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

1.Objectives
1.1 PROBLEM. As any conscious human action, training event may be considered as a way of
solving a corresponding problem. For this way to be effective, first – the problem should exist,
and the second – this problem should be of a kind, which is possible to solve through the
training. If there is no problem, there is no motivation, no driving forces to put efforts in training
and to implement changes after training. On the other hand – there is no information to design
training. If the problem is not relevant to training (does not caused by the lack of certain skills
or wrong attitudes, etc.), there may be a disappointment after a training event which was not
able to produce the necessary change. Therefore, some pre-assessment of the current
situation in organisation (or characteristic set of organisations) should be undertaken in one or
another way, to make sure, that what is done was what is needed.
1.2 NEEDS. Needs are not the same as wants. When organisation’s leaders say, they need
training, it does not necessary mean that all necessary preconditions (see 1.1) are already
given. It may mean, that they just want training event, because of different reasons, but
justification would always go through the necessity to improve co-operation, performance, etc.
Still, the real success of the training event will depend on how much it succeeds to provide
relevant respond to the real needs, whether they were expressed clearly or not.
1.3 CHANGES. Relevant training may change many things: knowledge, attitude, skills,
organisation, habits, even stile of life (as in a case of Time Management). Most probable, it
will change something in any case. All the changes whether needed or not should be taught
out carefully at the preparation stage to ensure that training design will maximise chances for
positive changes and minimise risk having changes, which are not desirable.
1.4 CRITERIA. The criteria for success should be defined at the beginning of the process together
with setting objectives of the course. It is very good, when participants participate in this
thinking about criteria. Trainers receive useful ‘preliminary feedback’ from the group and may
better adjust a program to the needs of trainees. In the same time, trainees receive excellent
introduction in one of the most important topics of management – defining criteria for success
of any undertaking before first actions to implement it would take pace. When thinking about
criteria, trainees also tuning in the process of training and find right settings for themselves at
the very beginning of the course.
2. Resources
2.1. TIME. Optimal efficiency of any training event may be reached only when objectives that
are agreed with the client comply with available resources. The most critical resource is the
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