I shared an Organization Development Case Study and outcomes with the Organization Development Network of Western New York.

At the end of the workshop, a friend asked, “What did you, as a consultant, learn from your experience with this client?”… Below is my best effort to share what I learned from working with a challenging client through a two-year organization development process. 

Organization Development + Executive Team Development Process, What I learned:

1. The longer the time span of the work, the process has to be more straightforward and more accessible for people to implement.
2. Reinforced my belief that systems drive behavior.
3. There are many competing solutions.
4. Putting people in a good-enough place, with known accountability + authority + Cross-Functional-Role-Relationships, + enough room to stretch, will enhance capacity.
5. Enhanced comfort with unknown/unknowns and unknowables.
6. Every action and decision is filtered through – will this attract or repel trust?
7. As experts, our words and actions mean something. We are working on people’s lives, be sure that the information you share is correct and best for the organization.

Here are some of the outcomes from the organization development and executive team development work:

Results from work with a Health Insurance Company’s IT department

Trust attracting or trust repelling organization?

1. 86% of Policies and Procedures were rewritten with Trust-Attracting in mind
2. The company went from 5 to 3 layers of management (keeping all employees and pay at current levels). This led to more autonomy and visible trust to complete great work.
3. Within 1 year, the number of sick days and calls off shift decreased by 47%
4. Within 18 months, turnover fell from 23% to 14%

 Employee Engagement

1. A re-evaluation of the employees showed the number of employees who were “Satisfied with their current work” increased from 64% to 76%, and “I can trust my manager and team” increased from 42% to 63%
2. There was an increase in time, budget, and quality work from 63% to 67% in 10 months.
3. Development of 2 new profit streams generating $250,000 for the company, using existing staff and resources
4. Increased utilization of the internal learning management system for employee learning and development from 21% to 62% over 2 years