Our guest for this issue is Dr. Mendiola Teng-Calleja. Joy is the Executive Director of the Ateneo Center for Organization Research and Development (CORD) and an Associate Professor at the Psychology Department of the Ateneo de Manila University. She has over twenty years of practice in different areas of human resources management (HRM) and organization development (OD). She has published in international and local journals and has also co-edited HRM, OD, and Leadership books. Joy has a PhD in Social-Organizational Psychology, a licensed Psychologist and a Certified Industrial/Organizational Psychologist of the Psychological Association of the Philippines (PAP). Joy is a board member of the OD Practitioners Network (ODPN) and heads the Research in Psychology Special Interest Group of the PAP.
Diagnosis and Research
Diagnosis is usually equated with research. This makes some OD practitioners cringe as memories of statistics and text analysis… our bygone research days in College… come to mind. Yet, there is no escaping this important phase of the OD consulting cycle. In fact, in our years of experience in doing OD in Ateneo Center for Organization Research and Development (CORD), some clients would learn to love and live with data, applied research, and evidence-based practices when they get to know more about diagnosis.
After firming up the intended outcomes and the relational dynamics with our clients in the entry and contracting phase, we take on this critical task comprehensively described by Julie Nolan as a “collaborative process between organization members and the OD practitioner to collect relevant information, organize it, and feed the data back to the client system in such a way as to build commitment, energy, and direction for action planning… organization diagnosis determines ‘what is’ and ‘what could be’; it seeks ways to bridge the gap… it forms the basis for determining subsequent interventions.”(2006:193).
Energizing your Clients
Two important points from this definition that can hopefully wipe away our second thoughts about embarking on a meaningful diagnosis are how it serves to energize and empower the client system. The energy comes from how information from diagnosis serves as a mirror to the organization. It helps the client unearth things about their current realities – essentially ‘revealing the client to itself’- and surface ways to attain organization effectiveness and health. This usually sets the organization in motion and creates excitement and enthusiasm to begin and sustain the change journey.
A Process of Discovery
The entire process of discovery is done collaboratively with the client system and thus becomes an empowering experience. A guiding principle that can help this way of working is Edgar Schein’s reminder that “It is the client who owns the problem and the solution” (1999:2). Schein, one of our OD gurus, humbly said that “My job is to create a relationship in which the client can get the help. It is not my job to take the client’s problems onto my own shoulders, nor is it my job to offer advice and solution that I do not live in myself” (1999:2).
Although one of the wider aims of diagnosis is to gather sufficient relevant data to catalyze change, it need not always be lengthy and complicated. For example, we can always use the tried and tested ways of collecting data through surveys, focus group discussions (FGDs), interviews, and observations but we can also gather a good representation of the relevant members of a client system in a virtual or actual room and facilitate a process where we can gather people’s thoughts, feelings, and ideas. The 5 Why’s was a technique that we recently used in a one-hour conversation among leaders of a women’s NGO on why there are concerns with the operations of their provincial chapters. World café was an approach that we have utilized in gathering data from teachers and administrators on how they can improve performance management while future search conference was used in determining how systems of a telecommunications company can be aligned with its new strategies. Both activities had 200 to 300 participants conducted on a half-day.
What is important is a clear understanding as to why we are painstakingly facilitating this process with the client and believing that “The data, once people have discovered and owned it, will give them motivation to steer the organization forward” (Cheung Judge & Holbeche, 2021:90).
Practical Insights
Finally, practical insights are presented by Ron Velin examining the 3 levels (Organization, Group/Team and Individual elements) for diagnosing organizational issues with a systems thinking perspective.
NOTES AND SOURCES
Cheung Judge, M. & Holbeche, L. (2021). Organization Development: A Practitioners Guide for OD and HR (3rd ed).
Nolan, J. (2006). Organization diagnosis phase. In B.B. Jones & M. Brazzel (Eds) The NTL Handbook of Organization Development and Change: Principles, Practices, and Perspectives. Pfeiffer: A Wiley Imprint.
Schein, E. (1999). Process consultation revisited: Building the helping relationship.
SAVE THE DATE:
(a) OD CONVERSATION: WHAT IS THE QUESTION? Why The Question Is More Important than the Answer on Wednesday, 21 Sep, 10:00 am with Ana Margarita "Miren" Sanchez as our Facilitator. She is the founder and CEO of Future By Design Pilipinas. Register Now
(b) The OD Practitioners Networ.k (ODPN) Board announced that the OD LAB 2022 will be held in Bohol on December 1-2, 2022 with the theme, The New ODyssey: A journey to a new destination on the Wings of Classical OD. Save the date! More details will follow.