What are key similarities and differences between internal and external OD practitioners in the assessment and feedback phase?
Regardless of the OD Practitioner being someone who was contracted by the client externally or someone who is already from within the organization, it seems that the main similarity they share is the challenge of establishing initial trust and credibility. This somewhat surprised me when I was reading through the assignment. My initial assumption was that this would have been less of a challenge for an internal OD practitioner, however in general, an external practitioner is perceived to have more credibility than an internal one.
There are several key differences between internal and external OD Practitioners. The first is around the cycle time to collecting data at the start of the assessment phase. An internal practitioner, who is already familiar with the organization, will have a much easier time knowing the structure and resources that would allow them to begin their assessment phase work. An external practitioner would first need to spend time getting to understand these important elements.
Another difference is in the communication plan. Because the external practitioner is an “unknown” in the organization, they will need to rely on internal stakeholders to carry any messages around the intervention. This is not the case for an internal practitioner.
There is a significant amount of time involved in the assessment phase of a project. This is the case for both internal and external practitioners. For internal practitioners, they still have their “day job”, in most cases. And for external practitioners, they may be engaged in several client interventions. So, the “juggling” act may apply to both internal and external practitioners alike.
One final difference is that, in general, internal practitioners may have more opportunity to work on and build their OD competencies, because it may not be the sole focus of their regular job with the organization. External practitioners may not be fully versed in all areas of OD, however, with the different work that they experience with multiple organizations, it is likely that they have a broader set of skills and experiences.