3. IOD PARC
At IOD PARC, our key focus is to help our clients
understand and improve the impact they have.
We do this working in partnership with clients, drawing
from our heritage in results-based performance assessment
and organisation development.
5. The role of conversation in change
“Everyone needs to struggle with the question of what kind of
future we want to create, and that vision is something that is
alive and open to change. Vision is more a dialogue than a
declaration. It is an important conversation, a significant stretch
of the imagination, and it needs to emerge as a collective work-
in-progress from each unit. Once a vision is laminated, it loses its
life…..I finally realized that it was the act of creating a vision that
matters, not so much the content of what it was”
From Flawless Consulting, Peter Block
6. Using technologies in change
What do we mean by technologies?
Why use technologies in change?
– Communicate
– Converse
– Collaborate
7. Achordus
A process to enable a distributed community to come
together around pressing organisational or business issues.
Guided by a structured methodology, led by a facilitator,
Achordus offers a time-limited online engagement to invite
employees, stakeholders and communities to participate in
a purposeful online conversation.
20. Achordus: success factors
From the outset
Make it real
Communication
Create space
In the set-up process
Leadership Team
Timing
A great invitation
During the event
Moderators
Space and time
After the event
Follow up
Action
21. Achordus: How we’ve used it
• 38 Degrees
• Department for International Development
• Trócaire
22. Trócaire
What we were initially asked in to do
– Impact of global downturn
– Country office restructure
What we did
– Organisational design
– Consultation process
– Communications
– Leadership support
How we integrated Achordus into activity
– 3 phases
What difference it made
23. Risks
Pseudo-consultation
– The “real” conversations are elsewhere
– The actions bear little relation to the community suggestions
Publicness in an environment where it’s not “safe to speak
up or out”
24. Benefits
Get a large group (up to 5,000) into a conversation for
minimal cost per person
Buy in and commitment to the process as well as the
outcome
New public space
New connections
Statement of intent
– Explicitly participatory
– Public (named) conversations on something that matters
– Concentrated organisational focus
25. IOD PARC
Things we’d like to understand further
– Impact
– Influence (particularly on leadership practice)
– Embedding
27. Get in touch
Erica Packington
erica@iodparc.com
www.iodparc.com
0114 267 3620
Editor's Notes
Strong heritage in International Development – complex environment, partnership, power dynamicsOD impact and results – focussed on bottom linePerformance Central, local govt and NHS workLocal govt – wirralsnr team development, support to write their development planNHS evaluative inquiry of Rotherham YongShiping engagement. Academic insitituions : University of London, Royal Holloway; Strathclyde Uni, Sheffield University Private: Skype, Amex, IBM. Of course it’s not as neat as that – performance assessment is core to our OD approach, and depending on the technical area or methodoogy
We see effective OD as the practice of helping you to achieve coherence between strategy, culture and structures and processes. Leadership is key to achieving this coherence. Whether it is the action of those at the top of your organisation or the small acts of leadership that occur throughout its fabric; it is the day-to-day acts of leadership and the behaviour and activities of those in leadership roles that provides the golden thread that pulls strategy, structure and culture together and supports them to be sustainable.
Conversation as a core business processJuanita Brown, David IsaacsSpace for discussion – face to face, small group, large group, public, private. Space for productive and empowering conversations is a key organisational process.
Conversation/discussion in change, participation, engagement. Technologies:faciltation, face to face, telephone. Normally mean new/emerging tech like forums, email, website based socil tech – allowing interaction – data metrics, making visible and public the rich interaction between people. Comms – get a message out to lots of people with minimal costConversations – engage large groups of people without having to have them face to faceCollaborations – target conversations, comms and engagment on a specific purpose to achieve a certain thing.
Process developed with IBM in 2001Software as a service plus process consultingThe engagement is designed to result in rich, qualitative contributions within a framework to translate this into actions/themes to integrate with and inform further activities at many levels within the organisation or community
Frame: Requirements analysis, preparation, training – leadership groupDiscuss: Collaboration in the web-based discussion space - participantsCodify: Capturing themes and actions from the conversation – moderators, leadership groupAct: Use the findings to influence decision-making and action – leadership group, wider organisation
Topics and issues: This Frames discussions:What do we want to discuss and why? What input do we want from the participants? What are we hoping to achieve together?Phase 1: Current and past experienceWhat is the real issue or root cause? What are current and past experiences of the situation? Phase 2:Survey prioritiesWhat should we address first? What deserves the highest priority?Phase 3:Brainstorm for the futureHow can we tackle the issues? How can it be done differently?What can we do?Phase 4:ActionWhat ideas and actions are we going to execute? Which ones do we need to develop further?
Truthful desire to consult/co-createHelping people make time and space for active, thoughtful participation and clear invitation and thoughtful consideration of why people would take partCompelling, attractive and relevant contentEffective, early and often communications to participantsCommitted, trained moderators drawn from participant organisationsTime and space for participants to contribute – prove it was realFrequent , honest, open communications– process and content
Can be very effective in breaking down formal hierarchy
how we can better understand impact of using conversation and collaboration technologies in this wayinfluence on leadership practiceTraining the organisation to interact in this way, using the process multiple times (IBM story)