A variety of names—sensitivity training, laboratory training, encounter groups, and T-groups (training groups)—all refer to an early method of changing behavior through unstructured group interaction.26 Current organizational interventions such as diversity training, executive coaching, and team-building exercises are descendants of this early OD intervention technique.

One tool for assessing the attitudes of organizational members, identifying discrepancies among member perceptions, and solving differences is the survey feedback approach.27 Basically, data collected from strategic surveys is then used to spur problem identification and discussion.

The survey feedback approach can be helpful to keep decision makers informed about the attitudes of employees toward the organization. However, individuals are influenced by many factors when they respond to surveys, which may make some findings unreliable. Second, a high number of nonresponses may indicate organizational dysfunction or decreased job satisfaction, which the absence of data will not show. Managers who use the survey feedback approach should therefore monitor their organization’s current events and employee response rates.

Managers often sense their unit’s performance can be improved but are unable to identify what to improve and how. The purpose of process consultation (PC) is for an outside consultant to assist a client, usually a manager, “to perceive, understand, and act upon process events” with which the manager must deal.28 These events might include those surrounding the workflow, informal relationships among unit members, and formal communication channels in the organization.

PC is similar to sensitivity training in assuming we can improve organizational effectiveness by dealing with interpersonal problems and in emphasizing involvement. But PC is more task-directed, and consultants do not solve the organization’s problems, but rather guide or coach the client to solve his or her own problems after jointly diagnosing what needs improvement. The client develops the skill to analyze processes within his or her unit and can therefore use the skill long after the consultant is gone. Because the client actively participates in both the diagnosis and the development of alternatives, he or she arrives at a greater understanding of the process and the remedy, and becomes less resistant to the action plan chosen.

We’ve noted throughout this text that organizations increasingly rely on teams to accomplish work tasks. Team building uses high-interaction group activities to increase trust and openness among team members, improve coordination efforts, and increase team performance.29

Team building typically includes goal-setting, development of interpersonal relations among team members, role analysis to clarify each member’s role and responsibilities, and team process analysis. It may emphasize or exclude certain activities, depending on the purpose of the development effort and the specific problems the team is confronting. Basically, however, team building uses high interaction among members to increase trust and openness. In these times when organizations increasingly rely on teams, team building is an important topic.

A major area of concern in OD is dysfunctional conflict among groups. Intergroup development seeks to change groups’ attitudes, stereotypes, and perceptions about each other. Here, training sessions closely resemble diversity training, except rather than focusing on demographic differences, they focus on differences among occupations, departments, or divisions within an organization. Among several approaches for improving intergroup relations, a popular one emphasizes problem solving.30 Each group meets independently to list its perceptions of itself and another group and how it believes the other group perceives it. The groups then share their lists, discuss similarities and differences, and look for causes of disparities.

Once they have identified the causes of discrepancies, the groups move to the integration phase—developing solutions to improve relations between them. Subgroups can be formed of members from each of the conflicting groups to conduct further diagnoses and formulate alternative solutions.

Most OD approaches are problem-centered. They identify a problem or set of problems, then look for a solution. Appreciative inquiry (AI) instead accentuates the positive.31 Rather than looking for problems to fix, it seeks to identify the unique qualities and special strengths of an organization, which members can build on to improve performance. That is, AI focuses on an organization’s successes rather than its problems.

The AI process consists of four steps—discovery, dreaming, design, and destiny—often played out in a large-group meeting over two to three days and overseen by a trained change agent. Discovery sets out to identify what people think are the organization’s strengths. Employees recount times they felt the organization worked best or when they specifically felt most satisfied with their jobs. In dreaming, employees use information from the discovery phase to speculate on possible futures, such as what the organization will be like in five years. In design, participants find a common vision of how the organization will look in the future and agree on its unique qualities. For the fourth step, participants seek to define the organization’s destiny or how to fulfill their dream, and they typically write action plans and develop implementation strategies.