The Roles of Organisation Development

Annamaria Garden

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN:
  9781317017103
• Topic: Betriebswirtschaft
• Subtopic: Business allgemein

The Roles of Organisation Development by Dr Annamaria Garden introduces a radically new and original framework to explain organisation development work and how it is done. The origin of the book came out of a question asked by a woman OD practitioner: How do you do what you do? This book is Dr Garden's answer to that question. Dr Garden found that she did not think in terms of formal roles or roles as typically described in the organisational development or management literature. Instead, she described what she did in terms of: the Seer, Translator, Cultivator, Catalyst, Navigator, Teacher, Guardian. These are presented primarily as roles for OD people but managers would be wise to adopt them also. They are current across the world in any organisation. Garden was trained in her PhD from MIT by two of the founding fathers of OD: Professor Ed Schein and Professor Dick Beckhard. The book refers, in places, to their teaching and interaction. The Roles of Organisation Development will appeal to OD, strategy and marketing consultants, academics as well as managers doing OD work, and trying to move and change the organisation leaning on the soft skills.

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CHAPTER 1

AN OD APPROACH

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THE SEMINAR

Many years ago, when I was doing my PhD, I attended a seminar overseen, and attended by, Professor Ed Schein, the father of process consulting, and Professor Dick Beckhard, both founding fathers of OD and both my teachers. I was half aware of their significance and the other half of me rather blasé.

To Ed, this seminar was, apart from other things, part of the PhD’s training in qualitative methods. The process that was devised was to have one person in the group act as a person in an organisation and they would be interviewed by the interviewer, also a member of the group. Ed’s intention was to get us to see the idea of being client-centred. This meant pulling not pushing data out of the person (my words). The reason for doing it this way, according to Ed, was to get at the truth. If the person was pushed, you would not get at the truth but simply a compliant or defensive approach. This was Ed’s key principle as far as I could see. To Dick, who was more interventionist, it was much more a process of making things happen. To him, he wanted also to get out the truth, which could occur by making things happen. The fundamental principle of both was to get the best situation, and information, to emerge. But their basic approaches were very different. As a novice to OD, I was riveted by this exchange. All I could figure out was that they were both right, and I thought that that probably wasn’t what I was supposed to figure out. (Ed Schein wrote his version of this fascinating seminar in Schein, 1987)

Observing the Two Masters

What mattered most to we PhD students was only partly to discover the best principle for a client centred approach, but more to observe the two masters at work together. (I think Ed and Dick would not have been very amused if they knew what trivia we PhD students involved ourselves with). We would have long discussions about whether or not they were competing. Watching the seminar unfold week by week, and participating in the discussions that occurred outside this forum had to partly be our way of getting back at the powers that be that inflicted the torture of the PhD process on us.

There were moments when no one spoke. Trying to get the two ‘schools’ to agree was the obvious thing and most of us decided to live with the ‘conflict’, although there was long discussion about whether or not there was any conflict or whether they should agree. Sanity emerged on the day Professor Lotte Bailyn, herself a faculty member in the Organisational Studies Department, decided to be in the interviewee seat and Ed took up the role of interviewer. Lotte was interested in the whole process of interviewing so she could simply use this process designed by Ed, as a learning experiment. We proceeded on the next week with more guinea pigs.

WHICH MASTER TO FOLLOW

It was possible to learn more from this active approach to teaching than any formal course. I have often asked myself in the years that followed this event whether I practiced OD more in a way like Ed, or like Dick. Never have I been able to answer this question. What I do is a mix of the two approaches. In addition, what I have invented of my own is several things.

HAVING A PSYCHOLOGICAL BENT

The main one is that I have quite a psychological bent. This wasn’t drummed into me when I was at MIT although my dissertation drew heavily from Carl Jung on my own initiative and there I used the Myers Briggs Type Indicator™ (MBTI™), supervised by Ed Schein. (There are several sections on Jung and the MBTI™ in the book). Once I had my PhD I went to London Business School on the research faculty, with a one day-a week consulting practice. At LBS I was called by my boss ‘the culture person’, integrating the Business Policy Department, where I sat along with the likes of Gary Hamel, John Stopford as well as a visiting Charles Hampden-Turner and an Emeritus Charles Handy, alongside an Organisational Behaviour Department with John Hunt, Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones. I left after five years to pursue my own OD consulting practice in London mainly because I could be more creative in the latter than at LBS. I definitely focused on culture (change usually) as well as pursuing such contracts as helping a company implement strategy faster, and various other OD work.

Psychology as an OD Tool

Why should psychology be so important? From OD’s earliest beginnings, one key task has been that of recognizing when business decisions are being driven as much by the psychological factors present as they are by the business needs present. Traditionally, we think of this work as one involving process skills.

We’ve all seen conversations about business topics that actually are simply the vehicle through which psychological questions are addressed. In such situations, the reality is that people are sizing each other up, getting a picture of how everyone intends to play it, or figuring out who can count on whom. Similarly, time may be taken to discuss the details of a new decision, not because the decision is important but because, at base, the people involved are using it to get psychological answers in an indirect way.

VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE REALITIES

In organisations, the legitimacy of applying a financial or strategic framework to business does not need to be established. These approaches are well-established, clear doorways to reality. However, the same cannot be said for the psychological perspective. Here, in this unfamiliar territory one does need to establish legitimacy. This psychological perspective, as a separate framework through which you can discern events, is very unusual.

In OD, psychological work is more basic in its acceptance. I have referred to Dick Beckhard’s formulation of OD before: he states that “OD is based on behavioural science knowledge” (Beckhard, 1969 p. 25). Note that Ed Schein emphasises, in Process Consultation Revisited the need to “understand the sociological dynamics of the helping relationship” (p. xii). Having a discipline as a base in OD work is a prerequisite. In the book I refer to several psychological sources, such as, Gestalt, Will Schutz, Jung, Assagioli and so on.

The theory I use most as a consultant is that of Carl Jung. I use his theory of the dynamics of the psyche rather than, for example, just his theory of psychological types, which informed the Myers Briggs Type Indicator™. When I lived in London I did a lot of workshops on the dynamics of the psyche as well – many weekends were spent with The Centre for Transpersonal Psychology and so on (See Chapter 8). I learnt quite a bit from all these workshops, seminars and practical homework. One thing was the thrust in the psyche to goodness. These were not shows to ferret out what is wrong in people’s psyche, which is what I had learned about psychology as an undergraduate at University, but how people yearned for wholeness and health. A lot of my assumptions about working for organisations come from these same assumptions.

The psychological reality I’m speaking of is not the same thing as giving a high priority to human resources or valuing people as an ‘asset’. The idea of the psychological perspective as a valid way of seeing organisational reality is different. In talking about it, I’m concerned with more than understanding people’s feelings or the inner needs of a leader. To truly talk about a psychological perspective is to go beyond understanding cerebral processes, such as logic and intuition. It is to go beyond seeing just emotional events, such as conflict and competition. It is to place psychological reality at the centre of the business; at the forefront. (See my previous article on psychological reality in organisations; Garden, 1998).

In my OD work, clients tend to grasp at the psychological perspective as if it were a bag of emergency survival tools when there is chaos, uncertainty or a morass of incomprehensible reactions they need to figure out. At such times their instinctive reaction is usually to re-impose more control. For me, this is their panic reaction to the surface phenomena. At this point it is better to explain to clients what is really happening from a psychological point of view. This is illustrated in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1 Business reality and psychological reality

AN INDIVIDUAL APPROACH TO OD

Having an individual approach to OD still allows me to make use of all the frameworks and ways of thought that I learned from others. In addition to the structure of ‘roles played by OD people’ I also describe four principles of my own which underpin everything I do in OD. For the most part they do differ slightly from the approach of those who taught me.

A Bottom-up Approach as Well as a Top-down Approach

My own approach is far more of a bottoms-up approach than other OD people. For example, Ed Schein’s view is that “The setting chosen should be as near the top of the organisation or client system as possible” (Schein, 1998, p. 132). I am joined by a few others such as Shaw (1997) who argues that change agents are well advised to empower lower-levels (Gallos, 2006, p. 66). The approach I take is bottom up PLUS top down. Dick Beckhard, in his definition specifies that an OD intervention is a “top down” affair. However, in conversation with him he would refer to himself as a “trade union rep” i.e., that he was representing middle management vis-à-vis senior management. By bottom-up I mean that the troops or middle management can take action without it necessarily being sanctioned by the ‘top’ but it is in line with what the organisation wants. I mean by this not just business as usual activities, where the troops taking initiative is simply a question of empowerment, but I mean that are the troops creating some kind of change in the organisation or prompting something which the ‘top’ will eventually support (but I do not mean skunk works) because I get top-down support as well.

Simplicity

This principle is implicit in all the seven roles of OD. This emphasis is in contrast to many OD people who advocate that, since the world has become more complex, our OD tools and frameworks should also become more complex. I go the other way and believe that, because of the complexity in the world, all the more reason for providing managers with what is simple.

My first brush with the principle of simplicity came from Professor Lotte Bailyn of MIT in a course she was teaching for the PhD students on research methods. This principle she espoused by claiming that we should always choose the simplest method for analyzing data, and the simplest method for showing the results. I have followed the principle ever since.

Being is as Important as Doing

This principle is also illustrated in all the seven roles. To me this is the sine qua non of OD. I emphasise it relatively more than my teachers do, without taking away from the fact that it was also a principle for them. For me the inner psyche is key. Maybe being is even more important than doing.

Content as Well as Process is Important for OD

Here I drift away a little from Ed Schein’s teachings and writing. It will be apparent through the seven roles that I am inputting more text on content than process than many OD people would be comfortable with. Ed Schein emphasises this dichotomy frequently in his work stating at one point that we should be aware of “the relative attention given to the content of the work and the structure of the organisation versus the process by which work is done and the structure of that process …” (Schein, 1989, p. 178). His point is that managers focus too much on content than process and refers to his approach to OD as ‘process consultation’.

Where I am coming from

The four principles give you an idea of ‘where I am coming from’, The roles, and their names, will help to guide you through the book as well. Most of the book consists in describing seven roles OD people play. These roles were derived from asking myself the question “What do I do?” until I felt complete. They were not derived from reading the literature.

THE ROLES

In total, I set out 7 roles though, of course, there may be more: The Seer, Translator, Cultivator, Catalyst, Navigator, Teacher and Guardian. I would not want the reader to interpret these as “The” seven roles set in stone. Maybe it will encourage you to work out your own.

In each role, there consists of a basic explanation, exploration of the role, the role’s approach to change and then some practical tools: books to read, and OD tools. It is structured that way so that you have more of a practical focus than an academic focus. I have written down the role as it works for me, in order to help you do what OD people do.

Figure 1.1 Map of the 7 OD roles

THE CHAPTERS

The Introduction and Chapter 1 describe the basic stance of the book so you can get your bearings.

Chapter 2 describes a role called the Seer. Rather than being magical, it describes the very ordinary skill of seeing things; of seeing through appearances and looking into the future. Some people are better able to predict things than others. This is one of the skills of the Seer. The guru I associate with this is Ed Schein.

The third chapter is about a role called the Translater. To some extent this is about the hearing equivalent to seeing. But the Translater has its own tack: it listens, but listens in order to translate one person to another. Also, it listens to the organisation’s ‘speech’. The Translator is looking for the purpose behind problems in the organisation because there are no such things as problems, only intentions and purpose. The guru I associate with this is David Cooperrider.

Chapter 4 is about the Cultivator. This role understands a great variety of things. Most important would be understanding rhythm and pacing in the organisation; when to go slow and being able to go slow, as well as recognizing when to operate at great speed. The Cultivator is sometimes called the Doctor and aims at healing people and the organisation. They focus on assumptions of wellness not sickness in the organisation. The guru I associate with this role is Ed Nevis.

Chapter 5 is about the Catalyst. This is a high energy dynamic role. It can interchange with the Cultivator role if you monitor yourself as an OD person. The Catalyst knows how to hit the bulls eye, is good at combining different things or people to create something quite new and exciting. The guru I associate with this role is Dick Beckhard.

Chapter 6 is called the Navigator. This is the role that charts people and the organisation through psychological space. It is an interesting role because it is often not done well...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 An OD Approach
• Chapter 2 The Seer
• Chapter 3 The Translator
• Chapter 4 The Cultivator
• Chapter 5 The Catalyst
• Chapter 6 The Navigator
• Chapter 7 The Teacher
• Chapter 8 The Guardian
• Appendix 1 Questionnaire to Assess You in the Roles
• Appendix 2 My Central OD Compass: Jungian Theory
• Bibliography
• Index