A631.7.4.RB - Future of OD

Together, MSLD 630 and MSLD 631 provide an overview of Organizational Development (OD). The courses present an OD view of managing change and organizational transformation. In this final chapter of your textbook, Brown presents two opposing ideas: OD is viewed by some as a rapidly changing field keeping up with the times and by others as a fad that will become irrelevant. Given what you have learned over the past two courses, what do you see as the future of the OD discipline? What do I see as the future of OD discipline? Based on what I have learned over the past two courses and my 20 plus years experience with high powered players in the defense and commercial aerospace industry, I see OD as a rapidly changing field keeping up with the times. For example, Lockheed Martin and Boeing are both big OD users practitioners along with being business industry leaders. Lockheed Martin uses an OD process is known as LM21 Operating Excellence (Lockheed Martin 21st Century) for process, lean manufacturing and six sigma. LM trains and certifies black belts and master black belts in process tools: teams, facilitation, problem-solving, lean manufacturing, six sigma, root cause analysis, value stream mapping, etc. These "process experts and consultants" lead, coach and mentor teams in these tools for productivity, quality, supply chain constraints, bottlenecks and inefficiencies. The Pentagon, Department of Defense and American taxpayer focus is on "affordability" and "producibility" process improvements which in turn lower the cost of the product and service. (Lockheed Martin, 2014) Boeing uses an OD process known as "Working Together" promoting one team working together. This is also a strategy in the vision. There are many self-directed and high-performance employee-involvement teams (EIT's) in engineering, supply chain, manufacturing etc that focus on productivity, quality and supply chain issues. Additional tools and processes include: lean manufacturing, kaizen, value stream mapping, root cause analysis, etc. Today airline customers are faced with cost and operating issues and want an affordable high quality product and service. Customer orders and build assembly rates are expanding due to the customer need for new aircraft over the next twenty years. In addition, competition especially from European Airbus is stiff. The Boeing and Airbus rivalry is the biggest in the business world. (Boeing, 2014) I am actively involved in both the LM21 and "Working Together" philosophies since 2002. I was a certified LM21 Black Belt during my career at Lockheed Martin. Presently, I am working on kaizen certification. The OD tools and processes that I use and apply focus on change from the operating environment both internal and external. Build rates are growing and expanding. New programs such as the 777X are being introduced. New plants and facilities are being built. New and advanced technologies such as composite wing are being introduced. Customer requirements are changing. Teams are being introduced in all organizational areas to become high-performance and self-directed. To survive in the 21st century there is a motto: "Nothing endures but change." References Boeing (2014). [On-Line] Available http://www.boeing.com/boeing/ Lockheed Martin (2014). [On-Line] Available http://www.lockheedmartin.com/