leadership

From the process we have explored so far in the first three parts of this article series, you should have an idea of what organisational development (OD) is, what its purpose and principles are, the process of OD diagnosis, and the key points of choosing and planning an intervention. However, many OD programmes do not fail in these earlier stages, but rather in the actual implementation of the programme and its interventions.

Planning organisational development (OD) interventions has two key aspects: intervention choice and planning for the execution of the intervention. OD interventions fail for many reasons, but common ones include bad choice of intervention or poor implementation. The choice of intervention should, as the previous articles in this series have emphasised, be guided by the initial diagnosis. If you know what is wrong, then you can choose a suitable remedy. Starting with the choice of remedy makes little sense. Equally, do not always expect there to be one thing wrong.

‘One-size fits all’ solutions are common today. Thousands of self-help and business books published each year make the assumption that ‘what has worked for me will work for you’. Often the solutions touted by supposed ‘gurus’ seem to make sense and even apply to our situations. However, people and organisations continue to have problems – evidence that self-help books are yet to provide the perfect cure.

Organisational Development (OD) is the systematic practice of improving an organisation’s effectiveness. Every leader, NPO/NGO or otherwise, would love to see their organisation become more effective. OD is therefore something that all leaders need to understand and be able to get involved in. Putting OD in the domain of only HR people and consultants is a mistake that many organisations have made.

A troubling question is increasingly asked about South Africa: At what point does corruption become endemic? When does corruption become so systematised that it becomes almost irreversibly ‘the way business is done’ – the expected norm?

In February 2009, during a visit to Mozambique as part of his ‘Champions for an HIV-Free Generation’ Southern African tour, former president of Botswana, Festus Mogae, called out to Africans across the continent to keep on fighting the HIV and AIDS epidemic, and not to give up in their struggle towards an AIDS free society. During a press conference, Mogae pinpointed a few important issues that he feels need to be addressed as a top priority, such as male infidelity and male circumcision, and challenged leaders to start taking the epidemic more seriously.

The Training Centre for Development Cooperation in Eastern and Southern Africa (MS-TCDC) is conducting a course on Civic Education for Political Empowerment 2009 from 16-27 November 2009 in Arusha, Tanzania.

I have been active in the NGO sector in South Africa for about 27 years starting out as volunteer, field worker, organiser, programmes manager and later as director. I have also served on various NGO boards, act as advisor to many and now practice as a development practitioner within the sector.