Conversational and Fun organizational development - the positive approach to change

As a positive psychology practitioner, I have realized that organizational development interventions need less of intensity and more of engagement. At a client site, we started creative conversation groups and they used appreciative inquiry to understand what was working well and how to embrace newer group strengths to keep focusing on what works. These were typically small groups of 5 people each, pulled out in a matrix structure and they were having 4 meetings in a month, each meeting facilitated through rotation by a different individual. And what they were discussing was their individual strengths, their collective strengths and how the business could do better. This was what I call "creative conversations". Participants would share their creative ideas and they would challenge other groups, using gamification, to generate intelligent ideas for the company's future growth. The gamification added the spirit of adventure and winners would get interesting rewards from additional seven days leave, to a gift hamper or even to lead the OD effort for a month.

It would not have been possible if the stakeholders of the company were not on the same page. The CEO specially was fascinated by conversations about growth as well as change and the participants were enthralled to share ideas through conversations as well as tools like storytelling.

As a OD practitioner, for me such kind of creative conversations are important. The employees and teams feel motivated and engaged. We actually had a Finance Manager who had brilliant ideas for branding and irrespective of job roles, people came out with brilliant ideas. The conversations were simple, like "what are those areas where our company is doing well?" or "As an Individual, what do you think next 3-5 years should we be focusing on, in the company"?

Change may not always be bad. Many a times it explores new possibilities and eventually, everyone grows including the individual employee, small and large groups and the company itself.

#change #OD #positivepsychology