The NTL Handbook of Organization Development and Change

Assignment Task

The word diagnosis,usually associated with medical practice, means “to understand or know the underlying reasons or causes” for something. We use the word in OD and consulting, along with other words from the same sources such as “intervention  but with somewhat different intentions. A medical doctor diagnoses the patient before taking any actions to help.

The process consultant typically has few, if any, opportunities to do this, and generally does not want to. Most of the diagnostic process must and should be a participative learning experience for the client. The diagnostic process is itself a series of interventions and should be seen as an integral part of the helping process. The obvious paradox is that the client and process consultant are trying to figure what to do while actually doing things that have a significant impact on the client.

Imagine what would happen if the act of taking X-rays and blood samples changed what the X-rays and lab results eventually showed. In some ideal world, or perhaps in some simple medical situations, one could hope to observe the client objectively, gather data, come to a diagnosis, plan an intervention, and arrange for it to be implemented – all without there being any change in the client. In the organizational world, however, such is not the case. Often it is also not the case in medicine, either – for example, a person’s blood pressure may change just because his or her blood pressure is being checked.

Applied behavioral science

During World War II, the United States government employed various academic advisors – including social psychologists and socialists – for major interventions. 1. Stouffer, The American Soldier. A project to study the formation of combat teams in the Army discovered that casualties declined if training camp teams were carried over as combat teams – and therefore benefited from group development and cohesion. 2. Kurt Lewin developed force-field analysis to analyze methods attempting to get Americans to eat tripe, the best available protein under scarcity conditions.

 After World War II, Lewin and his students ran a “lab” to study group dynamics. After the groups met, the scientists met to share observations. By chance, participants overhead these meetings and asked to sit in while the academic experts discussed the participants’ leader-member roles. Then the participants wanted to share in the analysis. Out of this the T Group was born. The T Group created a vacuum of formal leadership and highlighted group dynamics with a cycle of participation followed by process analysis.

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