I recently found a deck of cards with great Organizational Development techniques from a previous company where I was employed. I think they were used for workshops, but since so much is online now, I thought I’d share them here since they’re not copyrighted and pulled from public materials. I’m missing a bunch of them (thus the discontinuous numbering) so I’ll add if I find them or make up new ones:) Enjoy!
3. Causal Loop Diagramming – Causal Loop Diagramming is a method that provides teams with a framework for productive conversations about recurring business problems or issues. This technique allows us to see dynamic interrelationships rather than linear cause0and0effect events. Typically, most causal loop diagrams are combinations of reinforcing and balancing loops. here is an excellent example:
4. Community – A community is a group that exists for the sake of a common goal, value, or interest. A community has an identity, a common purpose, and guiding principles that serve as the orienting philosophy for the community.
5. Compelling Story – Compelling story is a narrative that relates an irresistible and necessary reason for the change. For instance, the compelling story might be getting to Mars, we need a 1000-year vision. What research and development do we need for a 1000-year timeline? Will Technology increment X get us closer to that? These are great vision questions.
8. Feedback – Feedback is the return to the input from the output of a machine, system, or process. A feedback loop is one in which each element is both cause and effect ( is influenced by some and influences others) so that every one of its effects, sooner or later, returns to roost.
10. Four Levels of Listening – The Four Levels of Listening is a practice that exercises the tools of reflection and inquiry and the discipline of Mental Models, Team Learning, and Systems Thinking. It is a model and tool that moves groups in conversations from nonlistening, to openness and learning, to listening without judgment to see the world from someone else’s perspective to innovation and generation of new ideas.
20. Network thinking – Network thinking is a perspective focusing on the use of roles and the exchanges between them to define and/or analyze how work is accomplished. It addresses both tangible (i.e., decisions by the documented process ) and intangible ( i.e., decisions by tribal knowledge ) transactions. This can help teams discover and understand roles and optimize the relationships and processes required to accomplish work.
21. Personal Mastery – Personal Mastery is one of the five disciples of a learning organization. This discipline is about the practice of clarifying and deepening our personal vision with an objective sense of current reality. Creative tension fills the gap between the desired future and current reality. It is observing our behavior to see hour our actions support or hinder our ability to attain our personal vision.
24. Shared Vision – Shared Vision is one of the five disciplines of a learning organization. This discipline is about the practice of unearthing shared “pictures of the future” that foster genuine commitment and enrollment rather than compliance. This practice generates more enthusiasm for their vision and their leaders’ vision.
29. Systems thinking – Systems thinking is one of the five disciplines of a learning organization. This discipline is about the practice of using a conceptual framework that integrates the other disciplines (Personal Mastery, Mental Models, Team Learning, and Shared Vision). Thinking systemically is used to see the”Structures” that underlie complex situations and to discern high- from low-leverage change
30. Team Learning is one of the five disciplines of a learning organization. This discipline is about the practice of aligning and developing the capacity of a team to create the results its members truly desire.
32. Value Network Analysis (VNA) is a method through which roles, relationships, and exchanges (transactions) are identified and analyzed for understanding and possibly redesigning a network. Formal (tangible ) and informal (intangible) exchanges are part o the method. VNA is a powerful method of analysis that helps teams have quality conversations.
33. Value Network Map – A value network map shows the flow of transactions from role to role throughout a network required to produce a deliverable. One Network Map typically shows many deliverables.