Organisational Development is a strategic tool (or process/way of working), used to improve the performance of an organisation.
It is used to help individuals, teams and organisations to reach their potential and improve performance – the entire focus is on our people and ensuring we deliver the best possible service to the communities of St Helena – ‘our reason for being’.
It recognises that people are the most valuable asset in delivering good performance for our community, and that how we do things is just as important as what we do.
There are two main parts to Organisational Development:
- Activities to diagnose or understand what is happening and why (e.g. staff surveys, focus groups); and
- Activities to bring about improvements (e.g. management and leadership development, improved recruitment and appraisal processes, development of a competency framework, development of a talent and workforce planning framework)
Organisational Development focuses on values, culture and behaviours, this is because…values determine culture, culture determines behaviour, behaviour determines outcomes.
Culture is best described as the “way we do things around here” – unspoken norms and informal rules which exist in SHG and guide employee behaviour.
Our culture has to be one that supports SHG to innovate, manage uncertainly, ambiguity and transformation, develop new skills and embrace the opportunities that come with automation and digital transformation. MOST IMPORTANTLY our culture should breed good performance for our community – everything has to come back to the services we deliver – that’s why we are here.
Before developing the Prospectus for Change (2019 to 2022) it is fundamentally important we really understand current organisational culture – and as you will see from the diagram below (Schein: Cultural Iceberg) it can be very difficult to understand what is happening and why as there is a lot going on below the surface.
