Image via Wikipedia Highlights from Mintzberg ‘s The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning Ch 1: planning and strategy. Mintzberg offers definitions in this chapter. He asks “Is strategy making simply a process of planning or is it simply an oxymoron? Should strategy always be planned, never be planned or sometimes be planned? What’s the […]
Tag: management
how OD interventions need to be adapted to fit different cultural contexts.
Image by Okinawa Soba (In Asia and Africa until August) via Flickr Cummings and Worley acknowledge the importance of appreciating, if not understanding, the cultural context when considering an OD interventions. This includes culture on a national, regional, tribal, religious and ethnic dimension as well as the traditional social norms. They remind us that interventions […]
Some characteristics of transformational change
Image by Alex Osterwalder via Flickr Discussing the three kinds of interventions associated with transformational change, namely: culture change, self-design, and Organizational Learning and Knowledge management. Culture change: focuses more on the development of a strong, appropriate culture for the line of business, environment, workforce demographics and societal norms as a way to align organizations, […]
Integrated strategic change and how it differs from traditional strategic planning and traditional planned organization change
Image via Wikipedia Cummings and Worley define the concept of integrated strategic change (ISC) as a comprehensive OD intervention that examines how plan change that can add value to strategic management. The integrative piece looks at a synthesis of business strategies and organizational systems responding together to external and/or internal disruptions. This strategic change plan […]
Diagnosing and alleviating stress in the workplace: theory and practice
Image via Wikipedia Organizations are becoming more aware of the relationship between employee wellness and proactivity, with one estimate suggesting job stress costs US businesses over 300 billion annually. The response has been a rise of OD interventions such as fitness, wellness and stress management programs whose goals include individual well-being or wellness. Health is […]
Military Acquisition: a political process?
Image via Wikipedia If acquisition is a political process (and it should be since the military is subordinate to the civilian, AND is in support of the values of the political system), then effectiveness is probably more important than efficiency. Effectiveness is may have to be defined as the “best” political compromise, ie one in […]
10 sigma in the news again
Image via Wikipedia Risks are magnified after a historically volatile event like Thursday. The 11.3% intraday move was a 10 sigma event (if you treat the daily range of SPY as a normal Gaussian distribution). Per the excellent blog at http://www.aleph.se/andart/archives/2009/09/ten_sigma_numerics_and_finance.html, a 10 sigma event can be expected to occur in 1x 10^23 days or […]
The persona of the process consultant: is it intentional or assigned?
Image by Getty Images via Daylife I’m wondering if you have ever had the experience of deliberately planning your relationship to the organization you’re trying to help change. I am discovering that I tend to have a particular role that I favor witches being an expert. Sometimes when I act as an expert by taking […]
Planning considerations for “insider” consultants
Image via Wikipedia as an inside consultant with considerable knowledge of the status quo, what kinds of procedures or checklists or attitudes do you think are necessary to ensure that we are taking a fresh look at a well-known situation to find root causes? How dangerous is it for the organization to have OD consultants […]
Authenticity for “insiders” acting as change leaders
Image via Wikipedia Have you ever tried to act as a change agent inside your organization in a way that took you out of your assigned role? What kinds of challenges did that present for you when you were trying to work with people who pigeonholed you into a certain role based on your job […]