Consulting Blog

Objective fact finding Methodologies

Potential situations where the five different qualitative data collection methods can be used respectfully, provide facts for objective analysis; such methods detailed below facilitate objective information for needs assessment diagnosis;

• One-on-one interviews can be had with incumbents to determine their level of knowledge, interest and skill set in a given position, such data collection is used during organization development efforts.
• Focus group interviews are conducted to generate group brainstorming in topics where all parties have common interest, a trained facilitator can lead discussion for a company campaign, where a task group can input ideas towards fundraising as an example. The key of this data collection method is to prompt contribution for participants in a given subject where opinion viewpoints contribute to open dialogue.
• Open-ended questionnaires can be given to large groups, organizations or communities to solicit feedback on how a company, state or even a nation perceives effectiveness on use of resources, as an example. Another strategy where surveys can be implemented are for employee engagement assessments. As a result, tempo can be gauged and quality can be measured.
• Observations are useful in that, team members performance han be assessed for topics of safety for example. You can audit protocol and ensure compliance.
• Documents provide process information, for example. if you would like to depict trends, defects or errors in processes this is a good method to review safety inspections for example, and minimize risk.

Tip: I find that one-on-one interviews allow for communication with incumbents which can aide in gaining more comprehensive feedback, see how effective interviewing is done in the video:

In my experience using standardized organizational diagnosis assessment tools, regarding both its positive and its challenging aspects I have found beneficial insight into the workforce, as well as unsystematic errors.

The assessment tools I have administered are 30, 60, 90 and exit interviews. These surveys discovered;

1. (30) day New-hire onboarding experience
2. (60) day New-hire performance from a management perspective
3. (90) day New-hire probationary period satisfaction
4. Probation period counseling assessment
5. Training rating assessment
6. Voluntary Exit interview reasoning
7. Market salary assessment

The assessments validated quality of hire, as well as effectiveness of the recruitment and training for new-hires. In addition, exit interviewing compiled data with regard to turnover and reasons employees voluntarily left the organization. In addition, the assessments benefited the organization in that intervention could happen, as issues were discovered. For example, in one case we were able to compile salary market rates and adjust pay scales to better suit current rates for our target candidates.

In hindsight, the challenges with assessments were unsystematic errors where, likeability at times skewed information. Conversely, true authenticity in unanimity assists to proactively avoid surveys to become popularity contests, so raw objective extraction may happen. The difference between effectiveness of an employee and whether you like that individual are two separate items that must be differentiated in terms of performance for example. Therefore, one must be sure to maintain anonymity to preserve the authenticity of the surveyor to acquire honest responses on the basis of data that is not subjective and can avoid implication of these kinds of unsystematic errors.

 

Understanding the Likert model and the high performance programming model:

Reach a Great Place to Work status 

Likert’s model measures leadership morale conflict resolution and organizational performance in studies of over 350 organizations to determine effectiveness, through characterization of successful agencies. Characteristics that can correlate to reach great a great place to work status revealed employee centered human aspects to production as a differentiating factor in that management displayed level (4) participative group the identified with;

• Supportive behaviors
• High performance goals
• Helpful work facilitation

Nelson and Burns High performance model adapted from Farkas & Hinchliffe explains a series of  levels in which an organization can progress toward a bottom-up approach that gear towards high performance. The following level (4) areas are considered as high performers;

• Organizational focus is programming an ideal future, a superior sense of ownership
• Locus of control is internal
• Organizational structure flat with empowered structures
• Management and leadership focus empowers employees to be fully self-directive and commit themselves to the company’s goals voluntarily
• Employee focus shares direction and a respect toward organizational culture
• Communication within the organization is vigorous, using two-way communications at every level

In order to reach A Great place to work©  culture, in that TRUST is an organizational cultural asset we can apply the concepts above by instilling equity in our practice. Focusing on our team members and the fact that people have their own agendas, it is our job to engage them in the work that they do and we do that by empowering them to reach their goals and the company goals. Development is a key factor to this, as no one wants to fail and the best way we can set a person up for success is by owning their successes and their failures and helping them through them. It is within our control whether we create avenues for communication in an open and friendly way that others feel comfortable with. While not everyone can be a leader, those in these positions have the power to guide employees by means of refocus, respect of their capabilities and creating a sense of community within our workforce. It is also imperative that we seek input from our staff, as feedback is a gift and the only way towards future improvement. If we listen to understand and treat our team members needs with integrity that is how we can achieve a great place to work© , in that pride is resembled through the culture we create. 

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Reflecting on personal career goals

One must take into account what puts you at an advantage in terms of being competitive with your industry, job specific and occupational demand. In the Consulting field influence is a key factor to be successful in implementing change and moving stakeholders along in projects. Project management skills are in high demand, as a majority of organizations are leaning towards standardized process improvements to optimize their workforce. In the state of Florida grants for higher education in Engineering and Health care are in rise. The county of Broward has a focus in the industrial trade and manufacturing industry. This assessment implies a need for development in agile lean six sigma methodologies for purposes of Consulting.

The change in market priority has engaged highly skilled professionals to gauge focus in developing their skills, in order to understand the demand for project management skills associated with these kinds of transformations. The power of partnership, understanding people, facilitating strategy and communicating big picture organizational goals are all powerful skills for Practitioners to master in the Consulting field. High level application, communication, integration and the ability to engage in creative thought and brainstorming are all in spectrum. With an all time low unemployment rate the market is for the people, therefore innovative thinking, will help set an organization apart in marketing differentiators are concurrently highly important skills for development. Finally, understanding the workforce, generational differences and the ability to appeal to a millenials work style that requires flexibility, autonomy and work life balance is imperative for practitioners.

Organization Development Model Integration

“Burke and Litwin (1992) model proposed a causal model of organizational performance and change. This open system model, considers inputs, processes, and outputs in relationship with the external environment.” In order to provide comprehensive variables external environments, along with individual and organizational performance are determinants of the climate needs, structural management and leadership strategy envisionment. Burke and Litwin contrasts Mckinsey in that, both external and internal climate/environments either diagnose a problem within the organisation or create an action plan for a change initiative. In addition, Burke and Litwin take a top down approach in diagnosing organizational effectiveness, whereas Mckinsey 7-S takes a holistic less structured approach in change efforts that do not consider any one aspect of an organization in isolation.

“The McKinsey 7-S framework lacks the environmental component in open systems model, by adding outputs and the interaction between the transformational process and the environment.McKinsey’s 7-S framework examines the elements that give a holistic understanding of an organization.” With a doctor–patient approach, the 7-S collects and analyzes organizational data, engaging the organization’s members as both participants and researchers who as a result can contribute to joint diagnosis.Mckinsey’s 7-S framework’s holistic approach contrasts burke and Litwin, in that internal climate/environments are considered the root causes for joint diagnosis. Mckinsey 7-S  is applied where in order for it to operate successfully, all the elements in this model must align synergistically together.

Integration: Leading shared values in organizational strategy by means of a clear mission creates a  structure  where management  can convey alike systems  in place motivating organizational performance. Keeping into account techniques, such that individual staff skills and style can frame climate needs in the basis of output. As external environmental factors are considered, the organization can effectively integrate these components and adjust feedback into a shared value that becomes a part of the accepted culture. In hindsight, while the Burke and Litwin framework does not label staff and style, the remaining shared values of Mckinsey 7-S are represented. Staff is a representation of an input of resources. Under leadership and management, staff should follow. The integration of these three levels includes all stakeholders. In terms of style, leadership sets the tone for style, therefore the leadership style will be an input of the mission, strategy and culture. 

Implementation: The integrated change model brings in change in the performance of a team or organization by establishing links between internal and external factors which affect performance. This change model assesses the organizational as well as environmental factors which can be tweaked for effectiveness in discovering the “problem(s)”. The change model outlines a framework of affecting factors which manipulate diagnostic theories in consideration of whatever the type of change ie. restructuring, new processes, organizational merger, new systems, change of leadership. Furthermore, the model can be used to understand how the organizational elements are interrelated in improving performance;

Usability: 

The model can be applied to almost any inconsistency between internal elements and external elements to make sure they are all contributing feedback to the shared goals and values. The process of diagnosing current state in terms of these elements and determining the ultimate state for each of the factors can depict where the need for change is coming from  and the collateral impact of proposed changes. This framework can be used to depict impact that changes in one area have on all the other areas of development in implementation of a change, utilizing self discovery of how to make the changes needed analyzing;

• The likely effects of future changes within a company.
• Aligning of departments and processes during a merger or acquisition.
• How best to implement a proposed strategy.
• Changes in structure, practices and systems

Critique: In theory these integrated models can be used as a best practice to store and apply with each time the organization is commencing change. The real question is what are we really doing versus our best practice? How efficiently is every senior leader applying this with their team? Does the team have a common goal? How long can this best practice actually be reinforced? We operate by principal where utilizing best practices efficiently for a course of segments and celebrating their success grants merit to their usage. However adopting te model integration as a best practice should be used for powerful change, using haphazardly can minimize its impact when discovering major cultural change expectancies, for example. Having a mechanism to present early review of models can also grant buy in for usage with the team on selectively using for important change initiatives, thereby withstanding the integrity of model application as a best practice.

Sources:

https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newSTR_91.htm

https://edisciplinas.usp.br/pluginfile.php/1770103/mod_resource/content/3/texto%2022%20-%20The%20Burke-Litwin%20Change%20Model%20-%20Unraveling%20the%20Dynamics%20of%20Organizational%20Change.pdf 

Leavitt’s diamond model(1965): specifies task, structure, technology and humans to assess within organizations rather than driving and hindering forces to the current state. This model also precludes factorization of environmental factors, inputs, and outputs (unlike other open systems models).

McKinsey 7-S model (1982): Like the six box model the Congruence Model for Organization Analysis (1980) incorporates has cyclical elements of input, transformation, and output within organizations informal /formal arrangements environment, resources: individuals, and tasks. The congruence model generates a hypotheses about problem causes in reviewing poor fits, and factors history and strategy to changing elements in actionable hypothesis for diagnosis, unlike other models pretence for diagnosis contributes to solution generation.

Weisbord’s Six-Box Model (1976):  Provides six complex labels of formal and informal activity that allow theoretical application in discovery of connections between unrelated events. In informal diagnosis, one must make an educated guess in relation to what is not seen on paper, through observation and knowledge of normative behavior. I find that defining Inputs, such as money, people, ideas, machines and other resources that go through technical systems help me as a practitioner in understanding at which point outputs, products or services are produced. This model also does a good job applying environmental demands that impact an organizational diagnosis through external change such as demand, governing boundaries, and other forcing responses that are difficult to control. 

Source: Weisbord’s Six-Box Model (1976)

The six box model applies collection of data through reading, observation, interviews or surveys for sensible decision making and particularly helps segment critical factors like goal agreement and dissection of ill defined or overly broad purposes. Such factors affect the “fit” to reach the organizational goal, wherein mechanisms can then shape the interdependencies needed in meeting, information and systems to bind helpful assumptions to reach plausible systematic solutions. Such mechanisms contribute measurement and control risks for data analysis in terms of detection and subsequent intervention alerts, this I find particularly useful when approaching the ending staged and closing of a project, in planning execution.

These functional structures are another definition of product, programs or projects that will define budget or rewards. For instance, when diagnosing the connection to goals and rewards, one can depict if the system is aimed objectively towards the organization’s goals or if there is an existent gap. By looking for the fit between the goal (the output) and the structure producing it (formal system) and attending to how the work is actually divided, a relationship can be formed between units technologies and their bosses functions and possible dysfunctions. Conflict management can also be a factor for diagnosis in relation to inspection of parties and how they problem solve. These variables affect individual production, commitment to work and the belief in the leadership embodiment. The leadership style continuum can support a diagnosis, as it is the pathway in which so many contingencies undermine or support the leadership vision.

For more on Organizational diagnosis and Weisbord’s six box model visit:

Weisbord, M. R. (1976). Organizational diagnosis: Six places to look for trouble with or without a theory. Group & Organization Management, 1(4), 430–447. http://doi.org/10.1177/105960117600100405

 

OD Change Approach: Action Research Model

A model such as the action research model can serve as a guide for the OD practitioner to establish rationale, consistent communication on the process for change and reinforcement of the big picture in the change initiative. Models assist in development of the desired future or vision, as well as integrating better understand through application of simple, straightforward objectives within specific action plans and applied behaviors. This empowers autonomous decision making from change agents for sustainability. Models assist in developing ideas to strategize a generation of further impact that carries out broad based action.

For example, when initiating a change, direction to the leaders in small phases of the models short-term protocols that are meaningful to the course of the process can be consolidated in gains. Methodology of lessons learned serve as organizational assets that contribute to scaled model coalition and cultural adaption for stakeholder application. The action research model is implemented to create a longstanding change leveraging stakeholder and sponsors;

• Sponsor recognizes problem(s);
• Validate perceptions vs. root causes
• Discover their own solution options
• Gain agreement on the best solution
• Agree on a stakeholder driven action plan
• Implement the action plan
• Evaluate tracking of results
• Ensure acceptance
• Train a replacement to take over consulting of their own action plan

All while the OD approach is to investigate, collect data, feedback information and gain validation and consensus.

Reference: Workforce Education, Organizational Diagnosis

 

Perceived performance gaps related to conducting needs assessments

Needs assessments require a set of soft skills and hard skills, as with most projects. Some hard skills include technical ability to design surveys and facilitate meetings. Soft skills require attention to detail, summarizing others inputs, reading between the lines to assess stakeholder interest/engagement. I find that in needs assessment projects soft skills have a much greater impact that the physical surveying or scheduling of a meeting. I remind myself that the information I seek is more likely to transpire if likability is obtained with the target audience. I found that being engaging in communication and taking an interest in others self discovery has high impact on the quality of the assessment. These are my focus areas in organizational or individual assessments, connecting with people to discover the need, as Dr. Rothwell states “in OD, the people are always more important than the project plan” (Rothwell, 2015).

 

OD Diagnosis consists of a diagnostic Process that specifies the present state of the organization. Key factors in this process include; 1. Identifying problem solving scope 2. Simple data gathering and presentation 3. Visibility measuring 4. Participation from as many members of the organization as possible 5. Measure what is important to validate a straight forward assessment 6. Gauging Urgency- what is the sense of urgency for change for implementation.

The key difference noted in TNA vs. OD diagnosis is while both they processes are systems approaches, OD diagnosis measures whole organizational systems, while TNA focuses on performance, skill set and knowledge as inputs for a training plan output. The OD diagnosis process takes the approach of a clinical practitioner that aides the organization in investigating and sharing responsibility to identify the problem scope(s).

Diagnostic Process:

• Investigate tentative variables and root causes
• Select data gathering method & analyze facts
• Data feedback
• Identify/Confirm problem areas with client
• Define Diagnosis objectives with client
• Designing a Change plan & Implementation it
• Monitor results

Reference:

Training Needs Assessments measure Desired Performance vis-a-vis Actual performance and depicts gaps for possible Training needs.

Key Identifiers for performance include the following exploration;

• What are the goals of the organization?
• Do we have the skill set to reach goals? Training, education and skills?
• What Challenges will we face to reach those goals?
• How should employees perform different to meet those needs?
• In order to meet those needs what is the current competence of employee skills, knowledge and attitudes.

There are various methodologies that can be applied to conduct a training need assessment, including observation, interviewing and questionnaires, focus groups and document reviews. Each of these approaches have an input in collecting data with the result of an output that contributes data (facts) towards an assessment. Observation requires a skilled first-hand observation of employee performance and generates data relevant to the work environment. The interview approach requires a skilled interviewer that evaluates performance by answering questions face to face to uncover details for training. Questionnaires are most effective when obtaining big picture tempo in large groups with objective data. Focus groups gathers employee opinions to address complex issues that one person may not be able to address alone, a challenge to note with these approaches is that they are time consuming and positions may give bias perspective(s). Document Review is also time consuming, but nevertheless helpful to review process, such as review of reports or job descriptions. The value to this approach is that it provides objective information on procedures.

Reference: