Organizational Development: A Manual for Managers and ... - FPDL

But these changes would not happen simply because other possible patterns of the organization
and its behaviour exist somewhere in reality or in somebody’s beautiful mind. These other patterns
must be considered as relevant, realistic, and worth following. They must deserve following,
particularly if the efforts required are not too great in comparison with the results that may be
achieved (basic rationality).
When a new way of organizing and behaviour requires new skills – the barriers may seem to be
insurmountable and the final result not so attractive (‘the grape is immature, anyway’) - the new
truth may be considered ‘good in theory’, but not worth following in practice. Thus, other boxes are
related not to the mind, but to the hands – people and organizations do not try to do what they
cannot do, unless it is a matter of life and death. They tend to look for ways that they already know
and use technologies and skills they already have.
Therefore – the second step in managing organizational development is to expand the base of
available behaviours that involve corresponding technologies, organizational arrangements and
skills. In some cases, learning new skills may be a sufficient precondition for corresponding
changes. Consciously or not, some people may think that how they do something is more
convenient for them than any other way. But if their knowledge of options increases, their thinking
may change. Very often nothing except new skills is needed for a change to happen. But it is not
always so easy. Changing technologies may require considerable investment or cause a lot of
expenditures and inconveniences. Changing the organizational arrangement may require
implementing new procedures, formal and informal structures, ways of interaction and
collaboration, etc. - a lot of headaches for the leadership and seemingly useless efforts for those
in the organization who do not think these changes are absolutely necessary.
Thus, the way that people live in organizations depends on many internal and external factors.
Among these factors, there are three crucially important one – what they know, what they can do,
and what they think about what they can do. All these factors may be addressed by the
corresponding training interventions.
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