 we are going to start with some real life situations and some reflection on what might be the useful intervention in that situation. So, first case is about about a mid size manufacturing company. It is facing a strategic challenge because of the operational inefficiencies like unnecessarily delay in the production and administration decisions. The combined effect of these seemingly minor lapses make significant negative difference to the profitability of the company. The culture of the organization is a genius and leadership is democratic in nature. So, you can see that it is a company which has just facing a strategic challenge because of the changing market dynamics and because of that they are having unnecessarily delay in the production and administration decisions what might be the appropriate intervention in this situation. So, there are no major fights amongst specific two departments and there is a major strategic challenge because of which they had to change their production schedule and the product design and that has resulted in the delay in administrative delay as well as the production delay. And as a outcome of these processes in this process there are some lapses as well minor lapses, but they are causing the specific they are causing a significant impact on the profitability. We are we all know that most of the manufacturing companies are facing the challenges on the front of cost. So, even minor increase in cost has a very major impact on the profitability. So, what kind of intervention do you think is appropriate in this situation? Another situation is about a large pharmaceutical company. Now, this company is multinational its India arm is also very big it is realizing that the patent of many of its molecules expired recently and for some molecules it is going to expire in near future. So, there are many small companies with their agility are able to make dent in its market share. Second industry is witnessing innovation in not only the molecules, but also in other processes like drug delivery insurance facility with very expensive drugs and so on. The growing recognition of this organization is to retain the market leadership this company has to be more innovative and innovation should become part of the culture. So, it is not only about innovation in the products or identifying new molecules, but in other processes the internal processes is the external processes innovation is required. So, one thing is short that in this situation innovation has to be the focus of intervention. Innovation cannot happen in a very autocratic management system the power has to be decentralized to promote more innovation and the products as well as the processes. Another situation the head of the quality and production department of capsule cover manufacturing plant are at the lower heads almost always. The acrimony between them has even percolated down amongst the employees of their departments. No department leave any chance of putting down another one in joint meetings of the plant and one to one review meetings with the plant head. So, some strategy orientation has to be given so that they can look at their goals as the means to achieve original goals. And conflict resolution conflict is also important component would be important component in this intervention. Our fourth example is in a welding electrode manufacturing plant the production demand has increased drastically in the last 6 months. The plant is operating non-stop in 3 shifts in last 2 months the customers complaint has increased the conflicts between the shift in charge finance and operations security and production have also increased. The culture of the plant has been positive before, but a smaller conflicts arising among different departments due to changing work demands are making the management and employees concerned. So, this situation is different from the previous situation. In the previous situation there were minor lapses and major strategic challenge. Here it is strategic challenge in terms of the demands is here it is more like opportunity not a challenge at this strategic level as they have to increase their manufacturing output. But here you see different departments are also having the conflict not the minor lapses as it was there in the previous session and in the first case. By making them relaxed will the organizational issues be solved may be to some extent and most likely indirectly not directly. So, we really do not know by relaxing them what all issues can be resolved and what all cannot be resolved ok. We will look at some of the concepts in the today's session and towards the end of the session we will revisit these cases and these are the real life places where I have an opportunity to be involved and I will share what were the exact actual intervention after the proper diagnosis and the discussion with the different stakeholders was implemented. But what is common across all four examples? For example, is this a group level thing? The second one a large pharmaceutical company operating of course, but it is only group or even greater than group. These are all organizational level interventions means full organization is involved. So, today we are going to look at organizational process approaches. We will discuss the system while process interventions and if you remember our diagnostic model of the organization it has these in these components. The organizational diagnostic model has input design and output like any other diagnostic model we studied and in the design component we look at the technology strategy structure HR system and measurement system that leads to a certain type of culture. Input to the organization are coming from the industrial environment and general. So, I would like you all to keep this diagnostic model in view while we are talking about some interventions which are possibly introduced at the organizational level and towards the end we connect these interventions to the situations we started this discussion. So, I am sure most of you must be aware of this personality and this company. This company logo is of general electrics and general electricals and the personality is none other than Jack Welch one of the most admired CEO of 20th century and also controversial in certain sense. How it is related to organizational level intervention this example? So, along with Six Sigma and other interventions in G Jack Welch also introduced the G work out meeting culture what does that mean? The G work out meeting are the organizational level ODE intervention and a acceleration process to overcome the barriers of rank, function, geography, bureaucracy and culture for what? For the efficient decision making and accelerated implementation. There are many challenges in organization which are in the departmental and nature intergroup in nature and many a time organizational members suggest and realize certain things have to be done, but they cannot be done because of the inherent inertia which is brought by the culture, bureaucracy, geography etcetera. So, this information was aimed at addressing these barriers of the rank, function, geography, bureaucracy, culture and strengthen the decision making process by making it more efficient and also facilitation also facilitating the quick implementation of what is being decided in these meetings. So, the core of the confrontation meeting are these three components critical business issue, constitution of the high performance team and accelerated decision making. What does that mean? It means high performance teams from across the department are invited for these meetings, a critical business issue is put forth to be worked upon and whatever the decisions are made by these high performance teams during the process are subjected to accelerated implementation. And these three are the special features of these work out meeting. Work out meeting the concept of work out meeting is very similar to a notion called confrontation meeting or intervention called confrontation meeting in the OT literature. Confrontation meeting is an intervention designed to mobilize the resources of the entire organization to identify problems, set priorities and action targets and begin working on identify problems. Confrontation meeting is being used in many organizations with different names and with the slight changes in the process. But they have some common features like they are conducted at the organizational level, they are conducted around the critical business issues and within the meeting itself the decision making process is accelerated and after the meeting there is a accelerated process for implementation of these decisions. So, in a generic form a confrontation meeting process looks like this. We need to identify the champion and the sponsors of the confrontation meeting. After identification of the champion and the sponsor meeting are meeting is scheduled. We need to create groups representing the multiple perspective that means groups from the different functions, different divisions are constituted. Different hierarchical levels also supply different groups. In a group typically people from different hierarchical levels do not participate because of the obvious reasons. If a supervisor and subordinate are part of the same group there might be a challenge in terms of the open communication and the candid feedback and discussion about the problems. After the groups are constituted a certain ground rules are set that includes what is the agenda, how will be the functioning of the team, what is the level of commitment, what is expected behavior of the members while working in during this confrontation meeting. After setting up the ground rules the group identify the problems and opportunity. So, in a typical confrontation meeting there are multiple groups operating on multiple problems. They work with independently and after they identify the problems and opportunity they reconvene in a large group meeting and they report out what was discussed during the groups. So, in this way when small groups work on certain opportunity and problems and when they come back in a large group meeting each group shares about their findings and recommendation. As a result of that whole group is able to know what is being discussed by that group and the large group members are also given opportunity to add or edit from their perspective in the list being created by individual specific groups. Based on these interaction a master list of opportunities and problems are created. After the master list is created generally the these groups are dissolved and new groups are formed in the confrontation meeting. New groups which are constituted after creating the master list are generally related to some specific functions or a specific area. So, when a master list of opportunity and problems is made we prioritize and classify these opportunities and problems. For example, those opportunities and problems can be clubbed in the operational operations field we will relate it to marketing we will relate it to the administrative processes etcetera. So, once opportunities and problems are classified the new groups are formed which have especially which which are specialist in tackling with those types of problems. So, for example, if there is a quality problem people having understanding and appreciation of the quality issues are put up in the problem solving group related to quality or people having the expertise and experience in operations are being made the members of the group which works on the operational issues. So, like that different problem solving groups are identified. These problem solving groups work on specific opportunities and challenges make the recommendation based on the ranking of the issues. So, based on the master list of the problems and opportunities in their field they first rank the issue and opportunities develop action plan and specify the timeline. They also provide the periodic report to the large group. So, during these meetings action plan is created based on the data coming from the large number of people. But success is not dependent only on creating action plan success depends on how the work and implementation process is supports this action plan. And for that to happen a periodic reporting system is established and that is where the role of the champion and the sponsors of the confrontation becomes. Generally top management people members from the top management act as the role of the sponsors or the champions and they are the one who are closely involved in the periodic review. And whatever actions are taken based on certain decisions and recommendation by the specific groups are reported constantly reported back to the large group which was involved in the confrontation meeting. Confrontation meeting with the different names and format is being implemented in many organizations. So, different names being used are like private levels, action forums, town meetings, fast, on track, power sessions, 30, 60, 90 process. In the companies like Philips, Bistelmaier, Squib, Yellow Freight, Frito-Lay, Borden, Novartis, JoyMining, Machine Green and many more. So, this is one set of large organizational level intervention. So, based on this description what we can conclude about the prerequisites of the confrontation meeting. Generally the confrontation meetings are successful in the context of specific strategic challenge. Number 2, confrontation meetings are successful when there is a representation of the large organizational system. Number 3, success of the confrontation meeting depends on how robustly the implementation plan is in place without constant feedback and the review mechanism. Whatever emerged in the confrontation meeting may fizzle out or may remain as a matter of conversation or even may get forwarded if it is not subjected to testing and implementation process. Now, we look at the inter-population interventions. We know that small or large groups constitute the organization and they decides the functioning of the organization. How the different groups interact with each other in an organization? Groups work together that is how they interact. Is that all? Groups hold identity. You join a group, you become part of the group and you take that particular identity in a very short span of time. Groups also place demand to each other. Quality department plays demand to the production department, the finance department put up the demand to the operations department, operations and all other department put their demand to the finance department. So, groups keep placing demand to each other. Groups create problems also for each other and that is how they fight as well. So, to resolve the issues between the two groups, we will discuss two specific interventions in this session. Microcosm groups and resolving intergroup conflict. Microcosm group. Microcosm group is a small is the small groups that solve problems in the larger system. Small group members characteristic must be reflected in the issue being addressed. So, for example, a microcosm group which is working on the diversity also must be diverse. Primary mechanism for change is the parallel process. What is the psychological process behind working the microcosm group? So, parallel process idea suggests that if the small representative groups are formed, a group can intimately understand and solve the complex organizational problems. We can understand this with the example of cross-functional projects and design teams. When a system or an organization faces a challenge, we see sometimes the cross-functional groups are formed. Cross-functional group members bring the perspective of the group from where they are coming. Their ability to put forth their the point of view of the group makes other group members also to understand and realize and acknowledge how their group being perceived by other groups. And it is found that parallel processes are successful because it is it is it is found that when people coming from the different groups assemble in one group, they are able to bring the perspective of their group. Because they hold their entity, because they have the data that makes whole group aware of the microcosm group aware of the different issues and opportunities and challenges faced by other groups. It is called microcosm group because it is representative of the cosmos. If organization is considered or a bigger system is considered as cosmos, this is a micro group because this is constituted of the representatives from the components or the sub groups or sub organization groups of that organization or the plant or the organizational unit. How microcosm group integration is conducted? First of all,issue has to be identified. If issue is not system wide, microcosm group is not a good intervention. Microcosm group works best when it is given an issue which is a system wide problem. Otherwise, there is no use of making microcosm group to work on this problem. Then the microcosm group is convened. It must be convened in a way which reflects the appropriate mix of the stakeholders involvement of the appropriate level of employees or managers. If microcosm group is about the administrative lapses or operational challenges, it must involve people from the quality production, operations, supply chain, IT who all are involved in creating and addressing that problem. As I gave example before, if a group is working on the diversity, then microcosm has to represent has to have the diversity within itself. So, convening the microcosm group is very important step. It must be done according to the issue in hand. Second is providing the group training. If we assume that just by making the microcosm group and asking them to convene the meetings, conduct the meetings and address the problem, they may not be able to address it efficiently. These microcosm groups requires the specific training as well. Particularly, two types of trainings are relevant for the microcosm group. Group problem solving training and decision making training. They need to be trained on how team charter is created, how to set up the following set up and following the norms, what should be the norms and they must be trained in making the definition of the problem to be addressed. If a microcosm group is not able to identify properly and articulate properly the problem in hand, very less likely they are going to be effective in their role. So, microcosm group requires some training. After the training, they are given and empowered with the necessary resources and information. Information in a way is a resource in itself to address the issue in the group. So, you remember the typical process of the OD, it starts with diagnosis, design, implementation, it starts with diagnosis and then it includes design, implementation and evaluation. Similarly, a microcosm group also need to diagnose the issue. They need to design, implement and evaluate their interventions, their recommendations and if they are implemented, they have to look at the impact of there. What is the key issue at this stage? Can it be done as simply as we are describing it? What might be the complexities in this process? Resistance to change, the organization support may not be there. Gaining organizational commitment is the key issue at this stage. We can convene a good microcosm group, they may be competent in in addressing some of the addressing their problems, but still there will be a challenge if they are not able to gain the organizational commitment. Without the organizational commitment, whatever they recommend cannot be implemented. Now, how to gain the organizational support? That is the question. What microcosm group should or should not do to gain the organizational support to implement the ideas they recommend. What they need to have is very high level of transparency and extensive communication. How we maintain the transparency? Microcosm group may invite the senior managers, workers, union representatives to their meetings. That is one way of enhancing the transparency. Another way of enhancing transparency is that they report everything, their development, how they develop the issue, what are their plan for implementation, how they design, they can keep sending it out and taking feedback from large number of stakeholders. And keep reporting the organization or unit they are accountable to about how they are thinking and what they are planning. So, transparency and extensive communication are play a key role in gaining the organizational support. Once they get the organizational support and they have they are able to implement things, then microcosm group is generally dissolved. Before the dissolution they need to prepare a project report, they need to make the final presentation. So, microcosm group is a method to bring the perspective from the different groups in the room and having a discussion keeping the whole system and its opportunities and challenges in mind. Our next intervention is resolving intergroup conflict. As we discussed previously, groups in the organization not only work together, groups and departments in the organization getting to conflict as well, they put the demand as well on each other and sometimes they obstruct each other as well to function in the best of their ability. So, where the intergroup conflict can be more dysfunctional and where it is less dysfunctional, where the intergroup conflict can be more severe in the situation when there is a interdependence in the group. Suppose there is an organization which has different product lines, a competition and a healthy competition may be smaller the minor conflict will be good for the performance of these groups. But if there are two departments which are independent interdependent finance and accounting, marketing within the marketing sales promotion and advertisement, if these groups having start having conflict then this will be much more dysfunctional. So, in order to make the groups function well with each other, we need to keep resolving the conflicts arising in the process of their functioning. If you remember the role negotiation technique, role negotiation technique we used we discussed as a team intervention. A similar logic is applied for the intergroup level role conflict resolution as well. In this process groups and consultant convene to address the issues. Generally the role of consultant is very useful in this stage because consultants are being looked unbiased and they have a third party view overarching view of the situation. So, consultant can play a very significant role in resolving the intergroup conflict. Groups are asked to address three questions the conflicting groups are asked to address three questions. Number one what qualities and attributes best describe our group? Who are we as group? Number two what qualities and attributes best describe their group means they write about their perception about other groups. And third question is how do we think the other group will describe us? So, third question is basically writing answer of the second question on the behalf of the other group. If there are multiple groups more than two groups are involved all the groups make this list for all of the groups. Then groups exchange and clarify the answer that is the open process where they do not get into the fights or explanation they read whatever the group has prepared. In this process other groups become aware of how they are being perceived and how they behave that makes other groups open to reflect on their own behavior and attributes. That that reflection helps the groups to analyze their discrepancies and work to understand their contribution to the perception. So, once they listen about the attributes and perception from the perspective of other groups they at times ask for the tangible feedback or tangible data based on which other group would have formed that perception. And if other group is able to give a specific objective data then this group can reflect explain their position or can also reflect whether they can respond to that situation differently when next time and all this. Then group discusses the discrepancies and contributions and group work to develop action plan on key areas. So, these discrepancies and contributions discrepancy means how my group is being perceived by other and what is the difference in that perception. Same incidents same response can be perceived differently by other group. So, that is the that is a discrepancy that needs to be clarified. But there is a contribution as well mean we also recognize that in the conflict what is the contribution of my group and that also need to be acknowledged. Based on the understanding we arrived at a master list and action plan is created where two groups decide what they will start or stop doing to make the all other groups functioning well and in harmony with each other. This is an example of intergroup conflict presentation.