The creation of a fast track, large-group intervention method: A case study

Abstract

This article reports the testing of a fast track, large-group intervention method, designed to initiate a change process of a Portuguese SME in the IT sector, aiming at increasing the proactivity of its employees. Based on previous work, mixing third generation large-group organizational change methods, classical Organizational Development (OD) approaches, and an adapted version of Creative Problem-Solving (CPS) protocol, the presentation of the case includes an extended diagnosis, the preparation and execution of the company meeting, and the beginning of the implementation of innovation projects. The company meeting was designed to last for just four hours, instead of the two to four days of the present methods. The diagnosis, made in close collaboration with management, includes the results of more than 30 interviews conducted with internal and external stakeholders, and a small-world analysis technique to determine the existing communication networks, together with possible clusters and brokers. Furthermore, using a content analysis, success stories were collected in order to clarify the strong points for a future organizational culture. The results support the effectiveness of the selected methodology in establishing innovation projects, involving the entire organization, and clarified desirable characteristics for the improvement of the present intervention method, adapted to Portuguese companies. The analysis of the success stories helped to determine the strengths of a future organizational culture, while the use of measures of smallworld networks allowed to analyze the existing informal organization, and the way knowledge flows out of the necessary tension between clustering and bridging, necessary for creative benefits. Although this study does not include the entire completion of the projects, due to unpredicted company emergencies, it provides a solid basis for application in future interventions, and to initiate another line of investigation, related with the preparation of team leaders as group facilitators