Organisational Development (OD) enables people to transform systems. It is the application of behavioural science to organisational and system issues to align strategy and capability. It enhances the effectiveness of systems through interventions that enhances people’s collective capability to achieve shared goals.
But it’s not just those with Organisational Development in their title that do OD – we all do OD if we are working with people, change, transformation and leadership – OD is by and for everybody.
Many specialists who do OD work in small teams and communities and try to share the joy of the profession with those around them, creating a social movement, as often resources are at a minimum for OD Teams.
Our 11 ICS senior OD, Culture and Leadership leads get together monthly as part of a community of practice and have developed the explanation below of what Organisational Development encompasses and how it can help your systems. Please do feel free to download it and use it yourself in your organisation or system.
In order for us to help and support all people doing OD we wanted to signpost some great resources and courses to help you on your OD journey.
DoOD – delivered in partnership with NHS England and NHS Employers
The website gives you access to free resources, an app, virtual mentoring, annual conference, two great free OD courses and a new online course is coming soon. Do check out the website and the dates for the next cohort of the programmes. The team also run regular virtual community of practices for countrywide OD professionals, so do email them to ask more about dates and times.
The Future of NHS HR and OD People Professions
The Long Term Plan and the People Plan set out the vision for the future NHS and in order for us to meet the challenges and opportunities that will arise in healthcare by 2030 the people profession, which comprises of human resources and organisational development practitioners will need to adapt and change as they will play a key role in shaping the future. Learn more about this here.
System Organisational Development and Transformation Skills
Organisational Development is not just for those who have it in their job title – OD is for everybody and learning the skills can support senior leaders, those leading change, transformation and improvement. In order to help you gain these skills we have produced learning materials and short learning videos that will help you develop you skills to lead, influence and enable organisational and system transformation.
Our resources cover 5 topic areas –
- Influencing without formal authority
- Challenging the status quo
- Releasing the potential of human systems
- Consulting mindset and skillset
- Self as courageous role model
To access these great resources all you have to do is sign up to access our Leadership Learning Zone via this link www.leadershipnhs.uk
Signposting to free OD resources
There are many organisations and groups who offer Organisational Development programmes and free resources and they can easily be found on an internet search.
Mee-Yan Cheung-Judge was a behavioural science expert and she inspired the OD community through the Do OD group at their masterclasses and conferences as well as through her books and website. She had recently funded the production of an OD App which helps anybody interested in or who are practitioners to self-asses themselves and then focus on what they want to learn more about through the app. It is with much sadness that we announce that Mee Yan passed away in August 2022, the community will miss her greatly and whilst we hope her resources and website stay available to all, this may not be possible
The CIPD is the professional body for HR and people development – championing better work and working lives. They offer programmes and resources for OD practitioners:
There are also a number of OD subscription organisations that you can become a member of to support you with your practice and continuing professional development why not ask around in your communities to get connected.
If you want to gain any further Organisational Development support or know of other signposting we could include on this page please do get in touch.
The Culture and Leadership programme
The NHS England Culture and Leadership Programme, a modular programme which provides opportunities for organisations to understand their own culture using evidence-based tools, develop tailored leadership strategies for developing compassionate, inclusive and collective leadership and deliver culture change.
Why the culture and leadership programme?
The culture of NHS systems, and those organisations within it, is crucial to ensuring the delivery of high-quality, safe and effective patient care. From a People perspective, we see the impact in levels of bullying and harassment, discrimination, sickness absence and presenteeism, staff turnover, and attraction of new staff.
A culture that values our people as individuals is the way we will hold onto our people and recruit the next generation. It also recognises that “inclusive cultures depend on inclusive leaders”.
The benefits of the culture and leadership programme
Compassionate and inclusive working environments also positively impact staff engagement; an increase of 0.12 in staff engagement scores within the NHS staff survey correlate with a 0.9% decrease in agency spending, saving £1.7 million for the average trust.
What kind of leadership do we need?
Research shows that the most powerful factor influencing culture is leadership. We partnered with the King’s Fund and the Centre for Creative Leadership to develop practical support and resources to help health and care organisations to improve their culture.
The Culture and Leadership Programme provides a practical, evidence-based approach to help you understand how colleagues working within your organisation or system perceive the current culture, and guides you to create and implement a collective leadership strategy, structured around six cultural elements and leadership behaviours, in order to create truly compassionate and inclusive working environments where all colleagues can thrive.
To join our Community of Practice please get in touch with the team: [email protected]
Find out more about compassionate and inclusive cultures and the Culture and Leadership programme here;NHS England » Changing healthcare cultures – through collective leadership
You can learn more about the Culture and Leadership Programme through our free online learning course, Nurturing Compassionate and Inclusive NHS Cultures, NHS England » Online course