Practicing Organization Development (A guide for Consultants) - Part 37. Organization development (OD) is about planned change. As change has turned into the only constant, many managers and other people are pursuing change strategies with vigor. OD is a major strategy for leading and managing change at the individual, group, intergroup, organizational, interorganizational, and large systems levels. This book is about what it takes to be an effective change manager, change leader, and OD consultant | EVALUATION 331 Figure . Organization Development Evaluation Model 332 PRACTICING ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT 2ND EDITION IMPORTANCE OF EVALUATION If you don t know where you are going any path will get you there. And if you don t know where you are you ll never know where you are going. The process of evaluating is truly about determining whether the path you are on has been the most efficiently executed and effective path for the system you are in. In turn this will influence how you move forward into the future. The fundamental premise is self-awareness. A system of any size from one person to a whole organization will be most amenable to change when it has all relevant data. The more that the people in a client system are able to understand themselves the greater the likelihood that they will take ownership in determining how to best move forward. Within this context the key change agents are more able to influence the system with data that demonstrate success and failure. Action learning focuses on important outcomes What was planned What happened What was learned What will be done next time One critical step to creating learning is addressed in the question What happened Success and failure are concepts critical to creating a learning organization and this is where the consultant as intervener comes into the picture. By providing the system with avenues for having a better understanding of itself through rigorous evaluation the system will begin to change its thinking paradigm. When the system begins to change its thinking paradigm the learning has begun. There is no other more powerful way to create change than through learning rooted in the shifting of how we think. This learning is what will lead to new and sustainable organizational habits that result in long-term health and prosperity. WHERE EVALUATION FITS IN THE INTERACTION WITH CLIENTS As indicated earlier it is important to establish the evaluation processes during the pre-launch phase. In this way .
