Mostly examples of Organization Development in practice.
OK, this is easier said than done. From my perspective, OD is basically the company’s mission statement and these tend to get muddied the larger the company gets. I have only worked for Fortune 500 companies, the last job had a two paragraph mission statement when I started. Lofty goals. There was no way to guide the group of over 40k on this mission. My location alone had 2,500 employees. It was too much. After a year, HR realized they could not guide the ship. There was no way that a planned effort managed from the top would increase the effectiveness of our processes. So, they rewrote the statement to reflect only what they could do. No joke. It was silly.
Now, I have visited Fortune 500 companies that seem to have simple thoughts and are able to drive them to success from the top down. One that comes to mind is Lilly. Their statement was something like: getting the right product to the right person at the right time. Pretty basic. And considering their product base, what more could you want. They APPEARED to be able to do this by seeking input from their lower ranking teammates – and utilized their thoughts. It was carried through the bigwigs (I met up to Director level when I visited), down to the hourly guy. It’s the closest I have seen to success.
Hoping that helps you!
November 11th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
OK, this is easier said than done. From my perspective, OD is basically the company’s mission statement and these tend to get muddied the larger the company gets. I have only worked for Fortune 500 companies, the last job had a two paragraph mission statement when I started. Lofty goals. There was no way to guide the group of over 40k on this mission. My location alone had 2,500 employees. It was too much. After a year, HR realized they could not guide the ship. There was no way that a planned effort managed from the top would increase the effectiveness of our processes. So, they rewrote the statement to reflect only what they could do. No joke. It was silly.
Now, I have visited Fortune 500 companies that seem to have simple thoughts and are able to drive them to success from the top down. One that comes to mind is Lilly. Their statement was something like: getting the right product to the right person at the right time. Pretty basic. And considering their product base, what more could you want. They APPEARED to be able to do this by seeking input from their lower ranking teammates – and utilized their thoughts. It was carried through the bigwigs (I met up to Director level when I visited), down to the hourly guy. It’s the closest I have seen to success.
Hoping that helps you!
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