Organizational Clarity: When is an Internal/External Organization Development Professional needed to create Organizational Change?

In one of my classes for Organization Development we were asked about what we as individuals would choose from possible candidates form the Organization Development (OD) field in regard to a particular skill set we believed is needed. The skill set of this individual must be one that can easily facilitate Organizational Change in the best or Worse case scenario. This is a fictional account for this assignment, of course, is with an organization that has an unlimited budget and resources was crafted with those variables in mind. Please post any comments or questions to facilitate a discussion in the comments sections below.

Please read the exercise on Page 292 in your text and answer the following questions. Check back often to create dialogue and discuss your answers.

When would you use an internal consultant for this position? When would you use an external consultant? Why?

The best way to answer this question and overcome any team building exercise to effectively assess and craft a program that meets the organizational goal of increasing team productivity is to hire an outside consultant. One of the skills I chose was Objectivity, and to be totally objective the Organization Development (OD) Practitioner should come into the organization from the outside, although one would argue an internal consultant would be more effective (Anderson, D. L. (Ed.), 2011). However, in this scenario even the leader is “feels” that the team functions “well” but wants to improve the team’s performance with this type of indecision from management I would hazard a guess that might be the prevailing attitude of the organization. Therefore, bringing in an outside consultant who can objectivity look into the processes and procedures decisively is needed to overcome this possible roadblock of Organizational culture.

Reference
Anderson, D. L. (Ed.). (2011). Cases and Exercises in Organization Development & Change. Sage.

Organizational Clarity: What the top 10 skills needed from an Organization Development Professional needed to create Organizational Change?

In one of my classes for Organization Development we were asked about what we as individuals would choose from possible candidates from the Organization Development (OD) field in regard to a particular skill set we believed is needed. The skill set of this individual must be one that can easily facilitate Organizational Change in the best or Worse case scenario. This is a fictional account for this assignment, of course, is with an organization that has an unlimited budget and resources was crafted with those variables in mind. Please post any comments or questions to facilitate a discussion in the comments sections below.

What are your top 8 to 10 skills needed for a position by an Organization Development (OD) Professional to be hired for an Organization in need of Organizational Change?
I believe in this scenario as a leader of a management team when tasked to hire an Organization Development (OD) Professional these are the top 10 skills needed for this position (Anderson, D. L. (Ed.), 2011):

1. Sense of Humor
2. Objectivity/Neutrality
3. Group Development
4. Written Communication
5. Strategic Planning
6. Team Building
7. Training Delivery Skills
8. Designing Interventions
9. Managing Stress
10. Leadership

Even though the team performance is great I would focus on these ten skills, having a sense of humor myself I would need a professional with the same skill however I would want them to be objective as possible to give the situation an outsider’s point of view of how the team could improve.
Group Development, Team Building and Written Communication are essential skills for an OD Professional to have for this endeavor due to its focus on a team based intervention. To implement the intervention properly, I think Strategic Planning is a required skill that coupled with Designing Interventions or the proper one in this case will only assist in the program being a success (Anderson, D. L. (Ed.), 2011).

The team’s productivity overall after the program depends on how the OD Professional leads the program (Leadership), clarifies the program’s content and intent (Training Delivery skills) to the team and does it with a level head (Managing Stress) so that the focus is on the learners. An OD Professional with all these skills I believe would be the most effective person for this type of opportunity, while helping the organization achieves its goal of increasing team productivity.

Reference
Anderson, D. L. (Ed.). (2011). Cases and Exercises in Organization Development & Change. Sage.