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Six Keys to Getting the Most from OD By
Roy Pollock, Chief Learning Officer, Fort Hill Company
Your company invests a significant amount in training and organizational development each year to stay competitive and help create the next generation of leaders. But most companies aren’t getting the maximum return on their investment. Too many still treat organizational development as an isolated series of events, rather than as a business process that needs to be managed, measured and continuously improved like any other business process.
For the past seven years, we have been studying the characteristics that distinguish highly-effective programs from less-effective ones (Wick et al., 2006). We have discovered six disciplines that transcend industry, corporate structure, and program focus:
| 1. |
Define Business Outcomes |
| 2. |
Design the Complete
Experience |
| 3. |
Deliver for Application |
| 4. |
Drive Follow-Through |
| 5. |
Deploy Active Support |
| 6. |
Document Results |
Applying these six disciplines when you implement the great ideas and concepts from the Best of Organizational Development Summit will help you maximize both the value of the Summit and the effectiveness of your programs.
1. Define Business Outcomes
Effective training and development efforts are an integral part of the company’s business strategy. They focus on business outcomes and are planned and delivered with an eye to what people will do better and differently as a result. They are clear about how the program will benefit participants’ careers and the organization as a whole. Less effective training and development departments are inwardly focused. They define program objectives purely in terms of the learning that will occur as opposed to the business benefits.
2. Design the Complete Experience
A second difference between effective and ineffective OD organizations is that effective departments consider the learner’s complete experience; less effective organizations focus only on the event – the course or module. In the end, development depends more on what happens before and after the formal learning event than what happens in the course itself (Broad 2005).
The complete experience includes all three phases of learning
| To maximize
the return on training
and development, manage
all three phases of the
learning process: |
| 1. |
set the right expectations
prior to training; |
| 2. |
emphasize application
throughout; |
| 3. |
hold learners accountable
for using the material
on-the-job; |
| 4. |
provide support for
follow-through, transfer
and application. |
3. Deliver for Application
| 1. |
clearly articulate
the business rationale |
| 2. |
provide 360 feedback |
| 3. |
illustrate theories
with relevant examples |
| 4. |
have people reflect
on how they can apply
what they have learned
to their own situations |
| 5. |
provide opportunities
for guided practice. |
4. Drive Follow-Through
| The Achilles’ heel
of most development programs
is the lack of follow-through. No
matter how good the training
is, it is wasted unless
new knowledge it is put
to work. |
| 1. |
optimize the post-course
environment to which
newly-trained people
return |
| 2. |
put in place follow-through
processes and systems |
| 3. |
ensure that participants
are held accountable
for continued development |
| 4. |
provide access to
coaching and other forms
of support |
| 5. |
encourage continued
learning through reflection
and sharing with peers. |
5. Deploy Active Support
| Employees need support to maximize the probability of achieving their development objectives. Support is especially critical in the period immediately following training when participants are trying to develop new and more effective norms of behavior. Highly-effective OD organizations make sure that they prepare and motivate managers to provide support for newly-trained employees. Other sources of support include: |
| 1. |
Peers (other participants
in the same program) |
| 2. |
Instructors and facilitators |
| 3. |
Online content and
guidance systems |
| 4. |
Internal or external
coaches |
6. Document Results
| The sixth and final key to effectiveness is to document results. Collect credible and relevant data to show that the program is producing the desired results and to identify opportunities for further improvement. Measures of activity (number of programs, participants, hours of instruction) or of immediate reaction (participant satisfaction) are insufficient; for development programs, level 3 measures are essential. The results should be communicated to key stakeholders including: |
| 1. |
line managers (to
justify continued investment) |
| 2. |
current and prospective
employees (as evidence
of the investment the
company makes in its
workforce); |
| 3. |
customers, to illustrate continuous improvement |
| 4. |
investors |
Summary
| There are six keys to maximizing the return on the investment in organizational development: |
| 1. |
Define the desired
outcomes in business terms
so that the strategic purpose
and relevant measures of
success are clear; |
| 2. |
Design the complete
experience so that it is “all
of a piece” and so that
the post-course environment
supports personal and organizational
development; |
| 3. |
Deliver for application – make
sure that participants
know how to use what they
have learned and are motivated
to do so; |
| 4. |
Drive follow-through – put
systems in place to hold
participants accountable
for using what they have
learned and to track progress; |
| 5. |
Deploy active support
to give learners the best
possible chance to achieve
their objectives; and |
| 6. |
Document the results
in compelling and credible
ways to justify continued
investment and to support
continuous improvement. |
References
Broad, M. (2005) Beyond Transfer of Training: Engaging Systems
to Improve Performance. San Francisco: Pfeiffer.
Wick, C., Pollock, R.H.H., Jefferson, A. McK., & Flanagan, R. (2006). The
Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning: How to Turn Training and Development
into Business Results. San Francisco: Pfieffer.
The Fort Hill Company is a proud sponsor of this year’s Best
of OD Summit. For
information or to register for this year’s Summit, please visit
www.linkageinc.com/ods
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