Organizational Development: Could It Work For You?

The Benefits of Organizational Development to your employees, your company and your customers.

It’s working for manufacturers (large & small), government agencies, franchises, service companies, hospitals, and many more. And sure, it could work for your company too!

Simply put, organizational development is: organizing your business so that the workflow becomes smooth and consistent, with a goal to move toward quality and excellence. Whether we are providing a product or service, features such as organization, quality and excellence help us stand out from our competitors.

Perhaps all seems to be going well within your business and you don’t see the need to change anything or to get organized. Everything seems to be running fine, things are getting done. However, Dr. Steven Covey, well-known author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, said, “No person or company should be content to stay where they are, no matter how successful they now seem to be.”

Let’s consider how to recognize whether or not we should incorporate it into our business. The first step to move toward organization, quality and excellence is to stop. Stop and look around you. What do your processes look like in your office/workspace? Do you have processes? How does your paperwork flow? Do you have stacks everywhere? Is it time to organize your office/workspace? Do you run out of time to get everything done? The fact is, we have to take the time now to stop and look around to see what changes need to take place or where improvements need to be made; because if nothing changes, nothing changes. One definition of insanity is continuing to do things the same way and expecting different results.

After you have determined if your space needs organizing, then what’s the next step? What about outside your office/workspace? Is it organized, are there processes? Are there procedures that everyone knows and follows? Is there actually a system to what goes on in your business, or does everyone just do their own thing and at the end of the day it all seems to come together?

There are eight deadly wastes in businesses that can be traced back to lack of organizational development and the lack of goals for quality and excellence. They include:

• Over-production – how much material and costs are going into products that possibly will never be used or are being thrown away?
• Over-processing/extra processing steps – how many times are employees doing the same work or is the work being replicated?
• Inventory – how is it being controlled? Is there too much or too little?
• Motion – how much time is being wasted with too much movement?
• Waiting – delays – how much are you losing when employees are waiting for other things to happen before they can perform their work?
• Defects – how much time is being spent reworking a product or service?
• Transportation – how far or how much time is being spent moving products or getting the service to the client?
• Talent – how well is your staff trained? Are employees working up to their full potential?

Could incorporating organizational development and goals for quality and excellence benefit your employees? When we start the process of organizational development, we include our employees in the process. We ask their opinions (they are the ones doing the work; they know better than anyone what would make things run smoother). When we get them involved, they become part of the process of improving their jobs; they take “ownership” of their jobs, they take pride in the work that is being done. In turn, they produce higher quality products and/or services to your (and their) customers.

Could incorporating organizational development and goals for quality and excellence benefit your customers? Customers have a choice. They buy from you for one reason and one reason only – they want to. So if your employees are producing higher quality products and/or services at competitive prices, then your customers will want to continue to do business with you.

Could incorporating organizational development and goals for quality and excellence benefit you and your company’s bottom line?

· When the employees are striving for the quality and excellence, attitudes improve. (Fewer H/R issues, tardiness, sick days, etc., result.)

· A lower turnover of/retaining employees becomes easier. (The cost to replace one employee can be up to 1 ½ times that person’s salary.)

· Retaining customers. (The costs of acquiring new customers are significantly higher than working on keeping current ones.)

· Company standards are improved, giving you the advantage over your competitors.

Now knowing the many benefits of organizational development to your employees, to your company, and to your customers, do you think it could work for you?

If you would like more information or have a question, please contact me through the Kentuckiana Business Forum Website at www.kentuckianabusinessforum.com/columnists.html.