Planning Organizational Interventions

1
Planning Organizational Interventions

• Three Design Principles
• Chuck Schaefer
• Jeff Evans

2
Expectations for This Session

• Propose three principles for designing
  organizational interventions (current work in
  progress) for consideration
• Elicit feedback and pushback on these by testing
  against the collective experience base here

3
Three Principles

• IP1 - organizations are open, living systems
• IP2 - democratic self-regulation works
• IP3 - co-creation accelerates transformation

4
IP1 - Open Systems

• The system learns from the environment
• The system makes plans to act on the environment
• Change occurs through planning and learning

Emery Trist
5
IP2 - Democratic Self-regulation

• Democratic Self-Regulation Works
• Interventions work better when they are
  self-regulated by the participants

Lippet, Lewin, et al
6
IP3 - Co-creation Accelerates

• System adaptation comes through planning and
  acting.
• The more of the system is involved in adaptation,
  the faster the change occurs.
• If the entire system is involved, transformation
  is immediate.

7
Cycle of Experience
Closure is here
Observations
Contact
Withdrawal
Action planned
Energy
Awareness
Creative indifference
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IP 1 Examples

• Processes focused on planning and adapting
• Open and frequent communications
• Strong emphasis on the systems interaction with
  the environment
• Growth and change encouraged
• Experimentation is allowed

9
IP 2 Examples

• Work is coordinated and controlled at the level
  is is performed
• Input is expected from all levels
• Work units are responsible and responsible

10
IP 3 Examples

• Wide level of participation
• Note Communications, meetings, report-outs,
  etc. are not considered participation here
• Decision-making is widely distributed at the
  level of the participants
• The intervention encourages/supports cook time
  in the workplace

11
Case One

• Division changes / merging
• Shift from functional organization to multiple
  SBUs with nested PMUs
• Time frame constraints
• Method selected based on above criteria

12
Case 2

• Manufacturing site
• Shift to differentiated product strategy
• Increased demands for flexibility, adaptability
• Increased demands for high skilled /
  multi-skilled workforce
• No prior organizational planning

13
Evaluation Matrix