The Project
There are different ways to learn about how organizational sustainability plays out in real life. We can do observational research, study cases, or we can take more direct action in a real organization, intended to support some desired change. In class we have already done some analysis on real life cases, and have covered a lot of conceptual knowledge on organizational sustainability as well, both in the lectures and in the readings. The belief of Kurt Lewin os “[i]f you want truly to understand something, try to change it.” As such in this class included a group action-learning consultancy intended to help particular organizations ‘make sense’ out of some aspect of their organizational sustainability, while the class participants (and they) intentionally reflect and learn from experience in an action-research process.
Each student group has approximately a two-month time frame in which to identify a local organization, carry out meetings, review documents and prepare their report. You are encouraged to identify an area of concern that is meaningful to the organization, while at the same time feasible for the team, given their particular talents and areas of organizational sustainability and process knowledge. The particular focus is negotiated between your group and the organization, but regardless of the focus, as a general principle students are advised to keep in mind that oftentimes simple and less is better than complex and more.
The purpose of this group consultancy is to carry out an action-research process to diagnose a specific organizational sustainability ‘area of concern’ of a local organization and offer recommendations on how to improve specific processes or systems within that area of concern. An area of concern is simply any specific organizational sustainability theme or process (e.g. strategic relevance and alignment, downward accountability, program or project design and analysis, marketing, fundraising, budgeting, cash flow, etc.) that an organization feels could benefit from deep analysis and action to improve the problematic issues in the area of concern3. The diagnostic and recommendations are presented in a well-written report, a short presentation to the client, and an in-class presentation of key findings and lessons learned.
Each student group has approximately a two-month time frame in which to identify a local organization, carry out meetings, review documents and prepare their report. You are encouraged to identify an area of concern that is meaningful to the organization, while at the same time feasible for the team, given their particular talents and areas of organizational sustainability and process knowledge. The particular focus is negotiated between your group and the organization, but regardless of the focus, as a general principle students are advised to keep in mind that oftentimes simple and less is better than complex and more.
The purpose of this group consultancy is to carry out an action-research process to diagnose a specific organizational sustainability ‘area of concern’ of a local organization and offer recommendations on how to improve specific processes or systems within that area of concern. An area of concern is simply any specific organizational sustainability theme or process (e.g. strategic relevance and alignment, downward accountability, program or project design and analysis, marketing, fundraising, budgeting, cash flow, etc.) that an organization feels could benefit from deep analysis and action to improve the problematic issues in the area of concern3. The diagnostic and recommendations are presented in a well-written report, a short presentation to the client, and an in-class presentation of key findings and lessons learned.