OD INTERVENTIONS

The role of OD practitioners

What are interventions?
The intervention is the procedure the OD consultant
uses, after diagnosing an organizational situation
and providing feedback to management, to
address an organization problem or positive future.
 Intervention

To intervene is to enter into an ongoing system of

relationships, to come between or among persons,
groups, or objects for the purpose of helping them

(Chris Argyris (1970) Intervention theory and method. Reading, MA:

Addison-Wesley)
Intervention
Intervention is any event, directed toward improving
organizational effectiveness, that disrupts an
organizations normal way of operating (Smither, R. et al.
(1970) Organization Development: Strategies for Changing Environment. New York,
NY: HarperCollins)

Interventions sometimes involve a consultant from

outside the organization, but many times
management itself intervenes to make organizational
changes.
Deciding on appropriate
OD initiatives
OD Interventions

The techniques that OD practitioners use to bring

about change.
Specific activities, resulting from the process of
diagnosis and feedback, that OD practitioners use
to bring about change.
 Diagnosis and Intervention for OD

Organization Vision,

Mission, Strategies

GAP

Strategy for
change

Intervention
Plan

... ... ... ...

A successful OD intervention
Communicate more openly
Collaborate more effectively
Take more responsibility
Maintain a shared vision
Solve problems more effectively
Show more respect and support for others
Interact with each other more effectively
Be more inquisitive
Be more open to experimentation and new
ways of doing things
Source: Porras&Hoffer (1986)
 Environment
Organization or
Sub-organization

Individual
Team
Process
Global
Entry Start-up
Organization-wide
Assessment
and Feedback Community and
Action Implementation National
Planning
Evaluation

Adoption

Separation

Source: McLean, G. (2006) Organization Development: Principles, Processes, Performance.

In a larger sense
Diagnosing and giving feedback are themselves
forms of intervention.
Just the fact that management has recognized a
problem and asked someone skilled in OD to study
the situation and make recommendations is likely to
bring about some kind of change.
Chris Argyris
The founder of intervention theory

To intervene is to enter into an

ongoing system of relationships
to come between or among
persons, groups, or objects for
the purpose of helping them.

Argyris, C. (1970) Intervention theory and method. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

In other words,
Just undertaking the study of system is likely to have
some impact on the way the system operates.
In a sense, intervention is any event, directed
toward improving organizational effectiveness, that
disrupts an organizations normal way of operating.
Who intervene?
Interventions sometimes involve a consultant from
outside the organization,
But many times management itself intervenes to
make organizational changes.
Case study: Euro Disney
Management quickly intervened after it became apparent that the resort
was losing $1 million a day.
In fall, 1993, Euro Disneys CEO, Philippe Bourguignon, invited his 9000
employees cast members in Disney jargon to suggest ways to improve
operations in the park.
Euro Disney employees responded with a surprising number of suggestions.
One of the recommendations being implemented cut the number of souvenir
items stocked in the stores from 30000 to 17000.
employees also suggested the stores carry more Mickey and Minnie souvenirs
and fewer artistic items.
Along the same lines, the number of different food items available to visitors
was reduced from 5400 to 2000.
The goal of the intervention which result in Euro Disneys first profits in the
summer of 1995 is to cut costs by as much as $51 million.
Aside from specific techniques

Intervention can also be thought of as a process.

As an OD practitioner begins the process, he/she
bring four sets of attributes to the organizational
settings.
OD practitioner and 4 sets of attribute

1. The practitioner bring the set of values that are

the foundation of the OD including
the belief that people are the cornerstone of success
in any organization endeavor, that most workers
desire personal growth and would like their jobs to be
interesting and challenging,
that organizations are systems of interdependent
parts where changes in one area can bring
unexpected changes in another.
OD practitioner and 4 sets of attribute

2. The OD specialist has a set of assumption about

the individuals, groups, and organization and how
they operate.
Many times these assumptions are affected by the
theoretical school to which the practitioner belongs.
For example, some OD specialists may interpret
organizational behavior from a sociotechnical systems
approach, whereas others may be more comfortable
using Lewins unfreezing-moving-freezing model.
OD practitioner and 4 sets of attribute

3. The practitioner has goals for him/herself and for

the organization of values.
Particularly after the OD specialist has made a
diagnosis, these goals may differ from the goals
expressed by higher management when they contact
the specialist.
In the process of planning the intervention, however,
the OD consultant and management work to make
certain they are in agreement about their goals.
OD practitioner and 4 sets of attribute

4. The OD practitioner knows a variety of structured

activities and techniques to use in reaching those
goals. These specific structured activities and
techniques are interventions.
Although certain interventions are used more frequently
than others, the number and variety of interventions are
always expanding. As new situations arise, and as the
environments in which organizations operate change, new
interventions are developed to address organization
problems.
For example, virtually no interventions for diversity training
existed even ten years ago, but diversity is now a major
area of activity for OD practitioners.
 OD interventions

Individual level
Team/Group
Process
Global
Organization-wide
Community and National

Source: McLean, G. (2006) Organization Development: Principles, Processes, Performance. CA: San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
 Individual interventions
Laboratory Training Multirater (360-Degree)
Group (T-Groups) Feedback
Coaching Job Design
Mentoring Job Descriptions
Self-Awareness Tools Responsibility Charting
Reflection Policies Manual
Training, Education and Values Clarification and
Development Value Integration
Leadership Development Conflict Management
Action Learning

Source: McLean, G. (2006) Organization Development: Principles, Processes, Performance. CA: San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, pp.109-12.
 Team/ Work Group interventions
Dialogue Sessions Conflict Management/
Team Building Confrontation Meeting
Team Development/ Fishbowls
Effectiveness Strategic Alignment
Meeting Facilitation Assessment

Source: McLean, G. (2006) Organization Development: Principles, Processes, Performance. CA: San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, pp.109-12.
 Process interventions

Six Sigma
Continuous Process Improvement/TQM
Process Reengineering
Benchmarking
Sociotechnical Systems (STS)

Source: McLean, G. (2006) Organization Development: Principles, Processes, Performance. CA: San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, pp.109-12.
 Organizational interventions
Organization Design Strategic Planning, including
Company-wide Survey Environmental Scanning and
Scenario Planning
Learning
Organization/Organizational Mission, Vision, and Values
Learning Development
Culture Change Large-Scale Interactive Events
(LSIEs)
Accountability and Reward
Systems Open Systems Mapping
Succession Planning Future Search
Valuing Differences/Diversity Open Space Technology
Meetings

Source: McLean, G. (2006) Organization Development: Principles, Processes, Performance. CA: San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, pp.117-21.
 Global interventions
Virtual teams and Virtual Teams Building
Cross cultural Teams and Cross-cultural Team Building
Cultural Self-Awareness
Cross-cultural Training
Storytelling/Sharing
Joint ventures
International Diversity
Job Assignments
Blending

Source: McLean, G. (2006) Organization Development: Principles, Processes, Performance. CA: San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, pp.114-15.
 Appreciative inquiry
COPs

Open space Knowledge caf

Knowing Consultants is important

It is also important to recognize that

consultant whether internal or external has a
particular area of expertise,
And that he or she often relies on that particular
expertise to solve organizational problems.
For example, some consultants specialize in
teambuilding, some in personnel selection, some in
strategic planning, and so forth.
One lesson
One of the critical aspects of making an
intervention successful is being certain the person
responsible for implementing change has a good
knowledge of intervention appropriate to the
situation.