Practicing Organization Development (A guide for Consultants) - Part 31. 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 | CHAPTER TEN d Launch Assessment and Action Planning . Warrick Few processes are more intriguing in OD than assessment and action planning and few processes can stimulate and result in more change. In this important phase of OD that we are calling Launch valuable information is gathered and analyzed and a collaborative approach is used to evaluate the information and plan actions that provide a sound strategy for making organizations groups or individuals successful. Assessment and action planning are among an OD practitioner s most important skills and are also among the most unique interesting and value-added aspects of OD. Consider for example The energy and hope that is generated when organizations are actually interested in what employees have to say The potential disasters that are avoided when an organization or team has a clear sense of reality about what is really going on versus having an illusion of doing well while the organization is regressing The value of an assessment that provides important information that results in a merger inter-organization effort or cross-cultural project being successful The elation and value that come from discovering through an assessment that efforts to change and transform an organization are working and from learning why they are working and 271 272 PRACTICING ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT 2ND EDITION The satisfaction that comes from possibly saving a career by providing multi-rater feedback to a leader who is floundering and now sees options that might help identify what is needed to succeed. These are only a few of the many ways that Launch can have a significant impact on the success of organizations teams and individuals. However as with any high-payoff effort risks are involved as well. What if the assessment is poorly designed and produces misleading confusing inaccurate or inflammatory results What if the data are ignored or used for harmful rather than helpful purposes What if the real issues are dismissed or .
