Sections of this topic
Open Systems Planning for Managing Change
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Much of the content
of this topic came from this book: 
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The focus of this topic is to acquaint the reader with the broad principles
and approaches in guiding successful change in an organization, including whether
it is a team, departmental unit or the overall organization.
The information in those topics is not sufficient to develop competencies
in guiding successful significant change. Those competencies comes from extensive
experience in applying those types of information.
NOTE: Recently, there have emerged many opinions that Organization
Development and change management are two somewhat different disciplines. The
opinions are that Organization Development is focused primarily on changing
a whole system, for example, a team, departmental unit or organization, while
change management is focused on the necessary changes among people in the organization
in order to accomplish the overall change in the organization. However, the
phrase “change management” is still often associated with the nature
of activities to improve an organization, rather than the name of a field or
discipline. So this section in this topic in the Library considers change management
to be an aspect of Organization Development.
Sections of This Topic Include
First, What is a System?
Then, What is an Open System?
So, What is Open Systems Planning?
Also See These Closely Related Topics
Learn More in the Library’s Blogs Related to Organizational Change
In addition to the articles on this current page, see the following blogs which
have posts related to Organizational Change. Scan down the blog’s page to see
various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the sidebar
of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the blog.
Library’s
Consulting and Organizational Development Blog
Library’s
Leadership Blog
Library’s
Supervision Blog
First, What is a System?
One of the biggest breakthroughs in how we understand and guide change in organizations
is systems theory and systems thinking. To understand how they are used in organizations,
we first must understand a system. Many of us have an intuitive understanding
of the term. However, we need to make the understanding explicit in order to
use systems thinking and systems tools in organizations.
Simply put, a system is an organized collection of parts (or subsystems) that
are highly integrated to accomplish an overall goal. The system has various
inputs, which go through certain processes to produce certain outputs, which
together, accomplish the overall desired goal for the system. So a system is
usually made up of many smaller systems, or subsystems. For example, an organization
is made up of many administrative and management functions, products, services,
groups and individuals. If one part of the system is changed, the nature of
the overall system is often changed, as well — by definition then, the system
is systemic, meaning relating to, or affecting, the entire system. (This is
not to be confused with systematic, which can mean merely that something is
methodological. Thus, methodological thinking — systematic thinking — does
not necessarily mean systems thinking.)
Then, What is an Open System?
An open system is a system that regularly exchanges feedback with its external
environment. Open systems are systems, of course, so inputs, processes, outputs,
goals, assessment and evaluation, and learning are all important. Examples in
this topic are social systems, such as teams and organizations. Aspects that
are critically important to open systems include the boundaries, external environment
and equifinality. Healthy open systems continuously exchange feedback with their
environments, analyze that feedback, adjust internal systems as needed to achieve
the system’s goals, and then transmit necessary information back out to
the environment.
This is in contrast to a closed system in which the system does not interact
with its external environment. Employees in a closed organization have no interactions
with others outside the organization. Closed organization systems often fail
because they get no diversity of perspectives and opinions from outside the
organization, including from those that the organization is intended to serve.
Consequently, creativity and innovation tends to decrease over time. Those organizations
tend to stagnate.
So, What is Open Systems Planning?
Open systems planning is a type of strategic change activity (referred to as
a type of intervention) by the field of Organization Development. Cummings and
Worley, in their book Organization Development and Change (Fifth Edition,
p. 171), define open systems planning as “This change method helps organizations
and departments to systematically assess their environmental relationships and
to plan for improvements interactions. It is intended to help organizations
to become more active in relating to their environments.”
In open systems planning, the organization closely examines the external environment,
for example, political, economic, societal and technological influences on the
organization. That also includes clarifying expectations and influences from
stakeholders, for example, customers, collaborators and suppliers. It is critical
that the understanding of the external environment as very accurate.
Then it is useful to articulate a vision for how the organization can best
operate to take advantage of opportunities and ward of threats based on that
external information. Then the organization identifies strategies and actions
to best align itself to achieve that vision. It is critical that key personnel
in the organization have a common perception of the external information, the
vision for alignment, and the actions needed to make that alignment.
One of the best tools for starting open systems planning is to do a logic model
of the organizational system. See the diagram in this document:
What is an Open
System?
Also See These Closely Related Topics
Guidelines,
Methods and Resources for Organizational Change Agents
Overview
of the Field of Organization Development
Competencies
and Resources for Organizational Change Agents
All About
Strategic Planning
Additional Library Resources in the Category of Organizational
Change and Development
