OD: Why OD Interventions Fail?

27 August 2013, Singapore: In the late 1990, Business Link organization and Warwick University conducted a study to identify why management development strategies fail to work. The findings were: -

• Activity not linked to organizational objectives
• Change process not managed
• Corporate culture not taken into account
• Lack of ownership
• Lack of evaluation
• No overall strategy for corporate development
• Purchasers not clear about what they are buying
• Suppliers finding solutions to problems they can solve
• Time pressures on managers

The main root cause is lack of investment in time and resources to conduct an appropriate diagnosis. For OD interventions to be successful, we need to …

• have a solid understanding of “where are we now”;
• know who can we benchmark and measure at;
• consider existing policy and strategy related to the identified problem area.

In summary, before rolling out any OD initiative we need to conduct some form of quantitative diagnostic process.

“Get the diagnostic process right and you have a great chance of success, miss it out or get it wrong and the chances of success are little to none.”... Mike Morrison (2009) founder of RapidBI