Organization Developed

By Scott Carpenter

This book will shed some light on the often misunderstood world of organizational development (OD). Any manager who has successfully led a unit for more than a year has probably accomplished some amount of organizational development. Often, supervisors have accomplished organizational development within their units, also. Don’t let the term itself confuse you.

That being said, the term is quite confusing as the term has various definitions depending on who is speaking. Actually, anyone who can intelligently discuss the topic has a definition that is at least a little tweaked from other's definitions.

In practice, organizational development takes a unit from where it currently stands to become a better functioning unit over time. This can be accomplished in various ways where the complexity of the developmental project can become extremely difficult for large organizations.

This is a fictional story of a financially strong, but organizationally underperforming company, Farris BoatWorks. The 1,250-employee non-union company designs, builds and sells around 20 boats a year at three manufacturing facilities located in Houston, TX, Mobile, AL and Norfolk, VA. The company has a catalog offering 75 different types of yachts and marine workboats that can be customized in a plethora of ways. In actuality, all of the company's boats are highly customized per the owner's needs. The company has 9 service branches across the central and eastern USA.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Scott Carpenter
• Release date: Jan 2, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310127489

Scott Carpenter

Scott Carpenter enjoys management training, recruiting and helping people succeed in and enjoy their professions. He thoroughly enjoyed his first large training session; a safety class for 130 artillery, maintenance, culinary and truck driver soldiers. He has conducted numerous training sessions on a variety of leadership, management, supervisory and organizational topics since that event. Scott has earned an MBA with an emphasis in management from Millsaps College and the Senior Professional Human Resources and Achieve Global's Certified Trainer certificates. He is certified to evaluate the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Assessment and the Campbell Leadership Descriptor. He has coached youth soccer, enjoys cooking, completed the Kona Marathon and completed Warrior Dash events in 2013 and 2014.

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Organization Developed

Scott Carpenter

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2014 Scott Carpenter

Discover other titles by Scott Carpenter at Smashwords.com

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Purpose

Introduction

Human Resources Director Interview

Friday Afternoon

Friday Night Friends Gathering

Sunday Evening

Monday Resumes

Tuesday Interview

Thursday Interview

4:00 pm Meeting

Friday Morning

Tuesday Afternoon Meet and Greet and Complain

Week Before the Storm

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3: Wednesday Morning Payroll

Day 4

Day 5

The OD Meetings

Keys for Good OD Initiatives

Purpose

This book will shed some light on the often misunderstood world of organizational development (OD). Any manager who has successfully led a unit for more than a year has probably accomplished some amount of organizational development. Often, supervisors have accomplished organizational development within their units, also. Don’t let the term itself confuse you.

That being said, the term is quite confusing as the term has various definitions depending on who is speaking. Actually, anyone who can intelligently discuss the topic has a definition that is at least a little tweaked from other's definitions.

In practice, organizational development takes a unit from where it currently stands to become a better functioning unit over time. This can be accomplished in various ways where the complexity of the developmental project can become extremely difficult for large organizations. An organizational development intervention can be:

-Conducted on a small scale such as conducting an intervention for only the Shipping Department.

-Conducted as immediate change as opposed to incremental changes over time.

-A part of the strategic planning process.

-Considered as the larger project and the strategic planning process is a component of OD (as is similar to this story).

-Implemented from the corporate organization to include changing the vision, mission, corporate goals and organizational structure.

-Implemented among groups of employees to resolve conflicts, clarify company values, and improve communication/understanding among internal corporate 'rivals.'

-Implemented for individual employees to include coaching and counseling sessions, job redesign and/or training, career development, technical and/or interpersonal skills training, and improving decision making and problem solving.

Ideally, all of the last three implementations are part of any organizational development initiative.

Considering these notes, we will use the following as the organizational development definition: Organizational development is a top-down, organization-wide, proactive and deliberate intervention to improve an organization's strategic effectiveness.

Please note that this definition works whether the intervention is applied to a manufacturing department working shifts or it is applied to a major corporation. One problem with this definition is the word 'proactive.' An OD initiative can begin as a reaction after a major organizational failing.

The OD process is a series of steps. There are several formats. We will use these steps in this story and focus on the first two:

Discovery: Critically examine the organization. Determine what the organization needs in order to reach corporate goals, implement corporate strategy and/or improve products and services. Conduct an analysis and needs assessment.

Approval: List needed changes with resources and coordination needed. The OD initiator approves all changes.

Implementation: Plan, organize and execute the OD tasks to complete the approved changes. Develop suspense dates for each needed change.

Follow up: Determine if changes were effective. Modify implementation if not effective.

You may see organizational development and organizational change used as synonyms. Also, the words project, program, intervention and initiative may be used as synonyms. For the practitioner, any of these synonyms used is fine. Only in academia, is there much argument about the differences in the terminology. In general, an OD intervention may be conducted without using any of these words.

In the following story, the company hires a new human resources manager with an expressed interest in conducting an OD initiative. This is not necessarily the typical case. It simply plays well for the story so readers don't have to believe that only a highly-skilled consultant can effectively facilitate an organizational development initiative.

In actuality, a plant manager, store manager, district VP, department head, company president or, really, anyone in a leadership role might initiate OD. That person may facilitate the action, assign another person as the facilitator or may hire a consultant to facilitate.

The story is built around a fictional boat manufacturer that manufactures luxury yachts and marine work vessels. The company industry is irrelevant in the OD process. In this case, it is an industry that the writer found especially interesting. The company in the story could just as easily have manufactured bolts, nuts and screws, been a restaurant chain, produced movies or launched rockets into space. This company is also privately-owned which is also irrelevant other than the fact that a privately-owned company owner has spending freedom since he/she does not necessarily report to a board of directors concerning spending as a publicly-traded company president might. A unionized company may have to negotiate various job changes with the union per the collective bargaining agreement, so this story is about a non-union company.

Generally speaking, an organizational development initiative is strongly focused on the behavioral sciences and relationships among people. Notice how this story's OD initiative plays out. Would an OD initiative play out the same in any of your organizations? Notice which changes the Leadership Team is making that are behavioral changes and which are not. Also, analyze how the non-behavioral changes will affect the overall business effectiveness. Who in the story is making the biggest change, also, and why?

While reading the story, consider how you can improve your business. Also, consider how you can improve yourself and how that self-improvement might translate into company improvements. Consider the fundamental business decisions the owner and the department heads have made that put them in the position they are in today. Determine if you would facilitate an OD intervention the same way the new HR Director is doing. Surely, he provides readers with a good framework to facilitate an intervention which is simply the purpose of the book.

Enjoy!!

Introduction

This is a story of a financially strong, but organizationally underperforming company, Farris BoatWorks. The 1,250-employee non-union company designs, builds and sells around 20 boats a year at three manufacturing facilities located in Houston, TX, Mobile, AL and Norfolk, VA. The company has a catalog offering 75 different types of yachts and marine workboats that can be customized in a plethora of ways. In actuality, each boat sold is customized to some extent per the owner's needs. The company has 9 service branches across the central and eastern USA.

Vision: To be the premier provider of luxury yachts and marine vessels in the Americas.

Mission Statement: The mission of Farris BoatWorks is to design, build, sell and service luxury yachts and marine vessels. We focus on excellent customer service and developing products and services that exceed our client's high expectations. We provide a safe and rewarding work environment for our employees.

The company has a dozen or so strong competitors working hard in the same markets to under price and over market their products. They understand who is the market leader and have made some ground against the company over the past 3-5 years.

On the surface the privately-owned company looks great. It is visible in their local communities and their boats are either the best or among the best in the market. However, as you peel the onion, you find areas of high turnover, dissent, overwork, underwork, back stabbing, corporate privilege and a company that could be much better in the marketplace and where people work.

The Leadership Team consists of the President/Owner, VPs of Manufacturing, Sales & Marketing, Finance, and Engineering and the Directors of Transportation, Information Technology, Facilities, Boat Maintenance and Human Resources.

The team has been stable for the last 11 years except for the HR Director. This position has been a revolving door filled 8 times with fine talent, but with people who were unable to make any strategic contribution. No one in the HR Department is interested in the position and, truth being told, like the annual turnover.

Imagine that, the one department charged with engaging people, developing people's competitive advantages and ensuring a proper work-life balance is taking advantage of their own internal turmoil. That's about to change.

Noah is the owner and president of the company. He is 67 years old and has three sons. He is not the stereotypical old-school gravel-voiced boat company owner. People say he is a little rough around the edges and often a tyrant. That perception is not true, but you can decide that. He usually wears a five-day-old salt and pepper beard and white shirts. He is certainly focused on his company and spends much more time at work than his wife of 47 years wishes. He is in fair physical health, too. He has been known to work with the Mobile Plant welders and ship fitters at times in the Spring and Fall of most years when the company built yachts with steel or aluminum hulls. The employees still enjoy his working beside them and usually find some especially difficult or nasty job for him to perform. Of course, all in the name of fun and Thanks, Boss.

There are three manufacturing plants. The Houston plant is a marine boat plant that has three outdoor dry docks to build boats. Noah bought that company 10 years ago and his youngest son, Chance, runs it. The original plant and headquarters are in Mobile, AL. Another plant is located in Norfolk, VA. These last two plants manufacture luxury boats from 40 to 150 feet from bow to stern. There are branches in New Orleans, St. Louis, Tampa, Miami, Jacksonville and New York in addition to each manufacturing plant also having a branch. The primary purpose of the branch is maintenance. However, there are two sales managers in each branch who are charged with selling company boats, brokering used boats and selling new equipment. These sales managers have a lot of independence and must be proactive and entrepreneurial to remain employed with Farris. The sales managers report directly to Jason McDaniels with a dotted line to their Branch Managers.

The company headquarters, collocated with the Mobile plant and branch, is an old historic three-story building built around 1900. Many sailors had visited the building for a variety of legal and illegal reasons until Old Man Farris bought it when he grew his company big enough to need a real building. Initially, he only needed the first floor. He leased the two upper floors for many years until he needed the additional space.

The headquarters has about 4,150 sq ft on each floor. The first floor contains a large foyer, Noah's office, Main Conference Room, and the departments of Finance, Boat Maintenance and Human Resources. The Engineering Department, wave tank and break room are on the second floor along with two small meeting rooms and a large storage room that is sectioned off for each department. Sales and Marketing, the Director of Facilities and the Departments of Manufacturing, IT and Transportation are on the third floor with a nice conference room overlooking the dock area and the Gulf of Mexico. Stairs and a slow elevator connect the floors. All floors in the building are heart-pine wood and employees are highly discouraged from wearing hard-soled shoes.

Cory Springer is a local who applied for the Director of Human Resources position, not out of a sense of excitement, but as a thought that this would be a nice stepping stone to bigger and better opportunities. He had heard of the company as everyone local had. He has 20+ years of business experience with most of that in human resources roles. He had worked his way to HR Director and consultant roles for the last 10 years. His mantra is that if you are moving in the right direction all you have to do is take care of the details to win. It has worked for him. This company is definitely a promotion. His biggest firm was 375 employees with a 3-person HR department.

Human Resources Director Interview

The President interviewed him just like all the other HR Director applicants over the years. Same questions, same comments about the company, same, same, same.

Then, Cory, seeing that the discussion was going nowhere quickly as any HR professional or sales representative would easily recognize, remained quiet after another routine question. He was quiet until Noah looked up from the resume. He looked Noah in the eye like no one had done; had ever done. He asked several key questions.

"Are you looking for someone to be a leader here?

"Are you looking for someone to build business advantages from the HR Department?

"Are you looking for someone to do more than just hire people to replace the people who were disillusioned and quit, just teach New Hire Orientation and a few training classes, just compute payroll and simply solve insurance problems?

"Or are you looking for someone to do organizational development and develop the employees into a highly competitive team where everyone wants to succeed in the workplace?

"Look. This is who I am. I love HR. It is the one department, the one role, that gives me an opportunity to make strategic differences across an entire company. The HR Department is the one department that allows a person to be a significant influence on individuals, sections, branches or any functional area who wants a little help.

I know your company has had almost yearly turnover in this position. That's unfortunate. If you are looking for just another administrator, I'm not your candidate. If you are looking for someone to make a positive difference here and you are willing to support my organizational development initiatives, I'm interested in discussing how I see this position rolling out. Otherwise, I'd rather not waste your time any further.

The President, being a little miffed that someone, especially an HR applicant, would speak to him like that dismissed Cory. Thanks for your time and interest, Mr. Springer. Maybe, we both have better things to do.

Cory confidently rose from his seat, extended his hand with cordial eye contact to shake and said, Thank you for your time. I wish you the best.

Noah nodded as he shook Cory's hand. Cory left the office.

Noah Farris is the only child of 'Old Man' Farris. No one was sure what the 'Old Man's' real name was. He named his son after Noah from the Bible. He thought it was a nice name. He also worked his son hard in the company as a teenager to discourage him from wanting to be in the boat-building business. The son, Noah, took over the company 33 years ago when his dad, the company founder, died suddenly. Noah often asks himself, What would my dad do in this situation? The truth being known, Noah is a better company salesman and administrator than his dad was and he is most of the reason for purchasing a failing marine boat company in Houston about a decade ago, paying cash.

A few minutes later, Noah walked to Janet’s desk to check the schedule. She asked, How did the last interview go? That guy seemed cordial. He and I had a good discussion.

I don't know. He said some things no one has ever said to me, speaking in a way that he had a difficult time explaining.

After a pause, Janet said, That sounds good, I think. You had bad comments on the other applicants. Not knowing about this one is an improvement, she said with a chuckle.

Chuckling himself, he said, Maybe so. Have you ever heard of organizational development? Must be one of those terms MBA's use to confuse bosses into hiring them with big fat salaries.

They both laughed.

"Janet, would you mind at least looking up the term and printing out some info on it. I have heard the term many times. I don't know what it's all about. I guess I should at least be familiar with it.

Friday Afternoon

Heck, it's finally Friday afternoon. You want to go home early? Just look up that info first. I appreciate your work this week. I needed a lot more hours and you helped me a lot. Thank you. Noah wasn't always this amiable, but, right now, he actually felt a little relieved for some reason.

I have a few calls to make and I'll check that term; 'organizational development.' I'll get that to you first, Janet said happily. She was tired from the week's troubles, too. Thanks.

Oh. Send the Leadership Team an e-mail to remind them of the 3:00 meeting in the Main Conference Room and tell them to be on time this time. Thanks. I hope you will be gone by that time. Right? Noah smiled and returned to his office. He reviewed the last resume and put it with the other rejected resumes. His next and last scheduled HR Director interview would be Tuesday.

He called the Lead Recruiter, Chelsea Gardner, to ask if there were any more applicants for the HR Director position.

She said, No sir. You have all of them. We have given you each one that we get. Even the really bad ones.

He said, There's a problem here. They are all bad. The last guy wasn't as bad as the rest. You need to do something to get better applicants. Quickly.

She put down her college game-day schedule she had in her non-telephone hand and responded, Yes, sir. I'll rework the job posting before I go home today. Mice have lots of freedom when there is no cat.