Organisational Development Matters

Below you will find a list of the Skills topics for OD Practitioners. Each of the links will take you directly to the additional information and resources for the selected topic.

• Effective facilitation of large, multi-disciplinary/multi-agency groups with differing agendas
• Coaching skills
• Improving individual and group effectiveness
• Manage projects successfully
• Contracting for change
• Improvement methodology
• Key Questions that Challenge Thinking and Assumption

Effective Facilitation of large, multi-disciplinary/multi-agency groups with differing agendas

 What is it? 

The process and approach to guiding groups in meetings, planning, learning, and to help them function more effectively. 

Effective facilitation removes time wasted in unproductive discussions and enables decisions to be reached swiftly. 

A facilitator needs a good understanding of the core skills of listening, questioning, observing and feedback and how to adapt these in changing circumstances.  As a facilitator, you are a neutral third party and will have no decision-making authority on the topic under discussion with the group, although you will need to influence the group to keep on track. 

As a facilitator you should know what kinds of behaviour, process and structure will contribute to good problem solving and decision making and know which elements contribute to making an effective group.   

You will need to able to manage boundaries and manage interpersonal relationships in the group. 

Why would I use it? 

The purpose is to help a group to increase its effectiveness without sharing your opinions so group members can discuss issues without you influencing the discussion. As a facilitator you will need to manage the group to avoid interruptions, conflicts which develop and offer different approach to the task in hand. 

A facilitator has a wide range of tasks to perform in order to ‘make things easier’ for people who participate in a facilitated discussion.  Well facilitated discussions can help people collectively move through a process, keep discussions effective, encourage participation and get people to come up with ideas, thoughts and perspective. 

You will need to be able to make the group aware of possible consequences of their approach and encourage systemic thinking, curiosity and deep examination of issues. 

The larger a meeting is, the more effort it takes to contract and manage and therefore will require attention to manage both the preparation and the process. 

You may also be considered a third-party expert for example in change or organisation design to help the group make informed decisions. 

When would I use it? 

There are a number of circumstances when facilitation is the most appropriate technique to use.  For example, when a group needs to resolve a problem and the facilitators skills could improve the process.  

You may also use it as a learning tool by facilitating the group through a content and process review.  

Read: Why facilitate - James Traeger

Watch: Playful inquiry - Robyn Stratton Berkessel

Listen: Being over doing - Michelle Howard

Coaching Skills 

What are they? 

Coaching skills typically refers to methods of helping individuals improve, develop, learn new skills, gain new insights, achieve objectives and manage change.   

Coaching as an intervention is often used to support leaders and teams or groups to maximise their abilities and effectiveness.  It exists where a formal partnering relationship between a coach and client is established for a specific period of time and with a specific aim in mind. 

As an OD practitioner you may utilise coaching skills to help others with self-limiting beliefs, managing change or challenging conversations and relationships.  The context in which you operate will differ from a coach in that you’ll be working with a whole organisation or system focus. 

Coaching definitions vary but in an OD environment, you are more likely to use specific coaching skills as part of your toolkit, for example: 

• Asking questions which allow for discovery or to develop thinking
• Active listening 
• Challenge assumptions, shift perspectives and see opportunities for new possibilities  
• Integrate and build on suggestions and ideas 
• Communicate broader perspectives  
• Build self-understanding through reflection on practice 

There are a wide range of practices you may utilise when using a coaching approach including dialogic, systems theory, narrative approach or Gestalt to name a few. 

Why would I use them? 

If you are working with groups these skills may be used to advance new thinking, help a team identify and follow the best course of action or develop greater cohesion. 

When working with individuals you may find them useful to raise personal insights, hold a mirror up to an individual or support new thinking. 

When would I use them? 

Many OD Practitioners could argue that they “coached” clients as part of the change process (see article below).   Coaching skills may be used mostly when it is essential to work with clients who are finding change difficult and in order to help them move psychologically through the change process. 

In group or team situations, coaching skills can be used to help them work through change, understand their interactions and behaviours and look at the way the work together.  In particular coaching can help teams and groups look at how they undertake challenging conversations, manage decision making and discuss and work with difference. 

Read: Is coaching OD? - Beverly Scott, Lisa Murrell, Andrea Zintz, Denny Gallagher

 Watch: Core coaching skills self-assessment - Good Practice 

Listen: How to ask better questions - David Marquet

Improving individual and group effectiveness

What are they? 

You will work with individuals and groups to define required standards of effectiveness and to coach, facilitate and support individual and groups through process of change. 

As an OD practitioner one of your roles may be to raise awareness through challenge to create the environment for change.   

Models such as those developed by Lewin (Unfreeze/Move/Refreeze) can be helpful in understanding the process the individuals need to undergo to respond to changing requirements. 

Why would I use it? 

When working with groups your role is not to shift a group but set up processes to enable the group to shift each other through the interchange. 

New routines and patterns of behaviour can help enforce group norms and you can assist the group to experiment with new norms. 

Your ability to support leaders comes from not only your understanding of change theory, but your capability to understand your own habits and behaviour patterns.  By understanding yourself you are able to create environments that support the learning and change in others. 

When would I use it? 

There are times when you will be required to support leaders to build resilience in their people and enable them to live more comfortably with uncertainty and ambiguity.  You can help others learn how to stay resilient by asking questions to help them understand their own responses and resources. 

You can create opportunities to hold conversations where there is a focus on learning, especially when mistakes are made.  This will allow individuals and group to understand and move forward positively. 

When there is a need to create space for open and honest conversations, encourage others to ask questions and find learning, or encouraging an exploration of behaviour which no longer serves the “new” environment. 

You can act as a mirror, reflect back what leaders are saying or intending to say and provide challenge. By noticing what is happening and sharing insights with others you can enable individuals and groups to improve their effectiveness. 

Read: Delta Consulting Group: effective team model - Good Practice

Watch: Video review for the five dysfunctions of a team - Patrick Lencioni

Listen: Building effective teams: where do you start? - Deloitte  

Manage projects successfully

What are they? 

As an OD professional you will at some point need an understanding of the methods and skills to manage projects either when working with a project manager or working as a project manager. 

This includes a knowledge and understanding of working with clients to define goals and objectives and agreeing the terms of reference; establishing and managing communications with the project team, clients and wider stakeholders and implementing a range of project controls including plans and milestones, benefits, tracking, budgets, reporting and risks and issues. 

Why would I use them? 

Often in projects you will be working with a distributed project team where members are reporting organisationally to someone else. 

The use of project management practices and the associated skills and behaviours will improve the chances of achieving the desired result, as well as setting the scope, schedule and budget accurately from the start. 

Good project management practice will ensure that a shared understanding of the stages in a project lifecycle, with clearly defined responsibilities are in place from the outset.  It will also increase the chance of effective decision making as there will be clarity over who is accountable for which decisions. 

A key benefit will be in ensuring that project scope is controlled avoiding conflict, increasing cost and time over-runs. 

They will also allow you to identify and address problems, risks and issues more quickly and effectively. 

When would I use them? 

There are 4 key stages for each project which is a discrete piece of work.  This includes planning at the early stages and prior to the start of any development activity.  The design or development phase followed by implementation and close down. 

However, throughout the life of a project, you may need to use both technical skills such as planning, scheduling, cost management and the skills and behaviours required including effective leadership, communication, influencing and impact, conflict management and coaching. 

Read: Project management overview - Good Practice

Watch: Quality improvement project management - NES Quality Improvement Zone 

Listen: Remote project management and distributed agile teams - PM for the Masses, Johanna Rothman and Mark Kilby

Contracting for change

What is it? 

In OD practice, contracting can be critical to the success of the process. Contracting is the process required to establish mutual expectations and clarifying key deliverables, outcomes, timescales, available resources and budget. 

The process will identify who your client is, the tasks, deliverables, scopes, methods and metrics that will be required to be successful and what type of relationship you want and need to have with the stakeholder. 

Why would I use them? 

The process will allow you to agree with stakeholders what each of you expect from your relationship, the details of the intervention and the ground rules under which you will work. 

This process will also allow you to identify issues which may affect the intervention and will allow you to manage expectations in terms of what can be achieved by implementing the proposed solution. 

Setting ground rules will allow explicit agreements to be set on how you will work together covering issues for example as what you will do (the scope of your role), how you operate (making the stakeholder aware if they do something which may jeopardise the intervention), clarifying who all the critical stakeholders are and how they will be engaged through the process, and clarifying appropriate handling of data and confidentiality. 

When would I use them? 

Contracting is a repetitive process and may be revisited at several points during the course of a project or intervention. 

It may be appropriate to revisit the contract when new stakeholders become involved in the project, at regular update meetings or when there is a desire to change the course of direction. 

Read: How contracting for results works in organization development - Dr Nancy Zentis

Watch: Contracting phase of consulting - Consultants Development Institute

Listen: Building trust - Harvard Business Review 

Improvement methodology

What are they? 

These are the activities that bring about change or improvement, whether to a specific role, a team, or to the whole organisation. 

There are a range of methodologies which can be utilised to increase the effectiveness of organisations, systems and processes.   

They are structured, systematic and well-established tools and techniques for continuous improvement. They are often based on principles applied successfully in other industries, such as manufacturing and include approaches such as Six Sigma, Lean and Total Quality Management (TQM). 

They often involve service users as well employees at all levels and other key stakeholders and their aim is to identify what needs to improve, proposing solutions, testing and adapting them in light of evidence. 

Why would I use them? 

You may be working alongside an expert or practitioner trained in one of these methodologies with a focus on supporting leaders in improving organisational capability particularly through behaviour change. 

When would I use them? 

Organisations will tend to use improvement methodologies when looking at service and process improvements. 

OD’s role will vary according to the requirements, but the intervention may range from the diagnostic phase, through the intervention to the evaluation phase. 

OD’s skills in leading and supporting change will be critical particular in relation to knowledge of: 

• behavioural science 
• how organisations work 
• expertise in conducting different types of intervention including group process skills and group dynamics 
• supporting clients through complex and emerging change 

Read: Improvement Tools - Good Practice

Watch: Quality improvement - the role of context and how to manage it - The Health Foundation 

Listen: The transition to the future of work 

Key Questions that Challenge Thinking and Assumption 

What are they? 

These are questions that inspire discovery, new insights and new action.  As you work with stakeholders, you may hear their assumptions which may or may not be based on truth or reality. 

As on OD Practitioner, it is incumbent on you to ask questions which can support the process of change and at times challenge current thinking.  Powerful questions of this type can build leadership capacity and create a learning environment as well as enhancing the opportunity for transformational change. 

The practice of Dialogic OD engages multiple types of inquiry each with a different purpose in mind.  As a practitioner you will need to consider the context you are working in and support change by stimulating new conversations and stories.  

This is a principle developed by Marshak and Bushe in their book Dialogic Organization Development – The Theory and Practice of Transformational Change. It also build on other OD Methods such as Appreciative Inquiry (Cooperrider), Open Space Technology (Owen),  World Café (Brown & Isaacs) and Organizational Learning Conversations (Bushe). 

Why would I use them? 

These questions can be used in individual or group conversations to explore the nature of specific system challenges and changes needed, as well as providing understanding of the wider context.  They can also be used to create capacity for greater systems thinking e.g.: 

• What is happening around us that’s creating the need for change? 
• What patterns of behaviour do you see that create the difficulties we are here to address? 

• What are some key factors that you believe cannot be changed here? 

Questions can also be used to bring in new perspectives, they can break old thinking and create fresh viewpoints e.g.: 

• How would XYZ view this situation? 
• What might an alternative perspective be? 
• What’s missing from our picture so far? 

When would I use them? 

Typically, this type of inquiry approach will be used when transformational change is more emergent than planned and a change in conversations is required. 

These questions can also be used when thinking is stuck, it is difficult to find new ideas, or the status quo needs to be challenged and new approaches are needed. 

Read: Schein E.H. (2013) Humble Inquiry: the gentle art of asking instead of telling. USA Berrett-Koehler ISBN 9781609949815 

Watch: Ten dos and don'ts of change conversations - Good Practice 

Listen: Critical thinking - CIPD