Organizational Assessment and Development

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Organizational Assessment and Development

• Thomas P. Holland, Ph.D.
• Institute for Nonprofit Organizations
• University of Georgia

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Assessment of Organizational Performance
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Definition and Uses

• Assessment in organizations is a process of
  systematically examining one or more aspects of
  the organization for purposes of documenting
  present performance and planning for
  improvements.
• Uses
• Identify staff attitudes, behaviors, opinions,
  concerns
• Examine indicators of organizational
  effectiveness
• Create baselines for comparisons with other
  internal or external measures
• Document outcomes (results) of services
• Inform efforts to improve performance and
  effectiveness
• Caution Leaders must be prepared to deal with
  the results and with resistances to change.

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Assessments help by

• Providing diagnostic information for planning
  change
• Offering opportunities for input and feedback
• Monitoring progress toward goals
• Sending messages to participants about what is
  important
• Stimulating expectations for change

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Possible Purposes

• To pinpoint issues of concern (such as morale,
  engagement, motivations, satisfactions,
  behaviors)
• To monitor impacts of efforts to change
• To provide input for future decisions
• To compare views across organizational segments
• To observe longer-term trends

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More purposes

• To identify impacts of events
• To add a communication channel and feedback
  method
• To guide efforts for organizational improvement
• To provide symbolic communication (assessment
  signals to staff what management sees as
  important)
• To align our efforts with expectations of our
  customers and sponsors

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Examples of Issues that may be Assessed

• Organizational systems
• Work climate
• Job-skills match
• Motivations
• Individual needs values
• Capacity
• Performance

• External environment
• Mission and strategy
• Leadership
• Organizational culture
• Structure
• Management practices
• Service outcomes

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Motivators for Assessments

• We must be clear about what we want to assess and
  why.
• Someone must believe we can do better than
  this, and then convince others to join the
  concern.
• Often prompted by messages of discontent from a
  constituency group.
• Key leaders must be persuaded that the mission
  would be better served by addressing the concern
  than just keeping things the same.

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Feedback influences behavior

• May confirm or disconfirm previously held views,
  assumptions, norms, practices
• May call attention to issues needing further
  learning and change
• May create expectations of rewards and
  punishments
• May offer cues about inconsistencies, problems,
  or errors needing attention
• May trigger denial, blaming, retrenchment

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Assessments link culture with actions

• Changing culture essential for sustained
  improvements
• Assessments should include identification of
  aspects of culture warranting attention
• Should have clear links with participants
  interests (whats in it for me?)
• The process of doing them should demonstrate
  accountability, modeling the culture you hope to
  build
• Should attend to strengths and possibilities
  important for success, not just problems
• May require tailored questions for distinctive
  aspects of this organization
• Assessments should extend our learning
• First level how we can improve our efforts
• Second level how we can strengthen our learning
  about our efforts and their alignment with
  stakeholders

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Effective Implementation Requires

• Commitment of leaders and staff
• Openness to learning new things about services
  and making changes based on feedback
• Interest in clear identification of results
  intended and indicators for each of them (this
  may be harder than anticipated)
• Motivation to understand the relationships
  between activities and expected results
• Willingness to take risks, to experiment with
  trial runs and fine-tuning methods, to make us of
  partial information for innovations

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Overview of the Key Steps

• Generate commitment to address the issue
• Engage representatives of the groups needed to
  carry out the assessment and act on the findings.
• Negotiate shared purposes, uses, plan.
• Specify WHAT will be assessed, WHY, and HOW.
• Communicate intentions and expectations with all
  those who are expected to respond.
• Collect the information.
• Interpret the results in ways that are
  understandable and lead to action.
• Distribute the findings and recommendations
• Engage participants in refining action plans and
  implementing them.

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Getting Started The Planning Team

• Must involve representatives of those who will be
  expected to act on results.
• Negotiates shared expectations, purposes, uses of
  the assessment.
• Strengthens commitments from leaders and members
  of the organization.
• Communicates plans with those expected to
  respond.
• Decides on the target(s) and methods of the
  assessment.

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Build Ownership from the Start

• Get input and support from those whose
  cooperation will be needed to implement findings
• Formulate the goals of the assessment together,
  dealing with divergent interests from the start
  (compromises necessary)
• Address barriers and resistances up front
• Identify together who should be contacted, how,
  when, by whom, with what questions

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Building Ownership (continued)

• Specify how the project will be communicated to
  participants/ respondents in ways that engage
  them
• Consider alternative possible findings,
  implications, approaches to making use of results
• Plan for means of communicating findings and
  engaging people in action

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Developing the Plan

• Get preliminary information on what is to be
  assessed and examine for implications.
• Refine the focus of the effort and how findings
  will be used.
• Decide on whether to involve technical experts.
• Decide on methods, approaches to gather
  information. Look for standard tools for use or
  adaptation. If none, then design new one.
• Pilot test the selected approach to identify
  needed refinements.
• Select the respondents to be included and
  identify how they will be approached and engaged.

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Communications and Engagement

• Decide what should be communicated with whom and
  by what means to maximize ownership of results.
• Consider timing and implications for other issues
  and activities going on in the organization.
• Carry out the communications plan and deal with
  issues that arise.
• Provide advance notice of the project and its
  purposes, components, opportunities for input.
• Convey honesty, build trust and credibility with
  respondents. Show how anonymity will be
  respected.
• Demonstrate support by leaders.
• Commit to shared action on results.

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Assessment Methods

• Standardized processes and checklists available
  through national centers (example
  re-accreditation standards of many national
  associations)
• Client assessment examining the impacts of
  services with target communities through surveys,
  outcome measures, exit interviews.
• Market analysis of external conditions through
  focus groups, key informants, questionnaires
• S.W.O.T. analysis and discussions
• Staff questionnaires, focus groups, interviews,
  service records, financial records, observations,
  self-administered questionnaires
• Reviews of existing records or data files
• May use multiple approaches and adapted formats
• Less formal approaches often better for small
  organizations

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Sources for Tools

• Internet, searching by topic of interest
• Catalogs, printed compilations of tools available
• Publications that report development and use of a
  tool on a topic of interest
• Adaptations of existing tools for local
  circumstances
• Self-developed procedures

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Collect the Information

• Designate implementation responsibilities.
• Make sure implementers and respondents understand
  steps, expectations, time-table.
• Identify the implications of data collection
  method(s) on response rates and timing, level of
  resources required, speed of data analysis.
• Identify how, when, in what format the reports
  are to be submitted.
• Specify how questions and barriers will be
  addressed and momentum sustained.

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Summarize and Interpret the Results

• Decide how reports will be prepared, by whom,
  using what tools (statistics?), with what output
  formats to use (charts, tables, examples), in
  what time frame.
• Decide whether and how previous relevant
  information may be incorporated in report.
• Deal with respondents questions and anxieties
  with process and possible results.
• Outline the report and then insert findings as
  they emerge.
• Develop interpretations of findings that are
  understandable, credible, actionable.
• Formulate specific conclusions, recommendations,
  possible action steps.
• Decide on steps to deliver and discuss the
  findings, deal with concerns, move to shared
  conclusions and actions.

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From Reporting Results to Action for Change

• Start with meetings with top leaders to ensure
  understanding of findings and to gain commitment
  to action.
• Disseminate report widely, including schedule of
  opportunities to discuss it.
• Demonstrate recognition of important issues and
  possible implications for organization and staff.
• Minimize barriers to widespread ownership by
  clear presentation, discussions, openness to
  refinement of conclusions.
• Engage staff in responding to interpretations,
  conclusions, recommendations, and in identifying
  implications for action.
• Expect and acknowledge anxieties. We all resist
  change.

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Action (continued)

• Work together to formulate targets for change
  that will strengthen the organization, keeping
  focus on mission and shared values.
• Avoid personalizing problems.
• Decide on specific steps for change together, who
  will be involved, when and how.
• Help participants find own strengths and roles in
  implementation.
• Decide whether and how outside experts should be
  involved.
• Identify how organization will track, record, and
  acknowledge progress in the plan for change.
• Specify how feedback will be communicated and
  used.
• Set up procedures for dealing with surprises,
  barriers, delays, problems.
• Recognize successes and share them widely.

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Thoughts from users

• You only get what you measure.
• Dont ask if
• You dont want to know true answers
• You dont plan to act on findings
• Careful preparation, implementation and reporting
  are essential for usefulness of findings.
• Engage those who will be needed to act on the
  findings early in the process.
• Dont get sidetracked by a few nay-sayers.
• Model the behaviors and attitudes you hope to
  strengthen in the organization.

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Application Exercise

• Identify a nonprofit organization that interests
  you.
• Meet leaders there to discuss aspects that have
  been or may be the focus of an assessment
  (internal or external).
• Search for possible approaches and tools for
  conducting the assessment.
• Develop credible recommendations about why and
  how to conduct the project.

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Assessment of Service OutcomesA specific
type of organizational assessment
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Nonprofits can assess many aspects of their
programs and services

• Documenting how consumers benefited by receiving
  a service
• Financial accountability documenting how funds
  were spent
• Program outputs assessing what services are
  provided and to whom
• Adherence to standards of quality in service
  delivery
• Participant-related assessments characteristics
  of consumers and their concerns
• Key indicators of performance inputs, services,
  outputs, costs
• Views of consumers and other organizations with
  our program accessibility, timeliness, courtesy,
  condition of facilities, overall satisfaction
  with services

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Distinguishing Outcomes from Inputs

• Outcomes are documented benefits or changes for
  participants as a result of their involvement
  with a program.
• May include aspects such as changes in
  participants knowledge, attitudes, values,
  skills, behaviors, or conditions
• Inputs (resources, services, staffing) are used
  to bring about expected results or outcomes.
• Merely participating says nothing about results
  of participation.
• Outcomes may be immediate or longer-term changes.

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Growing National Attention to Outcomes

• Many national nonprofit organizations and
  associations support studies of the outcomes of
  their programs and services.
• Some of them provide resources and tools for use
  by local organizations.
• Managed-care companies stress service results for
  reimbursement.
• Accrediting bodies increasingly require outcome
  assessments as review criteria.
• Grant-makers want evidence of results, not just
  efforts.

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Benefits of Assessing Outcomes

• Clear definitions of intended results provides
  focus for the organizations work and guidance on
  improving it.
• Understanding current level of outcome
  achievement provides basis to examine progress
  and plan for future.
• Knowledge of results motivates staff and
  volunteers by showing if efforts make a
  difference.
• Information about results motivates people in
  deciding how to use their time.
• It helps the organization identify training
  needs.
• It helps justify budget changes and fundraising
  purposes.
• Information positions organization as successful,
  leading to greater recognition and financial
  support.

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Benefits of Outcome Assessments emphasized by
users of them

• It showed us what difference the program really
  made for our consumers.
• The information helped us do a better job,
  improve our services and their value to our
  clients.
• It helped us get everyone focused in the same
  direction.
• Our organization benefited in many ways
• documenting results to board, staff, and donors
• redirecting attention to more productive
  activities
• attracting new consumers, collaborators and
  funders.

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Challenges for the Future

• Assessing hard-to-measure outcomes, such as
  consequences of prevention or advocacy efforts
• Sharing useful findings and approaches with other
  nonprofits, so everyone doesnt have to start
  from scratch
• Building assessments right into service
  activities
• Using software programs to store, update, and
  analyze information
• Strengthening board and staff attention to
  results and willingness to make changes based on
  them
• Setting reasonable benchmarks or performance
  targets (what constitutes good performance?)
• Using organizational findings to contribute to
  community-level changes

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Organizational Development

• Interventions intended to restore healthy
  performance and growth in an organization

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Assumptions

• Changes are continually occurring inside and
  outside organizations.
• Organizations are systems composed of component
  parts.
• It is better to improve performance and
  productivity than to accept low effectiveness.
• Accurate information is helpful knowledge can
  lead to health.
• Informed, free choices are good for people and
  organizations.
• People should have some ownership and
  responsibility for their own jobs.
• Adapting to new conditions is good.
• Opening up conflicts can lead to productive
  growth if handled skillfully.
• Organizational change does not have to be
  haphazard, but the results of change efforts are
  not always 100 predictable or controllable.
• It is O.K. for us to make mistakes along the way
  and learn from them how to improve our efforts.
• Both formal and informal relationships are
  important components for change.

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Organizational Life Cycles and Internal
Challenges

• Metaphor of human development
• Stages birth, childhood, adolescence, maturity,
  old age
• Stagnation tendency to level off at one stage of
  development, resist change
• Founders Syndrome resistance of founder to let
  go and allow others to run organization
• Mission Drift attention moves from goals to
  self-maintenance of organization

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Why change?

• To create better alignments between our
  organizational strategy and operations with the
  views of our key stakeholders
• Employee behaviors and processes
• Customer satisfaction and loyalty
• Perceived value in community
• Donor expectations
• Financial results for organizations future
• Benefits of action must be made clear

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Coping with change

• Since views and resources change, organization
  should
• Monitor internal and external environments
• Understand what is going on and how that relates
  to strategies and operations
• Be prepared to make adaptive changes and
  innovations
• Organizational culture resists change

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Principles of Change

• Successful change is an on-going journey of
  learning and growing, not a quick fix.
• Incentives for change must be greater than those
  for keeping status quo.
• There must be some degree of buy-in and support
  for new practices to be tried.
• You cant change everything at once, so start
  where your people are right now and what theyre
  interested in doing.
• People are more motivated to make changes they
  have helped design.
• There will always be anxiety, fear, resistance
  when doing things differently. The greater the
  change, the greater the resistance.
• Making positive changes is more effective than
  negative ones.
• There must be some champions of the changes and
  their purposes.
• Steps should be consistent with the values
  driving the new ways of working.
• Energy and commitment dissipate quickly and
  motivation wanes as time lapses.

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Organizational Culture

• Culture that set of unspoken habits, norms, and
  practices that guide how a group goes about doing
  its work, provides order and meaning to everyone,
  shows how to respond to problems
• Group culture develops over time, emerging
  from the work habits of founders
• It typically focuses on operational maintenance.
• Newcomers are socialized into cultural
  assumptions about how we do our work here.
• These assumptions and habits are resistant to
  change, continuing to guide work even when
  outside conditions change.

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Power and politics

• Power the degree to which individuals can
  influence others in any system
• Position power authority based on role
  definition
• Relational influence based on informal networks
• Politics the ways power is used
• Power is unequally distributed in any culture,
  may be misused, stifling engagement and effective
  performance
• Coalitions people who work together for shared
  goals
• Dominant coalition those who exercise the most
  power in a system
• Power analysis understanding the configuration
  of power and the ways it is used to frame
  situations and agendas for action
• Organizational development seeks to strengthen
  shared power through interventions designed to
  increase inclusive political processes and
  expertise-based influence

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Force-field analysis

• Identify those influences that are pushing toward
  change.
• Identify those influences that are resisting
  change, supporting the status quo.
• Explore ways to strengthen the pushing influences
  and diminish the resisting influences.

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Possible Barriers to Change

• People and organizational cultures resist change
• Reward system reinforces old ways of doing things
  (such as conformity to rules rather than
  producing results or trying new ideas)
• Making mistakes has been punished
• Fear of the unknown
• Changes may threaten existing balance of power.
• Fear that changes may open up conflicts between
  individuals or groups.
• Poor communication of purposes and plans for
  change
• Incomplete follow-through on initiatives
• Insufficient skills or resources
• Leaders demand quick changes or they cave in to
  resistances.
• The higher the resistances, the lower the
  prospects for successful change.

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Guidelines for planning interventions

• Explore possible solutions to problems
  identified, not more detailed dissections of the
  problems.
• Brainstorm alternative routes to success before
  evaluating them.
• Consider realistic constraints on choices and
  changes.
• Consider short-term and longer-term implications
  of alternatives.
• Make sure choices serve to advance org. mission
• Go with alternative that generates most support.
• Begin with small-scale experiments working toward
  solutions.
• Identify criteria for monitoring results.
• Verbally rehearse steps to take.
• Identify possible barriers and ways to deal with
  them.
• Make sure steps, tasks, expectations are clear.

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Engage people in finding solutions

• In what ways do the findings from this assessment
  enrich our understanding of the issue that
  prompted it?
• Given those findings, what are some things we
  could do to improve our performance?
• What would be going on here if this organization
  (place/ community) were functioning as we would
  like?
• What are the results we want to accomplish?
• What sorts of changes and steps would be useful
  for us to try in reaching those results?
• What are some small-scale experiments we could
  try that could take us there?
• Who should do what, when?
• How should we monitor our progress and assess our
  results?

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Types of interventions

• Individuals
• Teams
• Inter-groups
• Total organizations

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Types of interventions and uses at the
individual level

• Training helping person learn specific
  knowledge or skills.
• Coaching guidance on mastering skills or solving
  interpersonal problems (using, for example, 360
  assessments, Joharis window, Myers-Briggs,
  stress management techniques)
• Goal setting helping people formulate goals and
  priorities for improving their effectiveness
• Performance appraisal modifying ways of
  assessing employee performance more carefully and
  using feedback to improve.
• Job descriptions useful when job duties are
  ambiguous and expected results unclear.
• Cross-training rotating individual to other
  positions in organization
• Career planning for individuals who have
  outgrown their roles and want new skills and
  challenges.
• Procedures manual formalizing the approved
  methods for handing common problems in work.
• Process improvement steps to improve the
  effectiveness of ways people do their work and
  interact.

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Interventions at the Team level

• Team building activities to increase work group
  cohesiveness, reduce biases, build trust
• Job enrichment changing mix of job
  responsibilities so members have greater
  responsibilities
• Quality of work life improving work conditions
  and employee participation in decisions that
  affect them and org.
• Quality circles using small work groups to
  identify ways to improve performance and
  effectiveness
• Goal setting helping work groups establish
  shared goals and steps for improvement
• System mapping clarifying inputs,
  transformations, outputs, and feedback loops to
  improve efficiency
• Conflict management reducing destructive
  conflict between members of a work group through
  healthier communications

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Build Strong Teams by fostering

• Understanding, relevance and commitment to shared
  goals
• Open communication of ideas and feelings
• Active participation and distribution of
  leadership
• Flexible use of decision-making procedures
• Encouragement and constructive management of
  conflicts
• Equality of power and influence
• High group cohesion
• Strong problem-solving strategies
• Interpersonal effectiveness
• Positive interdependence

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Team Building Activities

• Hold brief retreat where members get to know one
  another, interests, hobbies, ambitions
• Lets imagine all the things that could go wrong
  about this project and see if we can think of
  some ways we might solve or avoid them.
• What are some characteristics or descriptions we
  would like to see in this group? Which of us
  could take the lead on each of them?
• Design a problem that requires everyone to solve
• Ropes course
• What would you take onto lifeboat?
• How many ways could one use this brush?
• Im think of something Ive done (or about
  myself) that Ill bet nobody here knows
• Find others on web and in books on
  organizational development

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Interventions at the
inter-group level

• Goal setting negotiating changes between teams
  through agreements on shared goals and ways of
  working
• Work flow planning improving the flow of work
  and products from one part of the organization to
  another
• Inter-team development two or more work groups
  work to improve their relationships
• Cross-training / job rotation building skills
  and knowledge needed to work in another part of
  the organization

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Interventions with total organization

• Management by objectives setting shared goals
  and steps for achieving desired results
• Strategic planning establishing long-term goals
  and directions for the whole org.
• Re-engineering radical re-design of work
  processes to improve efficiency
• Total quality systems improving value and
  excellence across components of the organization
  through feedback and ongoing changes
• Structural change altering reporting
  relationships and objectives for component parts
  of the organization
• Culture transformation changing assumptions
  about who we are, why we are here, what are
  right and wrong ways of doing things

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Example Continuous Quality Improvement

• Move from emphasis on productivity and compliance
  to quality of performance and services
• Components
• Making sure purposes and goals are clear
• Encouraging pride in individual work
• Monitoring how each persons work affects others
  (interdependencies)
• Gathering information on internal and external
  consumers responses to services provided
• Encouraging risk taking, innovation,
  collaboration
• Reducing waste, duplications, inefficiencies

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8 Steps to Leading Change Effectively

• 1. Identify participants for change efforts,
  depending on level and issue.
• 2. Explore together the findings of assessment
  and implications for people and the organization
  (or community).
• 3. Formulate together specific areas for change,
  targets and goals.
• 4. Link everything with the mission of the
  organization. Why are we doing this?

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5. Formulate work plans for
achieving changes together

• a. Specify objectives for each dimension.
  What do we want to accomplish?
• b. Identify results to be attained for each
  objective.
  What will success look like in
  each area?
• c. Set clear work assignments and timetable.
  Who will do what, by when?
• d. Identify evidence of success.
  Assessed by what criteria?
• e. Publicize intended results and steps.
  How will we be accountable to others?

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6. Make success a team effort

• Be sure everyone knows what is expected of
  her/him and how that links to group goals
• Articulate how each individuals talents
  contribute to success of the whole
• Identify means for problem-solving and
  accountability as a team (what will we do when
  problems and barriers show up?)
• Specify methods for reporting and communicating
  progress (how will we know its done?)
• Monitor, evaluate, and report on results
• Find ways to reward successes

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7. Coordinate implementation

• Maintain emphasis on mission and goals
• Keep in contact with team members
• Empower and encourage them to sustain movement
  toward goals
• Accept the anxieties of change
• Encourage risk-taking and nontraditional ideas
  and actions
• Remind members to hold themselves and others
  accountable
• Take barriers and obstacles back to the group for
  solutions (dont fix it)

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8. Reinforce Changes

• Communicate progress widely, using multiple means
• Articulate the connections between
  actions and results
• Recognize and reward successes
• Report results to others outside team
• Encourage group learning from experiences
  (sharpen the saw)
• Develop and nurture new leaders,
  ensuring leadership succession
• Model the behaviors expected of others

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Application Exercise

• In a nonprofit of your choice, interview leaders
  about a recent project for organizational
  development. Ask the questions of why, how, who,
  when, what experiences and results?
• What were lessons learned?
• What might have been done differently (or in the
  future) to make the work more effective?
• Identify alternative approaches that you think
  would be more useful now. Why? How?

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For additional resources, See file on
web resourcesincluded in this course web site