Why OD consulting
Why would I need organizational development consulting?
Organizational development consulting is imperative when your in-house expertise is insufficient or limited to complete a project or manage a task. DTUI.com partners with clients to build capacity and lend out expertise to reach a project's completion.
We help our clients maximize individual, team, and organizational performance.
When to engage
When would I likely need an organizational consultant?
To partner with you in strategic planning.
Scenario planning to jump-start future competitiveness.
To help align an organization to drive one or more business goals.
To assess an organization's present state, effectiveness, or capacity.
To identify training and organizational competence needs.
To provide objective, external, expert insight on present state and effectiveness.
To assess the extent to which a project is meeting its business goals.
To coach personnel with competence gaps.
How to choose
How do I select an organizational consultant?
Look for a partner who builds your capacity — not a dependency. A strong organizational consultant should be:
An excellent track record based on past client performance.
Partners and shares expertise to grow your capacity to do the work yourself.
Sufficient education and a relevant professional track record.
Can put a finger on the pulse of your problem within minutes of discussing it.
Is genuinely client-centered.
Gets the big picture of your organization's culture and norms.
Personable, open, and embraces feedback that improves the partnership.
Has the resources and capacity to meet the demands of the contract.
Learn from others
The top reasons diversity OD efforts fail
Starting a diversity OD effort is difficult. One way to raise your odds of success is to learn from the mistakes of others.
1
Failure to establish specific goals for the diversity OD efforts and interventions.
2
Failure to demonstrate the courage to deal with resistance among key managers.
3
Failure to specify both short- and long-term goals for the effort.
4
Failure to keep the real client in mind.
5
Failure to work with real organizational diversity needs.
6
Failure to be honest about what needs to be done and why.
7
Failure to develop viable options when ideas don't work.
8
Failure that produces “quick fixes” instead of real solutions.
9
Failure to work with the organization as it is — not as you'd like it to be.
10
Failure to measure or evaluate the activities.
Also watch for
- Failure to plan for and build toward the client managers' ownership of the OD effort.
- Failure to escape the “mystique” of OD that distorts interpretation of the process.
- Failure to tailor the effort to the jointly analyzed needs of the specific organization.
Don't let the negatives make the job feel too big. Simply being aware that certain patterns can undermine success helps you avoid them.
Build a strategy that drives lasting change
Partner with DTUI to align your organization, plan for the future, and build internal capacity.
References: Vaughn, B.E. (2004). Managing Diversity e-Coach Book. Diversity Training University Publications: San Francisco, CA. Based in part on Gardenswartz, “Symptoms of Diversity-Related Problems: Internal Checklist” in Managing Diversity.