Practicing Organization Development (A guide for Consultants) - Part 34. 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 | LAUNCH 301 Who will facilitate the meeting or meetings more than one facilitator may be required How much time is available in total and how much time will it take for each part of the process Will the meeting include training data feedback and action planning or be totally devoted to action planning What kind of a meeting room is necessary and what type of equipment is required What will be done to prepare the participants to understand the big picture of the OD effort and to work effectively together How will the data be presented and what processes or decision-making techniques will be used to evaluate and prioritize the data Is the desired outcome of the action planning meeting to leave with completed plans or to allow a follow-up group to put the finishing touches on the plans The data used in action planning may be simplistic or sophisticated and the process used to evaluate and prioritize data may range from easy-to-use and understand processes to far more complex processes. However whatever the methodology used the approach should be tailored to the particular audience and purpose selected. It is also important to clarify the focus of change or improvement efforts whole organization group or intergroup individual structural and technological and to consider the level of desired change fine-tuning incremental and transformational . Once this is done the evaluation and prioritization processes are likely to follow some variation of 1 discovering present realities 2 considering future ideals or possibilities and 3 evaluating and prioritizing alternatives for change. Evaluation and Prioritization Tips Make sure that the process used makes sense to those involved is easy to follow and execute and keeps interest in the process at a high level. Impressive methods for analyzing and presenting data can have a temporary wow effect but may also lose the group if they are too complex or time-consuming. The action planning process can be greatly accelerated by .
