Month: December 2020

What are key similarities and differences between internal and external OD practitioners in the assessment and feedback phase (250–400 words)?

Perhaps the most stark difference between internal and external OD practitioners in this phase is due to their position in relation to the organization. Internal practitioners are more likely to have a better understanding of the organization, its politics, and the various relational functions and considerations that have bearing on assessment and feedback. In addition, they are likely to have pre-existing rapport with the organization and the stakeholders involved, as well as a better understanding on the organization culture and processes.
An external practitioner is going to be a bit more “fresh” in these dimensions, and so is going to have to put more effort into understanding the nuances of the organization and building relationships with the stakeholders and personnel involved. Additionally, they may not know the best way to gather data right away, or what to measure as the most relevant and pertinent aspects of the organization. However, they do have the “clean slate” advantage in some ways, as they are able to bring an outsiders’ perspective and may be able to avoid organizational bias. They also have the added credibility boost of an expert coming in. A fish is not aware of the water it swims in, after all.
An external practitioner is also less likely to experience fallout based on the feedback process – an internal practitioner can be adversely affected down the road by someone who didn’t like what they had to say.

Internal practitioners have the organization’s resources at their disposal, and have stronger communication channels to enact a faster process; however, being “plugged into” the organization can also compete for time, as they have to juggle the change effort with their other work responsibilities; this can also create conflicts of roles and interests. However, they are also more able to tailor their efforts to the culture and best fit for the organization.
External practitioners have a bit more difficulty getting into an organization as far as communication, trust, and reach, but they do have an advantage in exhibiting competencies and being able to have the outsider role of creating a change effort without the trappings of being part of the organization.
Both types of practitioners have to invest in building rapport, though, and either building or demonstrating their competencies to gain a perception of expertise and a sense trust in their effort. Both can have other responsibilities and projects vying for their time as well.

I think the greatest opportunity is what Burrus refers to in the Wired article that the IoT will provide “the most disruption as well as the most opportunity over the next five years.” As he discusses, the connected things in a network are important, but it’s really about leveraging that data from the human side to not only improve current processes, but to create new products and services. I say this is the greatest opportunity because I think it answers the question of the fears of automation and job loss etc. – it’s a false premise that the economy is like a pie that is being eaten, and there is less and less for the future. With creation of new products and services, new jobs and sectors will be created – so a transition will be needed, but not necessarily this grand loss. Of course, this transition will be painful and damage many people’s livelihood, but long term there is hope.

I also think a major opportunity – or a challenge, depending how one looks it at it – is DasGupta and Annunzio’s contention of shifting leadership needs. Sub-par leaders will be laid bare by the more active role necessitated by e-leadership, and so a greater focus on leadership competencies is needed, as well as a celebration of those who possess those attributes (as opposed to the stereotype of the manager we all hate).

Another major challenge, as mentioned by DasGupta, is going to be monitoring efficiency (harder to “stay on top of things”) and getting everyone up to speed so that lack of technical skills don’t affect performance. With increasingly intricate technical processes needed in business, this is going to be an ongoing challenge, especially for veteran employees.

• What challenges have you experienced developing the feedback report in three different forms?

It took a lot of consideration to determine what level of candor was appropriate for each form, as well as trying to think about what the actual needs / level of appropriate communication are for my CSO vs. what would be best for a class assignment. I am more of a succinct, to-the-point person, so doing three iterations of something was challenging in a way. I really need more experience as well to determine what is best professionally perceived and received.

• What skills do you need to further develop to expedite the process?

I need to learn how to create common themes on the fly to bring people back to the “point” in a more effective way, creating some direction. Also, more experience with what is actual helpful.

• Share lessons learned from the activity (250–400 words).

I learned a lot about higher education and the challenges they are going through:

– For smaller, more expensive liberal arts colleges, their main value proposition (small class sizes, community, networking, pretty and accessible campuses, urban locations, etc.) is all but wiped out with the prospect of online semesters due to COVID-19

– Many students are not paying full price anymore, even if they don’t need a scholarship per se. This is largely due to the supply-demand curve being in favor of the students, who, with an increasingly smaller world and more remote options, have more and more options. Universities outside the elite tier have to compete more for students. In fact, it’s likely that many colleges and universities will not make it through the pandemic or very long into the future, and the balance may reset itself.

– The “get through with a degree” approach has lost its appeal with increased extra-university educational opportunities, self-education, and many young people entering directly into the workforce (or starting their own business) to avoid incurring student debt or to get a head start. Famously, many tech companies are started by dropouts – for example. Many students and institutions still have the “checking boxes and building a resume” mentality, which is very out of sync with the real world and what is needed.

– Universities can be quite political, and there are many competing values and positions jockeying for resources and power. A wrong step can mean the end of an academic career, unfortunately.

 

Describe challenges you encountered while collecting and analyzing interview data and share lessons learned from the activity (250–400 words). 

With my specific client organization, I am having a lot of issues with availability of stakeholders and the presence of circumstances that are needed for various assignments. As it is an innovation center at a university (perhaps not the wisest choice, although in “real life” I am quite passionate about what they do), the unique challenges proposed by COVID-19, as well as simply the time of year, have made it somewhat difficult to follow along with the organization. For example, they will go weeks without many, or any, actual meetings, and much work is from home or independent, with limited hours, both due to COVID-19 and the summer season / holidays/  students on break or not on campus, which is obviously not the peak time for university activity. The actual startup accelerator is taking place starting in October, but the activities will increase in next year as they get closer to their actual “Pitch Date” in April. Additionally, as the CIE deals with innovation and entrepreneurs, most of these folks are hard to pin down as it is, but now even moreso are working remotely all over the place and taking frequent digital breaks. Many of my most relevant stakeholders are/have been on multi-week vacations.

For the executed interview, it was definitely a bit of a challenge to keep it focused and on-task, as well as to stick to 10 minutes. They had extra time, however, and so was fine (in fact, insisted a bit) with talking for a longer duration of time, so we discussed some more “off the record” type things; again, this occurred because I am actually invested in this organization outside of the course (I was a mentor and advisor for the program last year as well, and am an alumnus of the university).  I feel like a challenge for the data gathering itself, in general, has, for me, been a justification of why I need the data and what exactly I’m going to do with it – what tangibly am I going to do to add value to the organization in exchange for the effort needed to talk to me and give me the requisite data and resources?

 

That being said, this particular assignment has, so far, been pretty easy as far as asking for what I need – I chose participants with a certain degree of candor, and I am familiar with a lot of the undercurrents due to my unique position of familiarity with the institution and Baltimore city. Only major issue has been the availability of the stakeholders. I chose not to record the first interview, as he just wanted to do a phone call; people are pretty tired of Zoom at this point.