The word "success" stems from the Latin word "successus" from the mid 16th century. Most people know what the word "success" means, but I find it difficult to connect the definition with measuring results from an OD perspective.
In my current role as a Business Consultant/Senior Project Manager, I am tasked with Project Management duties to help plan for and implement a $250M+ project for an internal operations unit while also considering Current State and Future State for my area of responsibility. In this role, I am given the freedom to help facilitate meaningful current state changes to help my group better prepare for future state, but there are no metrics or measures of success that can be used to help me prove or disprove my effectiveness. In looking at my own situation, I am wondering how common this might be?
From an OD perspective, I am wondering who typically decides the measurement criteria for successful OD interventions? Is it the client, the OD consultant, or is it both? If companies spend thousands of dollars on OD initiatives, how do they know that their investment was worthwhile? If they had not undertaken an OD initiative, how can an OD consultant compare the "lost opportunity cost" with the "potential return on investment?" While this week's post is supposed to focus on OD research problems that have not been studied, I think this one remains unresolved with lots of unknowns.
From an OD perspective, I am wondering who typically decides the measurement criteria for successful OD interventions? Is it the client, the OD consultant, or is it both? If companies spend thousands of dollars on OD initiatives, how do they know that their investment was worthwhile? If they had not undertaken an OD initiative, how can an OD consultant compare the "lost opportunity cost" with the "potential return on investment?" While this week's post is supposed to focus on OD research problems that have not been studied, I think this one remains unresolved with lots of unknowns.
From a United States point-of-view, change sponsors are very interested in seeing meaningful results and proving their effectiveness and ultimately realizing some success. Knowing that success is viewed differently by individuals at multiple levels within an organization, I wonder how this might be researched and if a practical approach is really possible in the OD field?
To aide in this effort, I came across a short video entitled How do you measure the impact of change? by Dr. Michael Chayes who is a change management consultant in New York. In the video, Dr. Chayes talks of the way to measure success, but does not address who determines the areas and units of measurement.
Thank you. -Matt
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