OD: The Next Generation

“Thus, the task is not so much to see what no one yet has seen, but to think what nobody yet has thought about that which everybody sees.” — Schopenhauer

Change is constant, life is messy, and everything is connected. Almost nothing, living or otherwise, grows towards simplicity.Change is the business of OD. With the increasing number of downsizings, mergers, and acquisitions, further complicated by ever-increasing global market considerations, there's plenty to do!The field of OD must grow with these changes and expand beyond (but not leave behind) its first-generation, incremental-change roots. We must embrace what French and Bell (in “Organization Development”) call second-generation concepts like organizational transformation, visioning, learning organizations, and getting the “whole system” in the room.

This evolution brings with it new and added complexity and requires expanded ways of thinking.Clients will need to better understand and successfully manage the interdependencies of structure, culture, processes, and strategy. What's really intriguing is that the nature of these interdependencies is dynamic and non-linear, characterized by delays, feedback, and circular cause and effect (which tend not to be closely related in space and time). Traditional methods and tools often prove ineffective. We can't keep pushing harder and harder at the same old solutions.

Applying Systems Thinking methodologies, within an OD context, greatly facilitates our ability to assess and resolve these challenges with our clients.As French and Bell state “systems theory pervades all of the theory and practice of organization development, from diagnosis to intervention to evaluation.”Applying OD intervention techniques with a systems thinking focus (including business system modeling and simulation where useful) expands the range and depth of new tools we can bring to bear when helping clients fix the growing number of dynamically complex issues they will face.

So what makes these issues so difficult?Sequential thinking dominates our culture.We have a history of, and are better at, analysis (breaking down and studying parts) than synthesis (integrating, seeing the whole).As a result we overload on data.However, the nature of the problems described requires a better balance between synthesis and analysis.Let's talk about an orchestra for example.Great music is not achieved by tuning the violins alone.All instruments must be tuned to play in harmony.Further, even tuned instruments, playing different rhythms, produce equally bad performance (melody)!

Likewise, the organization components outlined above, because of their natural “connectedness,” interact (play together) to create performance (i.e., cost, cycle time, competitiveness, responsiveness, decision-making, team building, etc.) over time.Systems Thinking methods help people clarify and understand the structure of those connections in new ways.Often times we find clients focusing on improving one area, based on “experience and intuition,” only to learn later their actions have actually degraded the overall systems performance they were trying to improve.In short these easy ways out, after some delay usually lead right back in!This is because dynamic systems seek to regain their stability (for better or worse).If we poke at them without a systemic understanding it often comes back to bite us downstream in counterintuitive and unpleasant ways!The results are increased frustration, decreasing hope, and greater resistance to tackling problems and change in the future.

Management has many roles, among them to make decisions and to see that they get implemented.Managers can, and many still do, make decisions without the input or involvement of people on their teams.The rub comes when they need to implement, as this requires the cooperation of the same resources they left out of the decision-making process!Every group can recall the “dumb” decisions that never got executed because people dragged their feet or waited until the manager moved on (or up)!

Aside from Systems Thinking being the right tool for dynamic non-linear kinds of problems, it has many other unique strengths.In my experience, its greatest power is the ability to facilitate collaboration and openness to change. Systems Thinking interventions, by design, surface interdependency. By highlighting interdependency, the case becomes even more compelling for employee involvement, as they represent the functions, processes, and strategies that play together to create performance. People find they can tell their story in their own words and finally get their arms around their big messy real world problems.When this happens the levels of energy and commitment jump orders of magnitude (to the obvious delight of the facilitator)! Systems Thinking then, begins to facilitate permanent culture change that encourages people to participate in decision-making as often as practical and valuable.Eventually the culture becomes contagious!

When change occurs, people go through natural phases of a “change cycle” starting with discovery. If we liken discovery to decision-making then the other phases: denial, resistance, upheaval, accommodation, and integration can be likened to implementation. Systems Thinking compels management to create cross-functional teams to get the “whole system” in the room. In so doing one of the greatest stumbling blocks to change initiatives, how it is presented (i.e., discovery) is dealt with as a matter of course.

Because Systems Thinking generates really new and powerful insights, it actually helps people accelerate through the change cycle, and on to integration (and innovation)! As Beckhard so rightfully puts it "people support what they help create." With this approach they create deeper and deeper understanding of how their business really works. They collectively learn why and how they need to work together to fulfill the vision of the organization.They can now see the forest and the trees, keeping both in perspective while determining where the greatest leverage for improvement truly lies.

People can often tell you with confidence what happened in the past.What they can't tell you with great certainty is “why,” or what the future holds. A Systems Thinking focused OD intervention provides the “why” of change. Knowing why things happened allows organizations to change the future, create a new vision, and know what metrics are the most important.Exhilaration takes the place of frustration, innovation replaces resistance, renewed hope creates continual learning and renewal. Elevated performance and competitiveness are direct results. Systems Thinking then, brings at least one new value-adding dimension the second-generation OD practitioner can apply to client needs.So, when the shoe seems to fit...!

Author: Steve Nyland
Company: S. C. Nyland Consulting
Phone: 760-788-1911
Fax: 760-788-6087
E-mail: nylands@cts.com

Business: Organization consulting, facilitating, and training in business dynamics and high performance using systems thinking and modeling.

Vision: Guiding people and organizations into the Systems Age!