Effective OD Author: Sanjiv Narang Director:Innovation Systems Consulting Over a period of time, organizations have developed a dominant mind set of training. This is good from a training point of view and it also resulting in efforts to improve the quality of training but mindless application of training systems for the purpose of organization development is an exercise in futility .In the process,a lot of well meaning training managers do more damage than good. Let us take up for example the case of a training manager of an MNC who wanted to conduct the Large Scale Interactive Process in the organization. Before I examine its application inadequacies, let us get to a shared understanding of the Large Scale Interactive process. The LSIP has to be deployed carefully. The role of the Leadership team in the process of prioritization and resolution of issues has to be clarified and agreed upon before the deployment. The MNC training manager deployed the LSIP without adequately briefing the Leadership team. The result was disastrous. The ticklish issues which were identified by the organizational personnel were brushed aside without any discussion. One of the issues identified was that of ,”Top Management Leadership”. In front of the entire group one team leader asked,” Who has pointed out this inadequacy?” .There was complete silence in the room. One of the strengths of the LSIP is the surfacing of data anonymously. In case the leaders try to find as to who was the originator of an inadequacy the entire purpose of the exercise is defeated. Protecting the identity of the data provider is the sine-qua-non of the LSIP. When this phenomenon was happening, the Training Manager watched helplessly from the sidelines. In case such vitiation of the Large Scale Interactive Process is aloud to happen, the participants are bound to lose faith in its efficacy resulting in skepticism and fear of participation in such OD interventions in future sets in. The inadequacy did not end here. No meaningful action points on the basis of inadequacies were formulated. In case of a few points related to enhancing internal communication, responsibility was fixed. However, this was quickly forgotten after the end of the session. After a few months the memory of the action plan faded away. What a mockery of the LSIP? So nothing significant is being achieved and a lot of faith and trust is being lost. This is a typical case which indicates as to how a LSIP should not be conducted. In case it is done in such an unprepared manner, it does more damage than good. What a waste of time and resources. OD interventions are potent systems for improving organizational effectiveness. In order to deploy them effectively the spirit of the intervention and its soul needs to well understood by the deployer. In case learning is superficial, the outcome is a mess. One of the by-products of this outcome is a disbelief in OD interventions. The finance head of another MNC was worried about the lack of team spirit in his team. So he decided to conduct a team building intervention. This intervention was designed as an OD intervention so that real issues could be surfaced and resolved. So the intervention was divided into two parts. One dealt with competency building regarding team building competencies and the other dealt with the sufacing and resolution of issues in order to enhance teamwork ad team effectiveness. In order to evolve a shared understanding of team building competencies all the finance team members were a part of the intervention. The team building competencies explored and assimilated were Emotional intelligence, communication and conflict resolution. Subsequently, the LSIP was deployed. Team adequacies and inadequacies surfaced through the deployment a group process. The top four inadequacies were taken up for resolution. The responsibility for execution of the formulated action plan was fixed. The team reaped the benefits of this deployment of the LSIP in terms of enhanced efficacy, reduced stress and conflict at work. The only faltering point of this team was in terms of regular reviews of plan execution. Till the time the reviews happened, execution went along fine. When reviews stopped, the execution stopped. This indicates how the LSIP can be effectively deployed at a functional team level. This intervention was a fusion of a workshop and an OD intervention. This is increasingly becoming a potent format in organizational programs of improvement. Another largely neglected but potent OD intervention is that of ,”Appreciative inquiry”. It is surprising that very few organizations have recognized the potential of this intervention. Appreciative inquiry brings into the culture of an organization a positive outlook and an inside =out approach to excellence. Over a period of time, most organizations have developed an outside-in approach to leading change. What does this mean? Say an organization wants to become world class. So, the dominant approach is,” Which are the benchmark organizations in this line of business”? Let us study them. What is their strategy and which processes do they deploy? Learning from these benchmarks, these organizations tend to incorporate their strategy, structure and systems into their own organizations. This is the dominant style of functioning. What are the limitations of this approach? It becomes extremely difficult to cascade the proposed,” Change strategy and structure “ in the organization. Appreciative inquiry in contrast is an inside-out approach to leading change. It focuses on strengths rather than weaknesses and the process of leveraging these strengths for achievement. It in fact is a whole new approach o the way we ook at ourselves and we evolve our vision. Before going into the details of its utility and effective application, let us develop a shared perspective of its objectives and process. Appreciative inquiry is an OD intervention focused on enabling an organization to develop its on vision on the basis of its strengths and driving it on the road to its vision. The methodology of,” Appreciative inquiry” is unique in the sense that it triggers the identification of strengths on the basis of organizational high point stories. Since there are no psycho-metric or socio-metric tests, the questions of validity ad reliability do not arise. The Appreciative inquiry process has 4 stages: Stage 1: Discovery: This is the stage when the organization identifies its positive core on the basis of organizational high point stories. High point stories are narrated and analyzed in order to identify the positive core of the organization. The positive core consists of Competencies, processes, social-psychology, technology and strategy. Stage 2: Dream After identifying the positive core, the organizational personnel are asked to dream up the vision of the organization on the basis of the positive core. this ensures that the vision of the organization has strong roots in its positive core. This ensures that the vision is realistic and he organization has the capability to achieve it. The power of this approach is that it reduces the confusion surrounding vision. There are so many opportunities that it is easy for an organization or an individual to lose its way among them and become confused resulting in not getting anywhere. Stages 3 & 4: Design and delivery This stage involves the formulation of strategy, structure and competencies in order to convert the positive core into the preferred future as enshrined in the organizational vision. Approaching the vision and strategy from this angle tends to make it realistic and practical. The organizational vision formulated on the basis of the organizational positive core has the maximum probability of becoming reality. Now let us examine the varied applications of the Appreciative inquiry process in the organizational context. Case 1: Customized Leadership competency model Napier’s was putting up a dam in an area infested with socio-economic-political unrest. Thus, the organizational leaders functioning at the dam site had to face huge hurdles in maintaining project schedule and also taking the organizational personnel along. The organization wanted to evolve a customized leadership competency model. Appreciative inquiry was the ideal OD tool for this purpose. Key organizational leaders were collected and asked to propound leadership high point stories. These were collated and analyzed to formulate the ,”Leadership Competency Model”. Such an approach yielded two benefits. One was the customized Leadership competency model. Second was the consolidation and radiation of positivity due to the propagation of leadership high point stories in the organizational culture. Case 2: Leader on the decline The Finance director of a MNC financial co. realized that one of his key mangers was on a career nosedive. He was not able to manage his subordinates; was suspicious of them, was continuously questioning their motives and was loosing his temper publicly. The result was that slowly the manager ‘s responsibilities were being reduced. Inspite of being the senior most, he had the lowest area of responsibility. The finance director asked the concerned manager to go through leadership coaching .The coach put him through,”Appreciative inquiry”. On the basis of his high point stories in school, college and professional life, the coach helped him identify his positive core. This served as the anchor for his identifying his personal vision in organizational life. Using the vision as a guiding beacon, an action plan was formulated in terms of ,”Initiatives for expanding visibility and performance”. The result of this appreciative inquiry process was a u-turn in the career prospects of the manager. The team’s perception of him as a problem person declined. Their perception of him as a caring and yet performing leader increased. Hence, new projects began to find their way to him.His no. of subordinates was increased accordingly. Thus, appreciative inquiry helped him regain his former position in his team and mended his career in the organization. Case 3: Jamsoft Jamsoft wanted to involve its leaders in the evolution of a vision for the organization. So,it decided to deploy,” Appreciative inquiry”. The discovery phase of Appreciative inquiry was an eye opener to a lot of leaders present in the session. The high point stories narrated acted as creators of a positive change climate and a confident organizational atmosphere. Subsequently, when the leaders formulated a vision on the basis of the positive core,new energy was visible in the organization and there was an palpable expectation that the organization is on the move. Thus, Appreciative inquiry is a powerful OD intervention for creating a positive dialogue in the organization resulting in a culture of achievement, confidence and movement towards a desirable vision. In the cases above, we have examined the application of appreciative inquiry to an organization, to a critical success factor of an organization as well as to a professional. These highlight the range of applications of this OD intervention. In this article, two OD interventions have been highlighted namely LSIP and Appreciative inquiry. Both are powerful and potent. Both are underutilized by organizations. The beauty of OD is in its capacity to make a long lasting positive impact on organizational effectiveness. It is sad to see that such powerful tools have not appeared in the perceptive horizon of most organizations. About the Author: Sanjiv Narang is the Director of Innovation Systems Consulting, Gurgaon. He trains and consults in the areas of Innovation, Organization development, Leadership Development and HR systems. His web and blog addresses are www.innovativetraining4u andwww.trainingpoint.blogspot.com His e-mail address issanjiv@innovativetraining4u.com.