Chapter Seven: Conducting OD Interventions

Contents

7.1 Purpose of the Conducting Interventions Stage
7.2 What are OD Interventions?
7.3 Selecting OD Interventions
7.4 Implementing OD Interventions
7.5 Who Can Conduct OD Interventions?
7.6 Ethical Concerns When Selecting and Implementing OD Interventions
7.7 Tips for Developing OD Skills: Openness to Different Perspectives
Reflection & Summary

7.1 Purpose of the Conducting Interventions Stage

In the intervention stage, change facilitators work with organizational members to define and conduct OD interventions to support the changes the organization wants to accomplish. This stage is also vital as it helps create a shared understanding of the need for the change, promotes a collaborative discussion about ways to make the desired change a reality, provides opportunities for learning, fosters personal and professional development, and improves interrelationships among stakeholders.

Although this chapter discusses the specific tasks necessary to conduct OD interventions, some scholars and practitioners believe that almost any interaction a change facilitator has with an organization and its members is already an intervention. This belief comes from the fact that in every conversation about an organizational situation, the change facilitator is asking questions and prompting reflections on the individuals with whom they are interacting. As organizational issues and opportunities for change are discussed in all the different stages of the OD process, individuals expand their understanding of the situation they are facing, reflect on how they contribute to that situation, and consider potential things they could do to improve, fostering their learning and development.

7.2 What are OD Interventions?

OD interventions are structured activities that support change. They are based on behavioral sciences and principles of adult and organizational learning. OD interventions generally aim to disrupt current behaviors and relationships and promote learning and development. They include a series of structured and carefully planned activities implemented by a skilled professional. OD interventions have a clear purpose of supporting individuals, teams, and organizations in accomplishing the desired changes and improvements they envision.

There are numerous different OD interventions, and they can be targeted to support change at the individual level, the team level, and the whole organization level. OD Interventions are anchored on principles of experiential and transformational learning. Through engaging in a concrete activity, individuals reflect on their experience, acquire new knowledge, develop skills, and revisit their own beliefs and assumptions, aiming to challenge and eventually transform the way they think, relate, and work. At the team and organizational levels, these interventions can promote a collective reflection on the organizational culture and values, a revision of established ways of working and interacting at the workplace, and a collaborative effort to define new working norms, working processes, and team dynamics.

Organizational Learning Theory serves as a foundation for OD interventions at the organizational level. Ultimately, OD interventions at the organizational level seek to help organizations become learning organizations – organizations where members develop the ability to create and transfer knowledge and think systemically, generating organizational capacity to change and adapt to unpredictable situations. It is based on the assumption that organizations are an outcome of the ways people think and act. Consequently, in order for an organization to successfully change and adapt to new circumstances, it needs to help its members change the way they think and act, and the effective way to accomplish this is through experiential learning and collaborative dialogue and not through command-control or top-down decisions.

According to Senge^[1] (1990), organizations that wish to become learning organizations need to support their members in developing five disciplines:

• Personal mastery – develops self-awareness (understanding their strengths and opportunities for development) and a developmental orientation (drive to learn and develop).
• Mental models – understands how one’s beliefs influence one’s actions.
• Shared vision – understands the organization’s vision and how individuals and teams contribute to accomplishing this vision.
• Team learning – the ability to mobilize a team to achieve common goals
• Systems thinking – understand the interdependence of various organizational elements and how change impacts them.

7.3 Selecting OD Interventions

We learned that organizations are complex systems and that changes in one organizational element might trigger changes in other elements of the system. In most cases, when organizations face issues or need to adapt to new circumstances, they often have to promote changes in different elements and at different levels of the organization. For example, when organizations had to adapt to the COVID pandemic, many of them had to promote changes in the organizational processes and systems, including ensuring secure remote access to internal information, adjusting production processes to align with the new characteristics of the external demand, and improving the communication system to facilitate remote work. At the team level, organizations had to promote changes to their team norms and dynamics so they could operate remotely. At the individual level, supervisors had to learn how to manage remote teams, and employees had to learn how to work from home, maintaining their focus and balancing their family demands. Therefore, in most situations, change facilitators will need to conduct OD interventions to tackle different organizational elements at different levels of the organizational system. Additionally, change is a process, and often, multiple interventions are required over a long period.

Once there is a shared understanding among key stakeholders about the organization’s current situation and opportunities for change. Change facilitators should develop an OD intervention strategy, defining a set of interventions that will support the organization in the change process. Like other stages of the OD process, the selection of OD interventions and design ot an intervention strategy should be conducted in collaboration with the organization’s key stakeholders. This collaborative process ensures the designed plan is adequate to the organizational context and ensures alignment and buy-in from relevant stakeholders.

When considering which interventions to include in a plan, an essential first step is to situate the main issues at different organizational levels. As there are different OD interventions that can support individuals, teams, and the organizational system in developing and changing, it is crucial to ensure a holistic plan that can tackle issues and opportunities for change at the different levels of the organization. Figure 1. Provides an overview of common issues and well-known OD interventions at different levels of the organization. Some of these interventions are explained in more detail in Chapter 8.

There is no single and correct response to a specific problem in an organization. Most of the time, more than one OD intervention needs to be combined to facilitate the desired change properly. However, some aspects can be considered when planning an OD intervention strategy:

• Select interventions that can support change at the organizational level where change needs to happen.
• Given the organizational context, be mindful of the necessary resources—time, money, and people—to implement the proposed OD intervention strategy.
• Consider the organizational culture and assess which type of intervention would be a better fit.
• Consider the organization’s readiness to discuss specific issues and change needs. This might help you plan the ideal sequence of OD interventions.
• Reflect on your ability to implement the necessary interventions and whether it is relevant to partner with external providers. Chapter 8 discusses this aspect in more detail.

7.4 Implementing OD Interventions

Whether you are conducting the OD interventions yourself or have support from an external partner, the change facilitator is responsible for key aspects of this stage. Including:

• Defining the OD intervention plan in collaboration with other stakeholders and external partners.
• Defining who should participate in the OD interventions in collaboration with other stakeholders and external partners.
• Executing a good communication plan that includes sharing the interventions’ objectives and overall activities, and being transparent about the expected outcomes of these interventions.
• Defining with key stakeholders and communicating about what is not open for discussion and negotiation (e.g., changing organizational values, requesting additional resources).
• Monitoring the executions and assessing the outcomes of the implemented OD interventions.

7.5 Who Can Conduct OD Interventions?

Individuals who develop OD skills and act as change facilitators in organizations may or may not have the necessary skills to conduct OD interventions. In this book, our aim is that you are aware of these different interventions, understand in which situations they can be helpful, and have a basic understanding of how they work, so then, in the future, you have the necessary knowledge if you are in a situation where you need to either participate in an OD intervention or hire an external OD consultant to implement OD interventions. Moreover, if that interests you, you can seek further development in the future.

Individuals who become OD experts often combine and/or develop new OD interventions. They also adapt and customize the interventions to match organizational needs. As discussed in the following chapters, some OD interventions require specific knowledge and training, and some might even require a professional certification.

7.6 Ethical Concerns When Selecting and Implementing OD Interventions

In this stage of the OD process, change facilitators should be attentive to two major ethical concerns. The first is related to the misrepresentation of your own skill and knowledge. It is vital to self-assess your own competence to conduct an OD intervention that requires specialized training and experience. Being honest about what you can and can not do and looking for appropriate external partners ensures you are aligned with the OD ethical guidelines.

Another critical point of attention is related to respect for others. As a change facilitator, you must ensure transparency in the communication about which OD interventions are being implemented, their purpose, potential outcomes, and how the information shared in these interventions will be shared and utilized. Organizational members should not feel obligated to participate in any of these activities if they do not feel comfortable doing so.

7.7 Tips for Developing OD Skills: Openness to Different Perspectives

Openness to different perspectives is an essential skill to facilitate change. More than that, it is a crucial skill to collaborate well in teams, solve problems effectively, make good decisions, and continuously develop new skills and become a lifelong learner. At the center of being open to different perspectives is being a genuinely curious person. As human beings, we tend to jump to conclusions quickly and try to solve problems by ourselves. We carry preconceived ideas about almost everything, and that makes being curious sometimes difficult. One exercise to expand your curiosity is to hold your judgments and strive to gain a broader understanding of the situation, asking questions – we discussed this skill before! This brief video brings some tips on how to expand your curiosity.

The other reason why being open to different perspectives is not an easy skill to develop is that we deeply cherish our knowledge and opinions, and being open to others’ perspectives involves considering that our own perspective might be biased and incomplete, which often is, if you remember the ladder of inference, or inaccurate. Consider watching this video for a powerful argument to consider how dangerous it can be to limit our understanding of a situation to our own perspective.

Besides expanding your curiosity, some additional tips for you to develop your openness to different perspectives:

• Try new things, new foods, new places, new activities
• In a team setting, invest in getting to know your team members
• Intentionally ask about others’ perspectives in a conversation
• Read or listen to opinions that are contrary to your own and identify the arguments supporting these different ideas

Summary

OD interventions are structured activities that leverage adult and organizational learning principles to support individuals, teams, and organizations to change. These interventions encourage reflection, challenge existing behaviors, prompt changes in mindset, and foster learning and development at individual, team, and organizational levels. Change facilitators develop an OD intervention strategy, often combining multiple interventions implemented over a long period. An effective OD intervention strategy must consider the different elements that need to be changed and the levels of the organization in which they are situated (individual, team, and organizational level) to propose adequate interventions. Additionally, it is crucial to assess the availability of the required resources, the fit with the organization’s culture, and its readiness for change. Importantly, change facilitators must ensure transparent communication and continuously monitor the outcomes of the intervention plan, making adjustments whenever needed. Ethical concerns include acting with integrity and responsibility regarding one’s ability and limitations to conduct the selected OD interventions and respecting participants’ autonomy to decide whether they want to engage in these interventions.