Human Process Interventions (Group and Individual Human Relations)
With today's strong emphasis on humanistic values, the following interventions are getting a
great deal of attention and emphasis during efforts for change. They focus on helping members
of the organization to enhance themselves, each other and the ways in which they work together
in order to enhance their overall organization. Although the types of interventions selected for a
project depend on a variety of considerations and the interventions in a project often are highly
integrated with each other, the following human process interventions might be particularly
helpful during change projects in organizations where there is some combination of the
following: many new employees, different cultures working together, many complaints among
organizational members, many conflicts, low morale, high turnover, ineffective teams, etc.
Guiding Individuals
Coaching - Coaching in Life and/or the Workplace
The field of personal and professional coaching has grow substantially over the past 10 years or
so. This type of coaching usually involves working in a partnership between coach and clients to
provide structure, guidance and support for clients to:
1. Take a complete look at their current state, including their assumptions and perceptions
about their work, themselves and others;
2. Set relevant and realistic goals for themselves, based on their own nature and needs;
3. Take relevant and realistic actions toward reaching their goals; and
4. Learn by continuing to reflect on their actions and sharing feedback with others along the
way.
Coaching can be especially useful to help individuals address complex problems and/or attain
significant goals and do so in a highly individualized fashion.
Counseling - Counseling Organization Members
Similar to mentoring, there are many perspectives on the definition of counseling, especially
since the relatively recent popularity of personal and professional coaching. Traditionally,
counseling might have been described as the activities conducted by a person (the counselor) for
another person (the client, friend, etc.) in order to help that other person to solve a problem in
regard to themselves, someone else or some other situation. An untrained counselor might
provide counseling primarily by offering advice. A professional counselor might work with a
variety of other tools, eg, assessments, diagnosis, treatment plans, deep listening, values
clarification, direct advice, etc. The approaches and variety of tools used by a professional
counselor depend a great deal on their training and paradigms (overall views) of the counselor,
eg, psychodynamic, behavioral, humanistic, etc.
Delegating - Delegating to Employees
Delegating is a critical skill for supervisors. Delegating involves working with an employee to
establish goals, granting them sufficient authority and responsibility to achieve the goals, often
giving them substantial freedom in deciding how the goals will be achieved, remaining available
as a resource to help them achieve the goals, assessing their performance (the quality of their
effort and attainment of the goals), addressing performance issues and/or rewarding their
performance. Ultimately, the supervisor retains responsibility for the attainment of the goals, but
chooses to achieve the goals by delegating to someone else.
Delegation can sometimes be a major challenge for new supervisors to learn because they are
concerned about giving up control or struggle to have confidence in the abilities of others.
Supervisors that can effectively delegate can free up a great deal of their own time, help their
direct reports to cultivate expertise in learning, and can develop their own leadership skills --
skills that are critical for problem solving, goal attainment and learning.
Leading - Overview of Leadership in Organizations
Many people today are seeking to understand -- and many people are writing about -- the concept
and practices of leadership. There are a great many reasons for the popularity of the topic,
including that organizations are faced with changes like never before. The concept of leadership
is relevant to any aspect of ensuring effectiveness in organizations and in managing change. This
topic in the Library helps you to fully understand the concept and practices of leadership.
There has been an explosion of literature about leadership lately. Leading is a very human
activity -- we're all human -- so there are many people who consider themselves experts on
leadership. Unfortunately, many people make strong assertions about leadership without ever
really understanding a great deal about leadership. Understanding the concept of leadership
requires more than reading a few articles or fantasizing about what great leaders should be.
Morale (Boosting) - Boosting Morale and Overcoming Negativity
Mentoring -Mentoring
There are many perspectives on the definition of mentoring, especially since the relatively recent
popularity of personal and professional coaching. Traditionally, mentoring might have been
described as the activities conducted by a person (the mentor) for another person (the mentee) in
order to help that other person to do a job more effectively and/or to progress in their career. The
mentor was probably someone who had "been there, done that" before. A mentor might use a
variety of approaches, eg, coaching, training, discussion, counseling, etc.
Motivating - Helping People to Motivate Themselves and Others
A major function of leaders is to motivate other individuals and groups. (Note that leaders can
also focus on motivating themselves when their focus is on self-leadership.) There are
approaches to motivating people that are destructive, eg, fear, intimidation, etc. While these
approaches can seem very effective in promptly motivating people, the approaches are hurtful,
and in addition, they usually only motivate for the short-term. There are also approaches that are
constructive, eg, effective delegation, coaching, etc. These approaches can be very effective in
motivating others and for long periods of time.
Note that different people can have quite different motivators. For example, some people are
motivated by more money, others by more recognition, time off from work, promotions,
opportunities for learning, opportunities for socializing and relationships, etc. Therefore, when
attempting to motivate people, it's important to identify what motivates them. Ultimately,
though, long-term motivation comes from people motivating themselves.
Group-Based
Conflict Management - Conflict Management in Groups
Note that many methods intended for addressing conflict in groups also might be considered as
methods to address conflict between two people. Therefore, also see Addressing Interpersonal
Conflict. Also note that the reader might best be served to first read the topic Group Dynamics to
understand the basic nature of most groups and their typical stages of development. (It's not clear
at this time if online groups have similar nature and stages.)
Dialoguing
Dialogue is an overused and much abused term for a very specific means of communication that
we rarely employ effectively today. Dialogue is a mindful communications process that helps
individuals to clarify their personal thinking and values within the context of a community of
practice. It may also help communities or teams discover shared meaning, to think coherently,
and perhaps to act in ways that serve the common good. Unlike a discussion or debate, in
dialogue there is no attempt to have any particular point of view prevail. Rather dialogue results
in shared understanding without judgment. It is about building relationships, learning together
and exploring personal and community values.
Group Facilitation - What is Facilitation?
Very simply put, facilitation is helping a group to accomplish its goals. There are a wide range of
perspectives about the ideal nature and values of facilitation, much as there are a wide range of
perspectives about the ideal nature and values of leadership. For example, some facilitators may
believe that facilitation should always be highly democratic in nature and that anything other
than democratic is not facilitation at all. Others may believe that facilitation can be quite
directive, particularly depending on the particular stage of development of the group.
Whatever one's beliefs about the best nature of facilitation, the practice usually is best carried out
by someone who has strong knowledge and skills regarding group dynamics and processes --
these are often referred to as process skills. Effective facilitation might also involve strong
knowledge and skills about the particular topic or content that the group is addressing in order to
reach its goals -- these are often referred to as content skills. The argument about how much
"process versus content" skills are required by facilitators in certain applications is a very
constructive argument that has gone on for years.
Group Learning - What is Team Learning?
Team Learning is an adaptation of action-learning originally proposed in the UK by Reg Revans
many years ago and recently rediscovered by organizational development consultants in the
USA. It focuses on providing solutions to business problems by developing an open approach to
questioning. As Reg Revans himself once said, "The mark of a leader is not the answers he gives
but the questions he asks." The business world is changing at such a pace that the solutions to
problems are not found in books or journals, nor in the mind of 'the expert'. They are found by
team members themselves, who, through the process of Team Learning, identify the key
questions to be addressed. They then seek to use their resources to find the answers, often
through trial and error.
Self-Directed Work Teams
Work Group - A group of people working together - (Example - the mechanics in a Sears Auto
Center)
Team - A group of people working together toward a common goal - (Example - The Denver
Broncos)
Self-Managed Team - A group of people working together in their own ways toward a common
goal which is defined outside the team - (Example - James River Corporation’s Kendallville
Plant ALPHA team. They manufacture cardboard boxes as defined by executive leadership.
Team does their own work scheduling, training, rewards and recognition, etc.)
Self-Directed Team - A group of people working together in their own ways toward a common
goal which the team defines - (as above, but team also handles compensation, discipline, and acts
as a profit center by defining its own future)
Large-Scale Interventions - Large-Scale Interventions
Robert Rhouda, of the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, Minnesota, provides a specific,
itemized definition of large-scale interventions for organizational change, in his paper,
Background and Theory for Large Scale Organizational Change. According to Rhouda, "The
major features of large-scale, real-time change management process include:
1. the theory-base uses less action research and discrepancy theory, and focuses on
application of systems theory
2. the data base source is no longer internal to the organization, but now involves both the
organization and its environment (an open-systems approach)
3. the data base, which formerly had limited availability, is now widely shared throughout
the organization
4. time: what was formerly a slow "waterfall" process is now a fast, quick response which
results in immediate action taking place
5. learning moves from the individual or unit to the whole organization
6. the responsibility and accountability moves from senior management to a mixture of
senior management plus the whole system
7. the consultant role, formerly reserved for data collection and feedback, now also includes
structures and facilities for data analysis and action planning
8. the change process moves from incremental change to fundamental, organization-wide
change"
Team Building - What is Team Building?
In times of increasing change organisations have to find ways of responding creatively. Creative
responses require the organisation's members to co-operate with each other. It is rare that one
person can produce the ideas required or carry them out. Team building activities increase the
amount of effective co-operation in the organisation. Managers must build co-operation within
and between teams to get the best results.
In a typical corporate team building event a group of staff, with their manager, clarify and review
their purpose and objectives. They identify any obstacles in the way of achieving these
objectives and plan future progress. This is rarely a straightforward process. Any lack of trust
and openness in the team will create communication difficulties. Many team members anticipate
the process being stressful and are somewhat anxious about the prospect. Most team building
activities employ an independent process manager or 'facilitator' who is outside the team. He or
she creates a safe atmosphere, encourages limited risk taking and generates effective procedures
to help the team do its work.
Virtual Teams - Virtual Teams
Virtual teams are teams of people who primarily interact electronically and who may meet face-
to-face occasionally.
Examples of virtual teams include a team of people working at different geographic sites and a
project team whose members telecommute.
Technostructural Interventions (Structures, Technologies, Positions, etc.)
The following are examples of activities that focus on improving the performance of
organizations primarily by modifying structures, technologies, operations, procedures and
roles/positions in the organization. Although the types of interventions selected for a project
depend on a variety of considerations and the interventions in a project often are highly
integrated with each other, the following technostructural interventions might be particularly
helpful in the following kinds of situations: rapid growth but few internal systems to sustain that
growth, much confusion about roles, a new major technology or process has been introduced,
many complaints from customers, etc. These interventions might also be useful in new
organizations where internal operational systems must be developed and implemented.
Balanced Scorecard - Balanced Scorecard
The Balanced Scorecard is a performance management approach that focuses on various overall
performance indicators, often including customer perspective, internal-business processes,
learning and growth and financials, to monitor progress toward organization's strategic goals.
Each major unit throughout the organization often establishes its own scorecard which, in turn, is
integrated with the scorecards of other units to achieve the scorecard of the overall organization.
Business Process Re-Engineering - Business Process Reengineering
This approach aims to increase organizational performance by radically re-designing the
organization's structures and processes, including by starting over from the ground up.
Downsizing and Outplacing
ISO9000 - ISO9000 Quality Standard
ISO900 is an internationally recognized standard of quality, and includes guidelines to
accomplish the ISO9000 quality standard. Organizations can be optionally audited to earn
ISO9000 certification.
Management by Objectives - Management by Objectives (MBO)
MBO aims to increase organizational performance by aligning goals and subordinate objectives
throughout the organization. Ideally, employees get strong input to identifying their objectives,
time lines for completion, etc. MBO includes ongoing tracking and feedback in the process to
reach objectives.
Organizing Staff
Organizing Tasks, Jobs and Roles
Six Sigma - Six Sigma
Six Sigma is a quality management initiative that takes a very data-driven, methodological
approach to eliminating defects with the aim to reach six standard deviations from the desired
target of quality. Six standard deviations means 3.4 defects per million. A defect is defined as
any unit that does not meet the specified level of satisfaction for the customer. Like TQM and
other quality initiatives, Six Sigma includes tools used to drive down defects, improve quality
and profits, and thus, morale and profitability.
Total Quality Management - Total Quality Management (TQM)
TQM is a set of management practices throughout the organization, geared to ensure the
organization consistently meets or exceeds customer requirements. TQM places strong focus on
process measurement and controls as means of continuous improvement.
Strategic Interventions (Organization and Its External Environment)
The following activities focus especially on the organization and its interactions with its external
environment, and often involve changes to many aspects of the organization, including
employees, groups, technologies, products and services, etc. Although the types of interventions
selected for a project depend on a variety of considerations and the interventions in a project
often are highly integrated, the following strategic interventions might be particularly helpful in
the following kinds of situations: rapid changes in the external environment, rapid or stagnant
sales, significantly increased competition, rapid expansion of markets, mergers and acquisitions,
the need for quick and comprehensive change throughout the organization, etc.
Business Planning
Cultural Change
Cultural change is a form of organizational transformation, that is, radical and fundamental form
of change. Cultural change involves changing the basic values, norms, beliefs, etc., among
members of the organization in order to improve organizational performance.
Large-Scale Interventions
Open Systems Planning - What is an "open system"?
An open system is any distinct entity -- a cell, a person, a forest, or an orchestra organization --
that takes in resources from its environment, processes them in some way, and produces output.
To survive, such a system depends on its environment, and on interactions between its
component parts or subsystems. When taking an open-systems approach, we look both inward
and outward. We are interested in relationships and patterns of interaction between subsystems
and their environments within the organization. We also look for relationships and reciprocal
influences between the organization and the environment outside its formal "boundary."
Organizational Alliances
Organizational Transformation - Organizational Transformation
Organizational transformation is a radical and fundamental type of change in organizations.
Strategic Planning - What is Strategic Planning?
Simply put, strategic planning is clarifying the overall purpose and desired results of an
organization, and how those results will be achieved.
There are different ways to do that planning, depending on the purpose(s) of the planning, the
life cycle or stage of development of the organization, the culture of people in the organization,
types of issues the organization is currently facing, and the rate of change in the external
environment of the organization.
For example, many people use vision-based or goals-based planning, in which they clarify the
results they want to achieve in the future. They develop a vision of what the organization and its
customers or clients will look like at some point in the future, and then articulate what they have
to do to achieve that vision. They work from the future to the present.
Unfortunately, many people believe that’s the only way to do strategic planning. That’s wrong.
Another form of planning is issues-based planning, which clarifies current issues that the
organization must soon address and how it will address them. Issues-based planning works from
the present to the future. Issues-based planning is usually a shorter term planning and often is
focused primarily ( but not exclusively) on internal matters.
There are many different perspectives on how to best do strategic planning — and many
different practitioners and facilitators have very strong feelings about how strategic planning
should be done.
