Your holistic approach to Organisational Development

Organisational development is recognised as a systematic approach to change within a business. The trigger for looking at your organisational development could be a few things, from a major cultural shift happening due to a merger, low productivity or high staff turnover to leadership wishing to better the business for the long-term.

Not all organisational change comes from negative circumstances. OD can be triggered by the need to improve efficiency, improve service delivery or specific business processes. The importance of organisational development has grown over the years to become recognised as a crucial process to go through when an organisation needs to maintain and improve its levels of performance within a rapidly changing environment.

Organisational development is essentially about people, which is why it often works so closely alongside the HR part of the business. But OD often works best when it is led by leaders who are fully engaged with the process to ensure all stakeholders are engaged and will support by acting on solutions given plus guide teams and employees in making the changes needed.

Holistic Organisational Development

Regardless of the trigger for OD, a vital aspect is to review, assess and develop processes, skills and behaviours and this covers a number of stages.

Each of these stages and the solutions that come from them work towards a cultural shift aimed at delivering positive, engaging outcomes.

At Think Forward our approach to organisational development is from a holistic perspective in order to ensure the long-term focus and success of any identified development programme. Full organisational effectiveness requires each stage of the process to be assessed, and engaged in. From this we can create a continuous cycle of improvement, from strategy, through to implementation, evaluation and further change.

At Think Forward the psychometric suite of tools from Lumina Learning is utilised to help drill down into aspects such as individual attributes, behavioural development and growth mind-set. The outcome of this, from tools such as Lumina Spark is to provide a foundation upon which a company can:

• Accelerate employee onboarding with clarity on skills and high-performing individuals.
• Enable individuals and teams to understand themselves and their contribution to organisational objectives.
• Improve the morale and engagement of your people and improve group dynamics.

Organisational development needs to be driven by the unique needs and objectives of the organisation. From documentation reviews, to focus groups, and interviews, thorough assessment will lead to the creation of a tailored and bespoke plan for implementation.

The plan may consist of a mix of training and development, leadership development, team building, structural changes and individual coaching support.

At each stage data and analysis is gathered to help measure change in process, behaviour and morale to ensure OD is making the changes needed for the long-term goals of the business.

Penny Strutton, Think Forward owner, comments “From our experience as organisational consultants and business psychologists, we have worked with a range of businesses who have been driven to achieve organisational change for a number of reasons. But regardless of the ultimate objectives, it has always been an inclusive process of assessing and reviewing different aspects of behaviours, skills, cultural and developmental influences. This holistic approach of such aspects means that final plans and changes are more likely to achieve success in achieving business goals, improving employee engagement and driving an increase in productivity, so improving the organisational effectiveness.

“Leaders, teams and individuals have far more clarity in how they can help deliver desired outcomes, and how the business is there to support their own developmental needs, and how they are benefiting from a people-focused culture.”

The People Outcome

The outcome of organisational development is to help bring together a company’s overall objectives and make sure that all departments and staff members are working towards a common goal.

An organisation can expect to see some of the following once they have gone through the OD process:

• An increase in internal communication across all levels of the organisation, aligning employees, teams and leaders in shared values.
• An increase in innovation through employee development and engagement.
• An increase in profit through improved productivity and creativity, with a possible reduction in costs, reduced staff turnover and an open and engaging culture.

Organisational Development is adaptive, flexible and evolving. It is focused on putting people at the heart of any change and can positively affect the financial bottom line.

To discuss the OD process for your business just contact Penny by email on penny@pennystrutton.co.uk or call 0115 880 0098.