Article
Article No.: 08-2
Article Title: Group Level Needs Assessment
Author: Guest Columnist: MaryAnn Lohmueller
Teams are quite simply the amino acid
of corporate life. Small groups of employees at all levels of an
organization, each with a piece of the puzzle, can solve complex
problems more effectively and creatively than any individual.
The challenge to an organizational development professional is to
accurately and efficiently partner, strategize, and collaborate with
“teams” (loosely defined) to enact solutions to move the business
forward. Every competent OD professional will insist that a
prerequisite to any substantial intervention (and after all every
intervention changes the flow of an organization to some degree) in
the life of an organization is to conduct a needs assessment.
Traditionally, needs assessments are conducted by working with and
through individual employees through the completion of a written
survey, or individual interviews. This method is often a long, slow,
tedious process such that when it is completed, the data is often
outdated. This practice must certainly go by the way of the dinosaur
to adjust to the rapidly changing global business environment.
To replace this traditional method, I propose using a best practice
called the Group Level Needs Assessment. This method was modified
from the work of the late Dr. Brendan Reddy through his consulting
practice and the writing of his book, “Group Level Team Assessment”.
Let me compare the individual assessment to the group assessment
before proceeding further:
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ASSESSMENT |
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| INDIVIDUAL | GROUP LEVEL |
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As Chris Argyris told us through his 1970 publication, Intervention
Theory and Method, “valid information, free choice, and internal
commitment are considered integral parts of any intervention, no
matter what the objectives are.”
The goal of any needs assessment should be to generate timely valid
data from which team members can make a reasoned decision. Employees
are then confronted with the most important questions of all – “am I
going to take ownership for helping my team become more effective?”
The best result that can come from a “needs assessment” is one that
will allow team members the opportunity to talk with each other
about what is transpiring dynamically in their group. This is
exactly what Group Level Needs Assessment accomplishes that
traditional individual assessments do not.
What is the rationale for this best
practice?
The process is based on the premise that collaboration and
consensual agreement produces the most efficient and effective
results. Specifically, a Group Level Needs Assessment presumes
that employees are ready to act when they are willing to talk about
the transpiring dynamics of their team.
One aspect that makes this process effective is the public
generation of a common data base and working it to completion
through subgroups. Ownership of the data comes out of this
process and leads the team to commit to action plans they were
responsible for developing. “Public data gathering”, means all
the members of the group generate the data all together in real
time. Marv Weisbrod in his 1987 book, Productive Workplaces,
makes the case for working with the entire team at once by
indicating it “favors the timely development of a common data base”
filtered through the team’s eyes and not the eyes of a consultant.
Traditional assessments often take so long that the data is outdated
by the time it is collected, analyzed, and fed back to the “powers
that be”.
What does this best practice look
like?
During the process “team members” (loosely defined) generate data
together. Specifically, a Group Level Needs Assessment calls
for the commitment of 4 to 6 hours of time during which team
members, with the help of a skilled consultant, collectively
generate data by responding initially in writing to statements
placed on flipcharts located on walls throughout the room, the data
is reviewed in subgroups (several times), resulting in the
formulation of an assessment of the team, then finally, the
production of action plans.
The statements listed on the walls throughout the room are generated
by the consultant after making initial contact with any combination
of people from an HR representative to the group manager, or any
other executive in the organization. No matter what, the
consultant must meet at least briefly (approximately 15 minutes)
with the team as a whole prior to the intervention. During
this time, often as part of a regular staff meeting, the consultant
introduces herself, the purpose of the assessment and overviews the
process while asking the group, “what’s going on?”. Statements
(called data generators) that I have used before include any
combination of the following:
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What kind of results can I expect?
Enthusiasm and an honest assessment of both the positive and
negative aspects of what is transpiring in the team is what
consistently surfaces from this type of assessment. A skilled
consultant creating a safe environment will not get merely polite,
politically correct responses. Instead, team members during a Group
Level Needs Assessment share openly in a balanced manner many
relevant observations about their work world. As this
information is shared, dialogue ensues which invariably clarifies
misperceptions that inhibit the development of a high performance
team. Understanding and buy-in of this caliber, translates into
employees being ready to interact with each other in different ways.
A Final Note
The most important consideration for an OD professional to ask
yourself prior to utilizing this best practice is “am I skilled to
conduct this assessment?” A consultant engaging in this
practice must have significantly well developed skills in group
process consultation to interject process expertise, stay out of the
content, while creating and maintaining a safe environment.
For questions or comments, contact Mary Ann at:
maryann.lohmueller@gmail.com.