Organizational Change Consulting In unit one the discussion centered around the reinvention and culture of the organization, the way business is conducted. This unit shifts the focus to what people do by examining the role of an organizational development consultant, the diagnostic process, and peoples’ resistance to change. The OD Consultant A change agent is a person or team responsible for beginning and maintaining a change effort. Change agents may come from inside an organization, in which case they are called internal consultants, or they may come from outside an organization, in which case they are called external consultants. The role of the organizational development (OD) consultant is to initiate, stimulate, and facilitate change. William Bridges explains that things change but people transition (as cited in Montgomery, 2009). The OD consultant is therefore concerned primarily with the people aspect of the change events. One of the basic roles of the consultant is to facilitate and teach the client how to identify the problem, diagnose and solve the problem. This reduces the dependency of the client on the consultant but also empowers the client and is associated with higher corporate buy-in rates. Clearly, OD consultants must have a number of skills in order to be successful. In particular, consultants need to possess both leadership and management expertise. In a leadership role, consultants should be able to facilitate rather than direct, keep information flowing, and use multiple methods on a consistent basis. Problem solving is another skill an effective consultant hones. He or she has to be able to identify and focus on the next set of problems. Organizations and processes experience flux, which often results in new and unanticipated problems, which cannot be ignored. Inherent to the skill of problem solving, however, is valid diagnosis. So how does an organizational consultant accurately decipher root problems? The Diagnostic Process The diagnosis is a two-fold process: an assessment of the variables, and a report on possible corrective interventions. Diagnosis involves gathering data, interpreting the data, identification of problem areas and options for solutions. Diagnostic tools consist of interviews, surveys, instruments, observation and review of public records. To many, diagnosis is the most important stage. Success or failure of change strategies is dependent on several things but accurate diagnosis is critical. Failure to address the root cause or intervening in processes that were previously fully functional is inappropriate and costly change, but if the problem is properly diagnosed and the intervention strategy appropriate, why can change still be so difficult for organizations to enact smoothly? Resistance to Change Change is often problematic unless the cause and solution are readily transparent. Generally speaking, change is.

1. Organizational Change Consulting
In unit one the discussion centered around the reinvention and
culture of the
organization, the way business is conducted. This unit shifts the
focus to what people
do by examining the role of an organizational development
consultant, the diagnostic
process, and peoples’ resistance to change.
The OD Consultant
A change agent is a person or team responsible for beginning
and maintaining a change
effort. Change agents may come from inside an organization, in
which case they are
called internal consultants, or they may come from outside an
organization, in which
case they are called external consultants. The role of the
organizational development
(OD) consultant is to initiate, stimulate, and facilitate change.
William Bridges
explains that things change but people transition (as cited in
Montgomery, 2009). The

2. OD consultant is therefore concerned primarily with the people
aspect of the change
events.
One of the basic roles of the consultant is to facilitate and teach
the client how to
identify the problem, diagnose and solve the problem. This
reduces the dependency of
the client on the consultant but also empowers the client and is
associated with higher
corporate buy-in rates.
Clearly, OD consultants must have a number of skills in order
to be successful. In
particular, consultants need to possess both leadership and
management expertise. In a
leadership role, consultants should be able to facilitate rather
than direct, keep
information flowing, and use multiple methods on a consistent
basis.
Problem solving is another skill an effective consultant hones.
He or she has to be able
to identify and focus on the next set of problems. Organizations
and processes
experience flux, which often results in new and unanticipated

3. problems, which cannot
be ignored. Inherent to the skill of problem solving, however, is
valid diagnosis. So
how does an organizational consultant accurately decipher root
problems?
The Diagnostic Process
The diagnosis is a two-fold process: an assessment of the
variables, and a report on
possible corrective interventions. Diagnosis involves gathering
data, interpreting the
data, identification of problem areas and options for solutions.
Diagnostic tools consist
of interviews, surveys, instruments, observation and review of
public records. To
many, diagnosis is the most important stage. Success or failure
of change strategies is
dependent on several things but accurate diagnosis is critical.
Failure to address the
root cause or intervening in processes that were previously fully
functional is
inappropriate and costly change, but if the problem is properly
diagnosed and the
intervention strategy appropriate, why can change still be so
difficult for organizations

4. to enact smoothly?
Resistance to Change
Change is often problematic unless the cause and solution are
readily transparent.
Generally speaking, change is often resisted. Resistance to
change comes from two
sources: the individual and the organization. Individual
resistance is most often due to
habit and security. There is comfort and a sense of security in
knowing what is
expected by management. Fear of the unknown and group norms
are also strong
correlates of change resistance.
As for the organization, systems are in place for evaluating
performance, administering
benefits, and numerous other things, and the bureaucracy itself
can act to prevent
change. People have titles and power and change might threaten
those areas of
expertise and control or means of resource allocation.
Reference

5. Montgomery, L. B. (2009, June 17). Things change, people
transition. Retrieved
October 15, 2009, from Ezine Articles Web site:
http://ezinearticles.com/?Things-Change,-People-
Transition&id=2491013
Background
You were asked by Dr. Babcock to meet with his direct staff
and give an overview of OD
and what has been discussed by the executive team so far. You
were immediately swept
up in the group’s excitement about the idea of improving the
organization and became
involved in talking through what made them most successful.
These thoughts were
summarized as the key values of the function. (See the list
below for further details.)
Creating increased involvement at all levels was one change the
R&D management felt
was mandatory. They convinced you that the people in the

6. organization really did want
this to happen, but no one was sure how to go about it. They
asked you if it is possible to
reinforce this change by how a diagnosis and analysis is
conducted.
Based on your capacity as an expert in OD, you were asked to
draft a questionnaire to
assess where the function is now and where it should be. Being
researchers, they
understood the need for information and thought the
questionnaire approach was a fast
way to proceed. You know you need help to generate definitions
that could be used to
make the questionnaire meaningful and understandable. They
agreed that their
organization needs to be involved, but they want a working
document to discuss to save
time. Once they have a means (the questionnaire) and plan for
collecting information,
they can then use it to set priorities and begin discussions on
what to change and how to
go about it.

7. They want open discussions involving all members of the
organization at every stage.
One idea was to use staff meetings—the intent being to use
some mechanism, such as
force field analyses, to generate information and consolidate it
across all areas as a
starting point.
You want to talk with your consulting company to see if this
might be a good way to
involve the organization in creating the questionnaire. You have
put the following
question on the agenda for the next review meeting.
Is this a good way to generate the types of information that
could create the
behavioral endpoints for a questionnaire?
Another suggestion was to start with the higher priorities and
form taskforces or
multifunctional teams to generate the information and
communicate the work with the
general community to get reactions before working on the
change plan. Eventually, they

8. will work down the whole list according to priority, need, and
the resources needed. Time
being one of the scarce resources, this method was seen as a
way to focus any effort on
the most important items: those with the highest return to the
organization.
You know there are many ways to have large groups set
priorities you want to
discuss this with your colleagues also. What methods could they
suggest, and is it
a good idea?
Toward the end of the meeting, there was a movement to hold a
general or total
community event to build the function; it would be a meeting,
organized in some way to
get all the force fields done. It is key, in its view, to have input
and communication across
Background
all levels and from all functions for each category. If time is
critical, why not do it all at
once? Complete the survey, score it, review it, and set priorities
as a group. Then, in

9. smaller groups (meeting at the same time and in parallel), come
up with the force field
analyses. These then could be presented to the community as a
whole, and one or two key
actions, for each category, could be identified for
implementation and next steps.