One of the foundational definitions in the field of organizational development (aka OD) is planned change:
“Organization Development is an effort planned, organization-wide, and managed from the top, to increase organization effectiveness and health through planned interventions in the organization's 'processes,' using behavioral-science knowledge.”
-- Richard Beckhard, “Organization development: Strategies and Models”, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1969, p. 9.
To understand the practice of OD, some of the key terms, embedded in Beckhard's formulation, include:
- Planned - carefully thought through; based on data; documented
- Effectiveness - as measured by actual organizational performance versus desired organizational performance
- Health - as measured by the organization's ability to respond, grow and adapt in its environmental context
- Intervention - the specific action(s) selected for implementation that are intended to bring about the envisioned change
- Processes - how work gets done in an organization; e.g. delivery of service, billing, repair, etc.
Famous quotes containing the words planned and/or change:
“Once I planned to write a book of poems entirely about the things in my pocket. But I found it would be too long; and the age of the great epics is past.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
“What would it mean to live
in a city whose people were changing
each other’s despair into hope?—
You yourself must change it.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)