Organizational Development 101

Lots of Moving Parts

Every organization—no matter what its mission, product, or purpose—is a complicated mix of factors that make it what it is. Understanding these and how they fit together is essential for diagnosing problems and making the adjustments needed to keep things running well. We can begin by identifying four domains that are always present:

• Structural — This is the most tangible way of analyzing what you do: org charts, roles, job descriptions, policies, competencies, mission statements, processes, etc.  Basically, anything you could describe in a formal plan or document.

• Group norms — These are the actual habits around how you “do” your structure and, as such, characterize important functions: communication, power-sharing, feedback, meeting culture, the chain of command, collaboration, problem-solving, and so on.

• Interpersonal — How do individuals in your organization relate to one another? In general, are these relationships characterized by trust, honesty, support, mutual respect, and accountability? Perhaps something less? It matters.

• Intrapersonal — Each individual in your organization brings the complexity of their own person to work every day. Do your leaders bring the kind of self-awareness and self-management that contributes to a vital workplace? Will others look to them as a model for effectiveness, humility, and personal growth?

Skilled organizational leaders know that anyone workplace issue is a mix of these four factors and bringing order out of chaos starts with discerning the nature and magnitude of each. In the same way, taking a good organization and making it better will also involve each of these four domains.

Everything is Connected

The four components above are interwoven into everything your organization does, which is to say they make up a dynamic system that’s always in flux. This means these four components have a mutual impact and when you change one, the others shift as well. The consequence of this is that when one component is out of whack, the negative effects will be felt elsewhere and, conversely, if you improve one, the positive impact reverberates elsewhere.

The Chicken or the Egg?

Since your workplace is this complex arrangement of interrelated parts, it’s not always easy to know what’s causing the problems you see. Does a lack of role clarity drive the interpersonal breakdowns you’re experiencing or vice versa? Are employees disconnected at meetings because they feel undervalued everywhere else or is it something about your meeting culture itself? Yes, everything impacts everything else and it’s essential that you understand the root cause vs. its effect.

Both Yin and Yang

As two kids starting a lemonade stand quickly discover, every human endeavor needs both rules and flexibility. Rules allow us to maximize our efforts by pulling in the same direction, while flexibility allows us to reshape how we work to better fit changing conditions. Too much or too little of either will compromise the effectiveness of the entire operation. By nature, this delicate balance is a constantly moving target but adept organizational leaders learn how to use both to their advantage and not get stuck on one way of thinking.

Low Hanging Fruit

This principle is simple: unless you have a clear reason to do otherwise, begin your change efforts with the most tangible piece of the puzzle and then work to the more complex ones. For example, “poor communication” is a common complaint, and yet what this exactly means can be quite complicated since communication infiltrates just about everything you do. Where do you begin? Start with the weekly team meeting and other easily identifiable outlets and go from there. Once you get these in order, you’ll begin to see how the more subtle aspects of your organization’s communication patterns either work or don’t work. You can then make additional changes as needed.

Embrace the Wild Card

Wouldn’t it be great if everyone around us had a “set it and forget it” feature that meant the right information only needs to be downloaded once and all would be good? Workplace drama would simply go away since people would do exactly what they needed to do. Good organizational leaders know this isn’t how the world works and they accept the challenge of working with complex and often problematic people. They understand the fact that ego, fear, insecurity, selfishness, and just plain immaturity are as impactful to workplace effectiveness as organizational charts and process improvement strategies…and adjust accordingly.

Let me help you engineer your best workplace ever.