How to transform from OCM to OD

When I was a junior organizational change management (OCM) consultant growing up at a large consulting firm, I always declined organizational design (OD) assignments, as I simply did not think I was qualified. I knew instinctively that OCM and OD were two distinct fields and that I did not have the skills nor experience to help redesign an organization to enable them to mature their business capabilities, enhance their customer experience, or decrease their labor costs. So how can an OCM practitioner develop into an OD practitioner? I recently sat down with Kelley Rainwater, Transformation Expert, Founder and Lead Instructor, Institute of Applied Organizational Design & Transformation, to find out. 

1. Shadow an organizational design practitioner 

The simplest and least expensive way to begin your OD journey, is to find an organizational design practitioner and informally learn from them in the workplace. If you are on a project in an OCM role and are lucky enough for that project to have an OD workstream, reach out to OD lead. Find an OD mentor in your organization. Network with them, let them know that you’d like to learn from them, and watch what they are doing. Shadow them, learn what activities they do, and what templates they use to do it. Ask them to meet with you and find out what they do, how they do it, and how can you best learn.  

2. Seek formal training from a master designer 

The next step in your organizational design journey is to complete some level of formal education in organizational design. The learning options range from university courses to applied organization design courses, from passive online learning to actively learning with others through small group cohorts. The benefit of university courses is that you will learn a lot of theory, be exposed to models, and understand where they came from, however, you may not walk away knowing what to do on your first day at a client site. The benefit of an applied course is that you will be armed with not only exposure to the theory, but also the process, steps, templates, and deliverables that you would use to perform OD work with a client. Those who have the time and money to invest in a university course, should absolutely do so. However, it’s important to design your learning so that you are positioned not only with the underpinnings of OD theory, but also a pragmatic, results oriented approach. 

3. Get organizational design experience 

It is an exciting time for organizational change management practitioners who want to break into the field of organizational design; more and more, organizations are expecting their OCMers to have some basic understanding of OD. But how can you get this experience? Look for organization design internships, paid and unpaid. Non-profits are great candidates for unpaid as they often need to take that next growth step but are unable to foot the bill of a high-powered consultant. Work with an organizational design guru to run a simulation that includes executive interviews, development of key deliverables, and a final client presentation. When you hit the ground at a client, you will know what to do, with that experience under your belt and the resulting confidence…as a basic practitioner. Continue to shadow more experienced practitioners, watch and learn, to grow your organizational design skills and expertise. 

As both an organizational change management and organizational design practitioner, Kelley’s mission is to create as many OD masters as she can. She has seen the pain, failure and disaster of organizational design programs, that were ultimately so avoidable. She knows firsthand how incredibly fun and rewarding the field of OD can be, especially when you know how to do it well. Executives get excited, employees get excited, and everything goes better, just like organizational change management. Are you ready to start YOUR organizational design journey? 

This is part three of a three-part blog series focusing on the intersection of organizational change management and organizational design. 

• Top 3 Signs That Your Change Program Needs Organizational Design Expertise  

• Three Organizational Design Actions Every Organizational Change Management Practitioner Should Take 

• How To Transform From An Organizational Change Management Practitioner To An Organizational Design Expert  

Contact ChangeStaffing to learn how our consultants can help with both your OCM and OD needs. 

A very special thanks to Kelley Rainwater, Transformation Expert, Founder and Lead Instructor, Institute of Applied Organizational Design & Transformation, for her thought leadership and for collaborating with us on this blog series.