Organic Organisation Development 

Here are my thoughts on how to develop an organisation by working organically and in a client-centred way.

The most straightforward approach is to start at the top, but you can also work from the middle with an autonomous manager.

First, inquire about how things are and listen hard. Ask, “If you had three wishes for your business, organisation, or team, what would you use your wishes for?”

There is usually a pregnant pause, but eventually, the client will say what they truly want. “I would like it to be effective and profitable and for me to be less busy and have more time to think.” They may not see a way of doing it.

(A not-for-profit client might “say “deliver value” rather than “be profitable”).

I explain that it doesn’t matter how possible you think it is. It’s my job to help you get what you want. When designing things, I ask people to imagine the activity in a black box. You don’t have to worry about what’s in the black box. Please tell me what you want. What would you like to emerge from the black box?

The next step is to work with my primary contact on something significant to them. Giving practical help by listening, asking good questions, and offering simple solutions builds trust in your ability to help. As you do it a few times, people want to work on more challenging issues. Confidence builds over time. Your contact is likely to talk about their team.

Then, you can “You’ve told me you’ve been able to make some significant changes which have made your life easier and your work more effective. I want to approach one or two of the other members of your team and ask if they’d work with me. Who do you think of your team would be most receptive to that? So, you’re involving your client in creating the solution. People are committed to solutions that they help create. When these team members find talking to you helpful, they tell their colleagues. Eventually, you work with everybody!

Then, the work extends to the team. “Ask, “If you had three wishes, what would you use them for?”

Then, you work with a team on their issues. You help them think about how to solve them and encourage the people to listen to each other. The next time they have a problem, they will solve it more effectively.

Then, run developmental workshops to build bridges between the team and other groups they work with. These groups could be internal teams. They could be people from outside the organisation. There may be a supplier of vital components or services that we want to see our organisation as a great customer they are keen to serve. They could be customers for your services or products that you want to value what you provide.

The supplier wants to have a great customer, and the customer wants to have a great supplier. There’s no earthly reason why they can’t have wins all around.

The same arguments apply to other stakeholders. If you took this further, you could work with a critical supplier or customer. Suppose your customers or suppliers did incredibly well. They were prospering, happy, productive, and efficient. Your suppliers could supply you even better.

Your customers would be able to use your products and services even better and want more of them.

It’s an organic process based on caring for the people you work with and creating conditions for win-win solutions. It’s simple, if not always easy.

Building an organisation’s capacity to do this work without external input is good practice. Who are the people in the organisation people talk to informally? They already listen and are interested in people and could be internal catalysts. They would help the organisation continue to develop without you.

In parallel, eliminate some unnecessary work around the organisation to make space for people to think. Slack gives you the time to do new things.

When you have time to think, you do everything you do better. Eliminating work will create time to build listening skills in the organisation.

Everybody in the organisation spends up to an hour a month taking turns listening to a colleague. This simple practice generates new thinking, inspiration, confidence, and joy. You feel great and think better. You’ve talked to somebody interested in you, and they have listened. Taking turns listening releases the energy and creativity needed to develop the organisation without external input.

We reflect on every activity to learn what works and how to improve next time. We use this information to improve our work continuously.

Finally, professionals measure their success by their ability to make themselves redundant. So, I want to leave the organisation able to develop itself without me.