All too often, this kind of structure creates a lack of common goals and
sets up difficulties in communication and coordination. Common outcomes are

• Communication disconnects
• Costly errors and rework
• Management working at cross-purposes
• Unclear or unshared vision and purpose
• Poor understanding at lower levels of how work fits into the big picture

• Internal and external customer dissatisfaction

The Mincu Approach

Creating remedies for lack of systems thinking

I start by looking at an organization's strategic planning process, the organization's structure, and the
ways in which information is regularly communicated. This gives an idea of how integrated the
different departments or layers of the organization are in planning and visioning together, and working
out common problems. I then determine at what stage the organization is, in realizing a need for
systems thinking - what examples are there that people can look at and say, "That happened because
we aren't thinking of ourselves as a whole entity."

The Case Study Workshop

Building a real-life "case study" around a problem situation that has actually occurred in the client
organization or its industry is a powerful tool around which to create a customized Systems Thinking
workshop.

Financial Services Example: A financial services company- the largest in its industry -- had recently
lost an important international client because of a number of many small errors and incidents where
the ball had been dropped. I interviewed organization members who had been involved to attain their
view of the situation. Utilizing each point of view, I composed a fictionalized case study with characters
in situations typical to their real-life counterparts.

I created a two-day Systems Thinking workshop for the senior management team around this case
study. On Day 1, participants in the interactive workshop were each asked to read the study, and to
assume the point of the view of a particular character. Each character had to operate as best he could,
given limited information. In working through the situation in this interactive workshop, the
participants could immediately relate to the story, and determine for themselves how each character --
seeing only a small part of the big picture - inadvertently compounded the problem. This made it
apparent that learning to think systemically would eliminate many of the typical problems the
organization had been having. Day 2 was spent on learning to understand Systems Thinking and how
to bring it into the organization.

Leadership Development

The rapidly changing nature of work today makes it more important than ever that organizations are
run by effective leaders. This means having leaders who are not only inspiring in setting strategic
direction and keeping the organization on track, but who can motivate followers to stay the course.

Many times, organizations promote individuals to leadership positions because of their past skill or
performance in the ranks. While high performance competencies may help someone become a better
manager, this does not necessarily translate into skill in leadership.

Management vs Leadership... what's the difference?

Management is the focus on day-to-day activities. A manager must maintain the business running
smoothly. Good management is focused on the present activities.

Leadership, on the other hand, must be forward thinking. An effective leader needs to anticipate the
future, setting a vision and preparing the organization to reach future goals. This requires a high
degree of Emotional Intelligence, a strong "people sense" to understand how to motivate the
individuals and teams that must drive the organization forward.

Can Leadership skills be developed?

Daniel Goleman, in his book, Working with Emotional Intelligence (1998), noted that up to 90% of the
difference between outstanding and average leaders is linked to Emotional Intelligence (EI), and that
Emotional Intelligence is a learnable skill. A critical element in learning the skills of leadership is that
the individual wants to become more skilled, and is ready to change his style or behavior to move in
that direction.
 The Mincu Approach

Leadership Development
I work with new supervisors, middle management and senior management to develop the kind of
leadership skills are necessary for them to operate effectively in their environment. I specialize in
developing customized programs that can combine training and coaching. My programs are designed
to address the particular needs of the individuals and their environment; that is, the company's
culture, the industry and competitive situation, and the expectations of the organization.

Past Leadership Skills development workshops include:

• Setting vision and strategy

• Communication strategy
• Communication skills
• Understanding preference and behavioral style
• Operating in an empowering environment
• Working with team dynamics
• Understanding cultural diversity

• Running effective meetings

Team Development

With so many organizations working in a more flattened hierarchy than in the past, there is much
more reliance on decisions being made in teams. This makes positive team dynamics and productivity
critical.

People sometimes believe that teams that operate well are ones where members get along smoothly,
usually agree, and have little conflict. This is not necessarily true! The best teams usually go through a
period of "storming," where issues are thrashed out and disagreement is surfaced. In fact, the most
effective teams are composed of members who have a variety of personal styles and preferences for
communicating, gathering information, and decision-making. Naturally, these differences cause
clashes.

Teams that are effective and productive have learned to value and respect differences, taking
advantage of the strengths of each of its members. Team Development workshops concentrate on
helping team members -- as a group -- develop capacity to understand their own and others' styles,
communicate for understanding, negotiate conflict and solve problems. Teams that have developed a
capacity to learn and grow together can disagree "productively," thus leading to higher outcomes.
 The Mincu Approach

Team Development Workshops

My typical work in team development starts with interviewing members of a team individually, to
understand their issues. I may then design sessions with the whole group to surface differences in how
the team perceives itself. This is done in a creative, interactive way that opens people up in a way that
strictly intellect and talk never can! Team development is always engaging and enlightening. A more
effectively operating team can lead to breakthrough results.

Live Theater Options

An most exciting way to work with teams is to integrate live actors into a team development workshop.
Mincu & Associates is affiliated with theatrical and improvisation professionals, and can create a
unique, dynamic experience with teams that ensure that team members will remember they skills they
learn.

Communication

The overriding issue for members of almost every organization is poor communication. Communication
problems can cover the gamut: lack of communication down the hierarchy, little communicating across
departments, poor feedback or acknowledgement within teams, and leaders' messages being
misunderstood or distorted. Poor communication can sabotage every positive thing that an
organization is doing. No matter how compelling a vision, how enlightened a policy, how clear a
strategic plan - it will not focus behavior in a positive direction if it is not communicated or understood
by every stakeholder!

Improving Communication
The ways of improving communication within an organization are determined by the nature of the
problem, and the resources at hand. Some assessment should be done to determine where the
communication breakdown is occurring. Savvy organizations will want a communication plan before a
major change is to take place. Communication training and coaching can be incorporated into a
change initiative, such as department or organization redesign, culture change, or new system
implementation.

The Mincu Approach

Communication Skills Training
Depending on the extent of communication training, I do stand-alone communication workshops, or
incorporate communication into broader topics such as team development, leadership development,
new supervisory skills and diversity training. I have created customized communication workshops for:

• Customer service representatives - conveying a helpful attitude

• New supervisors - giving feedback and direction
• Middle managers - operating in an empowered environment
• Teams - communicating with members of different styles
• All management - holding effective meetings

Bringing improvisational actors into the training to allow participants to see and practice
communication examples is most effective!

Communications Coaching
One-to-one coaching is invaluable in helping an individual with specific communication challenges. This
can incorporate the use of role-play in the safe coaching environment to achieve real breakthroughs in
communication effectiveness. Just a few areas where this kind of coaching is useful are:

• One-to-one communication and giving feedback

• Addressing groups or using persuasion and influence
• Written communication strategy and usage

• Strategic planning of a communication campaign

Managing a Transition

Change of all kinds has been accelerating so rapidly that much Organization Development work has
become centered on helping an organization work through transition as smoothly as possible. Usually
the people affected by the change will have the best ideas for how to make it happen as a win for
everyone. When employees' participation is welcomed in the change process, organization members
will be much more likely to buy in to the change. The challenge is to create a process that embraces
participation. A good rule of thumb for organizations to follow is a Change Management model.

The Mincu Approach

Participation and Communication
I have helped my client organizations develop and implement changes that involved everything from
completely shifting the culture, to redesigning work processes and department structure, to helping
non-technical workers adjust to a major technology implementation. In any transition process, Mincu &
Associates would emphasize communication and participation as key to success. We would work with
clients to help them with a process and action plan to create the transition.

Some specific examples of transition management I have worked with are:

• Transformation to an accountability culture, as organization moved from commodity service to

becoming a profit leader in its industry
• Change to a disciplined project management methodology, from a laissez-faire way of
managing projects
• Changing a culture from top-down leadership to self-empowered work teams
• Changing an organization's norms and way of operating when it was acquired in a merger
• Creating a learning culture
• Voluntary downsizing resulting in loss of 10% of the workforce
• Redesigning departments and the entire way they operated

• Implementing a large-scale systems application in a previously non-technical environment

Participative Redesign

There has been a lot of activity over the last 15 years involving Reengineering. Unfortunately, it has
been discovered in the years following implementation that more than 85% of reengineering efforts
failed to achieve the goals they were set up to accomplish. Much of this failure has been attributed to
a lack of human process; although the technical process was documented, analyzed and reengineered,
the human factor was not taken into account. Even a highly technology-driven organization must be
run by human beings!

When a Redesign follows OD process, the human elements of the organization are considered
alongside of the technical and structural aspects. OD consultants assume that the knowledge of the
best way to do things lies within the people who have been doing them. The challenge is to surface
that knowledge, and bring all the pieces of the puzzle together. Knowledge sharing is typically stymied
in organizations because of silo'd structure, excess hierarchy, lack of information about the big picture,
fear of consequences, cultural reticence to speak "out of turn" the list is endless.

The Redesign Model

The first step in surfacing the knowledge is to bring all the relevant stakeholders together. Processes
such as Large-Scale Redesign, Fast-Cycle Redesign, and Socio-Technical (STS) Redesign are means of
getting people together. The kind of model an organization creates with their consultant depends on
the time and resource constraints they have.

The Mincu Approach

Participative Redesign
I have directed and facilitated many department redesigns, usually over a period of months. In each
case, we start with uncovering the root cause of the problems before attempting solutions. The
solutions the redesign group arrives at are thoroughly brainstormed, analyzed for feasibility, and
arrived at through consensus. The department targeted for change is kept involved and informed at
each step, with ample representation at all levels in the design process. This way, the design is one
that was designed to work for the good of the department, the people in it, and the larger
organization.

Redesign of Client Service - Case Study

Situation: A financial services organization had was set up in client service teams to handle its major
corporate clients. Each team consisted of a leader, account supervisors and three specialized
operations people, all devoted to that one account. Increasingly numerous errors were taking place,
resulting in costly rework and upset clients. I was asked to develop a process to help the company
arrive at a solution.

Solution: I brought together and facilitated a 10-person Design Team consisting of representatives of
each client service team, and members at every level. There was no hierarchy on the Design Team:
operations clerks had equal say with team leaders. Management committed to allow these individuals
to devote their time to the team for several months, and to be open to the solutions the team
generated. Using the brainstorming and analysis process, the team determined that keeping operations
specialists on client-specific teams was hindering their knowledge, prohibiting load-leveling of the
work, and stymieing cross-training. Their primary recommendation was to create a centralized
operations department while maintaining individual operations specialists as the primary point of
contact with their specific clients.

Results:After lengthy and heated debate, management agreed to centralize operations. Errors were
tracked carefully. Within the first month of operations centralization, errors and rework were found to
have dropped by 70%.

An added benefit for people participating on the Design Team was the skill that they gained in
developing their recommendations for senior management. In going through the process of
brainstorming, analysis and writing/presenting their recommendations and rationale, members of the
team gained competencies that helped them achieve credibility for higher leadership roles. This was
especially motivating for operations clerks who had not received previous recognition.
Competency Development

Competencies for a given job are considered the knowledge, skills and attributes that are determined
to affect the performance of that job. Competencies are assigned to a job, or role, by determining
what knowledge, skills and attributes (commonly referred to as KSA's) are present in those who are
considered expert at performing that job. In times when quality of performance is critical to achieve
goals of competitive advantage, customer service or cost reduction, it becomes increasingly important
for an organization to become aware of what competencies are required, and to selectively hire people
who possess those competencies.

There are some theories that separate out the Knowledge and Skills component of Competencies from
the Attributes. The reasoning here is that knowledge and skills can be taught, but that each person
possesses some innate attributes that are uniquely a part of that person. Someone might learn to
imitate them, or to take the steps to approximate them, but without genuinely possessing those
attributes, would never be able to achieve real excellence in job performance.

Tying Competencies to behavior

Competencies are always stated in terms of specific behaviors, so there can be little ambiguity as to
the level that a person exhibits the competency. Different levels of behavior might be expected at
different roles or job levels. For example, a technical analyst might not be expected to be as proactive
at probing for customer requirements as a VP Project Team Leader. If a competency is identified called
"Determining Customer Requirements," the descriptor for the analyst might be: "Obtains information
necessary to understands user requirements." At a higher level, the VP's competency description
might be "Partners with user to understand requirements, proactively seeking solutions that are
feasible from user and technical department's point of view."

Why is Competency development important?

To illustrate why identifying Competencies matters, we can take, for example, the job of Customer
Service Representative (CSR) in a telephone response center.

Hiring
Understanding competencies is critical for recruiting and hiring the right talent. If we interviewed our
best CSR's, we would find that the job could be broken down into many components to determine
competencies. There are technical skills, such as mastering the use of the equipment such as
telephone and computer. And there is knowledge of the product or service, about which the CSR will
converse with customers when they call. These competencies can be acquired with training - given the
individual has the aptitude to learn them.

But to be a truly excellent customer service representative, a person should have an innate drive to
provide service! Broken down into separate attributes, the descriptive components might consist of:

• Desires to help people

• Enjoys interacting with many different people
• Is excited and challenged when presented with people's problems to be solved
• Is calm and courteous under pressure
 • Possesses long-term energy and focus for one-to-one conversations
• Takes pride and accountability for contributing to the company's reputation of customer service

These attributes consist of desires, drives, motives and personality traits. They cannot be taught! For
an organization to achieve high scores in customer satisfaction, it would have to hire representatives
who possess these innate qualities.

Promotion & Development

In order to retain its best talent, an organization would want to make sure it is rewarding and
promoting people for the right reasons. Identifying Competencies allows an organization to develop
feedback and performance appraisal systems that focus on real behavior in the things that matter. This
takes the negative judgmental factor out of appraisal and allows development discussions to take
place in a way that creates positive development.

Imagine a supervisor telling a CSR: "You're rude. You have a bad attitude with customers." This kind
of comment would likely generate defensiveness, and does not provide any information that the CSR
could use to develop or improve.

By contrast, the supervisor in a Competency-based feedback session would convey the same concern,
but tying it to behavior. This might be: "You hung up abruptly on a customer twice last week. You
spoke sharply to a customer who didn't understand you. You didn't take the extra step of seeking the
information that Ms. Jones requested." By talking about specific behavior that ties to Competencies,
the CSR can discuss what led to the behavior and how to prevent it in the future.

Competency Development during a time of change

If an organization or department is experiencing a change that affects the way people will work
together, the structure of a work group, or the kinds of skills they will be doing - this is a time to look
at Competencies. A common example of this kind of change today is when a new system is
implemented, such as PeopleSoft, SAP or Oracle. This kind of system changes the way people work
and interact in their transactions. The kinds of skills and competencies that were rewarded in a non-
technical environment may be very different than the ones required after implementation. It is
important that people realize this, so that they may adjust their expectations accordingly.

MGMT 404 Organization Development and Change (4)

Provides a conceptual understanding of organization development theory, practice, and
research. Organization development is an umbrella term for a collection of behavioral
science techniques for increasing individual, group, and organizational effectiveness.