Organization Development

Get an accurate picture of the current relational climate of your organization, a vision for the ideal you would like to achieve and the tools you need to get there. We engage your organization in a structured incremental process of data gathering, informed decision making and strategic implementation issues.

Leadership Team Development Using an OD Approach

In order for a leadership team development initiative to be effective, the executives involved must take part in the process from the beginning. Therefore, each executive is given the chance to articulate what he or she sees as the team’s needs, strengths, weaknesses, hopes, and concerns.

The first phase of the initiative is to interview all members of the executive team in order to develop a realistic picture of the current situation. The second is to collate the data generated during the interviews, generate a report, and design a one-day off-site. The off-site itself will allow the team to address whatever issues they have identified, and begin discussing concrete initiatives that would address those issues. These off-sites tend to be interactive and experiential in nature, and often set the stage for a greater sense of cohesion, purpose, camaraderie, and belonging within the team. The final piece of this process is a debrief meeting in order to identify what kind of support the team needs to carry out the initiatives it has decided to implement.

In practice, this process is carried out in the following manner:

Phase 1.

OLG conducts one-on-one interviews with each member of the leadership team. In these interviews, we ask each executive the same set of questions, taking verbatim notes of their responses. In order to insure candid, frank answers, the executives are guaranteed anonymity.

Phase 2.

OLG then collates the data gathered, identifies recurrent themes, and generates a written report. This report consists of representative quotes from the executives interviewed (the quotes are un-attributed in the report). It provides a global picture of the team-as-it-stands, taken from each of the smaller pictures provided by the perspectives of the individuals interviewed. From this point forward, the data OLG has collected will inform every aspect of our consultation,, starting with the design of the off-site.

Phase 3.

OLG facilitates a structured one-day off-site, during which we present the written report in a structured, incremental way that allows participants to digest, analyze, and discuss the information they have collectively generated
a. This off-site would take place approximately 4 weeks after completion of the interviews
b. By the end of the off-site, the assembled team will have a clear picture of where it currently stands, where it would like to go, and what steps it can begin to take to get there. It will have the beginning of a comprehensive action plan designed to effect planned, incremental change, and specific individuals will have assumed responsibility for taking specific action steps within an agreed upon time frame.

Goals

The design and specific objectives of the off-site will grow out of the data gathered during the interview process. Typically, we anticipate the off-site design will drive towards the following goals:

• Building and strengthening the relationships among the team, in service of their leadership and communication effectiveness.
• Providing an interactive, high energy, experience that begins to align the team around shared goals.
• Generating a shared understanding of current conditions within the team, including the beginning of a discussion regarding best practices to enhance its own success.
• Establishing norms and operating principles for working together, including a shift towards developing and sustaining open, honest, and candid communication

Phase 4.

OLG will conduct a follow up meeting with key decision makers to de-brief the workshop and identify the kinds of support that would help the team actually carry out the initiatives it decided upon during the off-site, We may also make specific recommendations based on what we have seen. These recommendations generally point to a range of possibilities for various kinds of follow-up that we feel would be helpful to the team as it moves forward.