Organization Development is a powerful approach for applying behavioral science knowledge to improving organizational effectiveness. The primary emphasis is on relationships and processes between and among individuals and groups. OD is especially beneficial to groups experiencing change. Consider this: OD Practitioners: "Organizational Physicians?"The system of organizations is very similar, if not the same as, the system of human beings. Therefore, when trying to understand the field of organization development, it might be useful to compare aspects of the field of organization development to aspects of the field of medicine.That is, in OD, practitioners might work in a manner similar to "organizational physicians" intending to improve the effectiveness of people and organizations by:

Establishing relationships with key personnel in the organization (often called "entering" and "contracting" with the organization)

Researching and evaluating systems in the organization to understand dysfunctions and/or goals of the systems in the organization ("diagnosing" the systems in the organization)

Identifying approaches (or "interventions") to improve effectiveness of the organization and its people

Applying approaches to improve effectiveness (methods of "planned change" in the organization)

Evaluating the ongoing effectiveness of the approaches and their results.

What is your reaction to the analogy of an OD practitioner being equated to an Organizational physician?