18 – Comprehensive Intervention

Introduction

In today’s OD practice, comprehensive OD interventions are alive and well. Some large-scale initiatives involve the entire system. These comprehensive interventions need a collaborative effort between the client organization(s) and the consultant(s) in both diagnosis and intervention. However, they must be appropriate for the client system’s reality and elicit the collaboration and goodwill of client system members.

18.1 All-Inclusive OD Interventions

The scope of the comprehensive OD intervention refers to the extent to which the entire organisation is involved. These are their names:

“Bringing the entire system into the room”

This notion has a long and illustrious history, including the art and science of conference planning and large-scale meeting management.

Managers of all functional areas of a firm; representatives of top management; a cross-section of employees at all levels; suppliers; customer representatives; and directors of all social service agencies in a community.

Future Search Conferences and Previous Search Conferences

Search conferences began primarily with consulting practices in the United Kingdom, Europe, and Australia, whereas future search conferencing has been an American phenomenon. The main structure of the search conference is divided into three phases:

• Phase 1: Appreciation for the Environment.
• Phase 2: System analysis.
• Phase 3: System and environment integration.

The search conference is typically a two-and-a-half-day event in which twenty to thirty people are chosen based on their knowledge of the system and ability to take responsibility for implementation.

Future search conferences will incorporate ideas from Ronald Lippit. According to Lippit and Lindman’s findings, when people plan present action by moving backwards from what is truly desired, they acquire energy, enthusiasm, optimism, and a high level of commitment.

The following steps are included in the Weisboard’s future search conference model:

• The professionals.
• The conference will have four or five segments, each lasting up to half a day and 50–60 individuals will attend.
• The first significant action is concerned with the past, whereas the second is concerned with the present.
• The third primary action is concerned with the future.

18.2 Beckhard’s Confrontation Meetings

Richard Beckhard’s confronting meeting is a one-day meeting of an organization’s whole management in which they assess their organisational health.

This intervention is critical in organizational development because it is a rapid, straightforward, and dependable technique for obtaining data about an organization and formulating action plans for organizational change.

The following steps are taken during the confrontation meetings: (duration is 45 to 60 min).

Information gathering (1 hour): Based on the composition’s heterogeneity, a small group of 7-8 individuals is formed.

Information exchange (duration is 1 hour.)

Priority setting and group action planning (1 hour and 15 minutes) Immediate follow-up by the top team (1 to 3 hours)

Progress Report (2 hours)

The fourth primary action is concerned with the next generational phase.

Volunteers agree to document the meeting, communicate with others, and carry out the following action steps before the conference finishes.

These phases reflect the activities flow for the confronting meeting and are seen as an excellent technique for generating quick outcomes that can lead to organizational improvement.

18.3 Strategic Management Tasks

Many OD programmes and interventions focus on the organisation’s internal operations. However, to ensure the organisation is in sync with its environment, OD must also design outward-looking interventions aimed at environmental analysis and strategic planning.

Thomas created a strategic planning technique that involves a series of two-day meetings with prominent policymakers.

Flow Analysis

– Stream analysis is a technique that can be used to design behavioural, structural, and technical changes.

– Identify behavioural, technical, and structural interventions that can be implemented in the OD programme.

– Aids the organisation in diagnosing and planning actions over time.

– Provides a graphical representation of the modifications and enables progress in implementing specific changes to be displayed.

– Stream analysis, as established by Jerry Porras, is a valuable intervention, albeit sophisticated and somewhat complex to utilise.

Stream analysis is a model for thinking about and managing change. It is a system for graphically exhibiting an organization’s problems, studying the relationships between issues, identifying fundamental matters, and graphically recording remedial actions to remedy them.

The problems are classified and assigned to the appropriate columns on the stream charts. An analysis of the entire collection usually reveals a lot of overlap among the difficulties, which aids in separating the distinct issues for discussion.

Professor Jerry Porras, Professor Emeritus at Stanford Graduate School of Business, created the Stream Analysis approach to organisational change. It’s a fascinating alternative to the traditional “top-down” strategy led by outside specialists. It is a technique for identifying key issues impeding achieving optimal results for projects, initiatives, and organisational effectiveness.

Stream analysis combines a codified approach with enabling technologies to reveal underlying issues and their interdependencies in an organisation quickly. This allows stakeholders to collaborate on corrective actions that address the blocks to good transformation. It is a tool for project leaders, business managers, organisational advisers, and governance and oversight teams, with horizontal and vertical use across all managerial functions and at all levels of management.

Stream analysis applications are horizontal and vertical, and managers can use the toll at all levels of management and across all organisational activities. The extent to which Stream Analysis is used is determined by the aims and assumptions of those driving the change endeavour. However, the technique is adaptable enough to be employed effectively by various organisational groups. It can be used by a slight change management team (CMT) to direct intervention activities, or a much bigger group can use it to carry out substantial business projects. It can be used at numerous levels, from project, department, and business unit to executive-level initiatives. It can even be used by a manager alone or by a consultant to understand better the type of change or intervention required.

Stream Analysis applications cover a wide range of organizational tasks, management choices, and projects, from tactical or strategic planning to problem diagnosis and intervention. Stream Analysis can be used in any of these applications, and it can be pretty flexible and independent of any given phase of a project.

The fundamental engine of Stream Analysis is “Stream diagnostics.” It is a systematic and comprehensive strategy for identifying and isolating underlying causes from symptoms, as well as guiding stakeholders to:

(a) understand organisational interrelationships;

(b) identify essential performance and behaviour issues, and

(c) obtain alignment and buy-in in preparing solutions.

Stream Investigation

The “Stream Survey” software is the assessment phase of the Stream Analysis suite’s front end. It is intended to build superior online surveys from a bank of over 1000 questions using the principles of Stream Analysis. It enables managers to plan and perform organization-wide surveys on a variety of problems and issues in such a way that the results are most informative for executives. Stream Survey produces a complete collection of results, including statistical analysis of the survey questions, that can be utilised to identify organisational challenges. The results of such a survey can be loaded into the Stream Diagnostic as beginning points for identifying core problems. The service “Stream Survey” is currently available.

Inquiry-Based on Appreciation

Appreciative Inquiry (AI), established by Frank Barret and David Cooper Rider, is a larger intervention than the appreciation and concerns exercise. This significant intervention is founded on the premise that the organisation is a miracle to be welcomed rather than a problem to be solved.

18.4 Grid Organizational Development

Blake and Mouton pioneered grid organisation development. It is a thorough and systematic organisational development programme aimed at individuals, groups, and the organisation as a whole. It employs various measures to help individuals and organisations assess their strengths and weaknesses; it focuses on skills. Knowledge and practises required for individual group effectiveness Inter-group and organisational levels Its precise goals are to study the organisation as an interacting system and use analysis tools to diagnose its faults.

Understanding the significance and rationale for systematic change. Evaluating leadership styles and involvement strategies to produce desired results.

18.4.1 Grid Organization Development Process

As previously said, the core content of grid organisation growth is management gird. The overall goal is to develop a managerial style through behavioural science understanding. The grid organisation development process is divided into six stages:

1. Managerial Grid: It encompasses a variety of factors for analysing managerial styles, problem-solving skills, communication skills, and teamwork. Individuals attempt to learn how to become 9.9 managers by practice.

2. Teamwork Development: This stage focuses on teamwork development by studying team culture, traditions, and the like. Planning, goal-setting, and problem-solving abilities are also fostered.

3. Intergroup Development: At this stage, the emphasis is on intergroup behaviour and relations and on transitioning organisations from conflict to cooperation. Action steps to achieve the ideal are established and assigned to individuals who may be involved in developing cooperative intergroup interactions.

4. Creating an Ideal Strategic Corporate Model: At this level, the emphasis switches to the overall organization and the development of abilities required for organizational excellence. The goal of the action is to discover the qualities of the ideal organization. The organization’s members are taught to achieve this level of perfection.

5. Implementing the Ideal Strategic Model: The implementation step entails constructing the organisation on the ideal organisation model based on the principles generated in stage 4. Each group may be assigned the task of developing a strategy for creating a perfect organisation with the assistance of a consultant. The approach is then put into action.

6. Systematic Critique: At this step, the numerous efforts from Phase 1 to Phase 5 are evaluated and analysed critically. The study will highlight any flaws that may exist. Various programmes may be redesigned in this light.

18.4.2 Grid Organization Development Evaluation

Most of Grid OD’s support comes from its creators, Blake and Mouton. They have claimed that “managerial and team effectiveness may be taught to managers with the help of outside experts.” Furthermore, this teaching method can contribute significantly to organisational effectiveness. They kept the same stance in a later effort.

Though few studies have investigated the implementation of grid OD, some have not validated Blake and Mouton’s claims. The Grid OD programme is accused of lacking a contingency approach and, as a result, discounting reality.

18.5 Inter-organizational Cooperation

This notion is an extension of OD and represents a unique level of practice that corresponds to the dynamics arising at this higher level of the social system. For trans-organizational systems, it is an essential type of organisational change process. It is divided into three stages:

• Phase 1: Identifying potential member organisations.
• Phase 2: Consists of the gathering of member organisations.
• Phase 3: The TS has been organised.

However, it necessitates an active engagement from the practitioner, just as it does with OD.