June 2007

Organizational Development
Nine steps to create a catalyst for change

Companies are always seeking ways to increase productivity, performance, and profitability. They know training and employee development are the means of achieving these goals, but struggle with ways to effectively accomplish them, especially when constrained by conventional methods of training employees and developing their skills.

Whatever the format, be it traditional classroom training workshops or seminars or the increasing use of e-learning, the problem boils down to a static presentation of information that fails to engage, involve and challenge employees to solve critical problems and move the organization forward toward the achievement of their primary goals.

To be consistently successful, organizations must instead undertake nine primary steps.

1. DEFINE organizational goals and objectives

The initial step in achieving increased productivity involves defining the organization’s goals and objectives. This is accomplished during the annual strategic planning phases all companies perform to define their goals and objectives. They serve as the compass and foundation for all divisional, departmental, and individual goals for a specified period (typically a year or more).

2. IDENTIFY individual performance objectives

Many organizations are utilizing specific management control systems such as Six Sigma, Balanced Scorecard, Management by Objectives, and several others. These provide the direction and metrics that guide performance on multiple levels and which should be specifically linked to employee training and development objectives.

3. PINPOINT areas for personal improvement

The identification of performance objectives by job or position allows companies to pinpoint individual areas of needed personal improvement. Assessment tests and evaluations allow companies to identify gaps in key competencies and skills, highlighting areas in which employees must improve their individual performance.

4. DEVELOP new skills and competencies

Training and development programs are employed to develop and polish new skills and competencies and provide the foundation for increased employee performance.

5. CAPTURE collective employee knowledge

An additional function of training and development programs should be to access and capture collective experiences, expertise, knowledge, and insight. Employees collectively learn and train each other by tapping into this valuable and often underutilized training and development resource.

6. COMBINE skills and knowledge

Employees must be provided a forum allowing them to combine their new skills, competencies and knowledge into a usable and applicable form that can be meaningfully transferred to the workplace.

7. APPLY new skills and knowledge to create viable solutions

In order to create viable solutions to pressing problems and issues confronting them in the workplace, employees must be provided with the structure and mechanisms to apply their newly acquired skills and knowledge. This drives training and development and applies its lessons to where they can have the most impact for the organization.

8. IMPLEMENT solutions to solve problems

Training becomes useful when it is immediately implemented and applied in the front lines, where the problems are occurring. This action has instant motivational impact on the organization and its employees since their personal lives have been simplified and made more productive and meaningful. The fact that they are directly involved and gain ownership of ideas and solutions guarantees a successful solution.

9. EVALUATE performance and adapt solutions

The final step in increasing performance and productivity involves employees evaluating their results, not at the end of training but after their training has had time to be applied and produce a result. True evaluation must take place in the workplace, not the classroom. Results must be judged based on the performance of the organization in order to gauge the impact that employee and development programs have had upon overall performance.

Additional employee performance evaluations must be conducted that link the overall increase of performance with individual employee goals and objectives. This is where the success of any performance and development program is measured.