Organisational Development Glossary

Welcome to Predaptive's Organisational Development Glossary. Here you'll find definitions of terms regularly used (and mis-used) in organisational development, human resources and learning. It's growing and changing all the time and we welcome your contributions.

If you'd like us to add something please e-mail claudinem@predaptive.com.

A A A

Academy

Academies, often called Learning Academies are a dynamic way of gathering the total learning collateral and knowledge of an organisation into one place. Then classifying and cross referencing it, and finally making it easily available to every individual.  Proper Learning Academies are linked to an Organisation's vision and strategic goals.

Accelerated Learning

A method of learning developed by Georgi Lozanov which enables learners to accelerate the rate at which they take on board and retain information by creating a relaxed environment and presenting learning through a variety of sensory channels.  It encourages ‘whole brain learning’ incorporating visual, auditory and kinaesthetic reception.

A typical accelerated learning room will include brightly coloured materials, background music, and an open and relaxed layout.  The facilitator will aim for maximum participation and maintain a positive tone throughout, celebrating successes as they occur, providing role play opportunities and encouraging people to make connections to their experiences.

Accountability

Liability for delivery against objectives and for the consequences of actions and choices made.

Accredited Learning

The learning received is in some way attached to a professional or corporate body, which would validate that the candidate has not only completed the learning, but also reached a pre-determined standard of competence as well.  The accreditation could also connect to a recognised qualification.

Action Learning (Sets)

Action Learning Sets provide a forum for a small group of people to meet on a regular basis (often for a fixed period) and to use the rest of the group as peer tutors, coaches, or for just for mutual support. Sometimes used to (post) reinforce a common experience like a training programme. The set can form in different ways: members may draw up a contract for how they want the set to run, they may involve an external facilitator or invited speaker. 

Action Learning can be defined as a process in which a group of people come together more or less regularly to help each other to learn from their experience. Originally developed by Reg Revans.

Appetite

The degree to which an individual wants to progress their career and is prepared to commit themselves to do so. An example would be a preparedness to give up some personal time to learn new skills to enable them to do their job better.

Assessment Centre

An event which utilises a range of interventions to identify the degree to which prospective candidates display the competencies and attitudes required for appointment to a position.  Assessment centres require a pool of candidates.  Typically an assessment centre will include ability testing, case studies, group activities, interviews, presentations, psychometric testing, role plays, and written exercises.

Assessment centres differ from development centres in that they are designed to enable employment decision making rather than development.

Attitude

A mental predisposition to behave in a particular way when faced with a particular set of circumstances.  Attitudes are built and influenced by beliefs, values, experience and personal opinion.  Attitudes can persist even in the face of contrary evidence.

B B B

Balanced Scorecard

A system of assessing business performance based on 4 key drivers:

• Financial performance
• Customer knowledge
• Internal business processes
• Learning and growth

KAPLAN & NORTON developed the Balanced Scorecard because financial performance can only be used as a trailing indicator of past performance, integrating the three other areas highlights the need for current action.

Bandwidth

The intellectual capacity to absorb lots of new information and process this quickly.

Behaviour

The sum of a person’s varying responses to varying stimuli. 

Bench Strength

The reserve capability immediately available within the talent pool to take over critical roles within the organisation.  The term is often used in a succession planning context, having originally derived from American professional sports.

Best Practice

A way of doing something which is recognised as demonstrably superior to other known ways of completing the same activity.  A method can be defined as best practice by the person(s) completing the activity.

Bio Data

Biographical data concerning the person. A more detailed and broader view of  a person’s CV/Resume.

(Baby) Boomers

Loosely defined as people born between 1943 and 1960. Characterised in employment terms by their high sense of self worth and contribution, their commitment and concern for their health and secure future.

Business Critical Roles

Those roles within an organisation which are key to its medium to long term sustainability and success.

Business Performance

The measures of growth and return on investment, in line with strategy, as defined by shareholders.

C C C

Capability

The capacity to meet the requirements of the role to an acceptable standard with the required resources with appropriate training and support.

Coaching

A process of guided practice, where one person (often someone’s line manager) leads a dialogue with another person around a pre-determined agenda, the intention being to give greater self-awareness to the person being coached around their strengths and weaknesses and to increase motivation to change in appropriate ways. 

Competency

A combination of knowledge, skills and behaviour utilised to improve performance. BOYATZIS defines competencies as “characteristics that differentiate superior from average and poor performance… [the] motives, skills, aspects of self image or social role or body of knowledge”.

Consistent Many

A term used to describe the identified group of individuals (the ‘middle’ 65%) within the Predaptive Succession Planning framework who are in the majority of consistent performers and contributors. See also the Future Few, Possible Future and the Unacceptable Few.

Contribution

What somebody puts into the role and organisation, beyond the specific job requirement and in addition to their performance metrics. It is made up of Values, Appetite and Presence.

Credit Crunch

A short supply of cash to lend to businesses and consumers resulting in limited credit availability and /or credit available at high interest rates

Credit Squeeze

See credit crunch.

Critical Success Factors (CSF's)

The inputs or activities of a person’s role that are likely to make an impact on their Key Performance Indicators (outputs).

Culture

The accepted assumptions, beliefs, language, traditions, stories, symbols and values shared by people in the organisation or a sub set of the organisation. “The way we do things round here” SCHEIN.

D D D

(Employee) Development

A planned series of structured interventions over a period of time designed to improve the effectiveness of individual employees and the employee population as a whole.

Typical employee development programmes include a blend of interventions including CBT, coaching, e learning, projects, training and job rotation. See also: Management Development

Development Centres

An event which utilises a range of interventions to identify the degree to which employees display the competencies and attitudes required for future progression, and then create a personalised plan for the development.  Development centres require a pool of participants.  Typically a development centre will include ability testing, case studies, coaching, debrief sessions, group activities, interviews, presentations, psychometric testing, role plays, and written exercises.

Development centres differ from assessment centres in that they are designed to aid development rather than discriminate.

Development Plan

A document identifying training and development needs of a group, the activities and resources needed to address those needs and the agreed development outcomes to be achieved by agreed dates, ensuring the coherence of the group development and its alignment with the organisation’s objectives.

See also:  Personal Development Plan

Direct Entry

A planned, proactively managed placement of a high potential manager/individual into a pre-identified/created role, either as a promotion or as lateral placement for development purposes. Usually a closed recruitment process.

Distance Learning

Learning that takes place at a distance from the designer and presenter of the learning content.  Originally used to describe text driven ‘correspondence’ courses, the term now encompasses such learning routes as video, Computer Based Training (CBT) and e learning.  This type of learning rarely requires previous qualifications from the learner, but does demand self motivation and discipline.

E E E

E-Learning

Electronic Learning.  In its broadest sense this term can be used to describe any learning enabled by electronic means, however, it is commonly accepted to be learning that is delivered within a browser through the internet or intranet.  It offers the advantage of being accessible outside traditional training environments and time slots, and of being accessed at the learners own pace and style. 

See Structured Training's E-Learning.

Employee Development

A planned series of structured interventions over a period of time designed to improve the effectiveness of individual employees and the employee population as a whole.

Typical employee development programmes include a blend of interventions including CBT, coaching, e learning, projects, training and job rotation.

See Structured Training's Management Development.

Engaged Employee

Someone who freely gives their emotional commitment to creating mutual success

Empowerment

The organisation will  encourage its people to take on new things by creating the right cultural environment, laced with opportunities and supported by feedback and recognition. In addition, each individual will also demonstrate their desire for additional ownership by extending their roles’  potential (through pro-active actions not just  intentions), creating additional business impact. The combination of these two forces will generate a powerful personal and organisational growth capability.

Engagement

Freely giving emotional commitment to creating mutual success.

Exemplar

A model or framework, representing best practice, which can be used as a blueprint or role model and imitated to replicate success.

Exit Interview

After somebody has resigned, but before they leave, a formal interview is held with a manager at a more senior level (but never their line manager) to learn the real reason(s) why the person is leaving. The interview is not about convincing them stay but to have a constructive, objective discussion.

Exit Strategy

A term used for businesses exiting market sectors or locations.  It is now also applied to employees.  In an employee context it is the planned removal of an employee or employees taking into consideration the process of removal and replacement when necessary.

F F F

Fremium

A business model that works by offering basic services for free, while charging a premium for advanced or special features.

G G G

Generation X

Loosely defined as people born between 1961 and 1980 and also known as the 13th Generation (since the birth of the United States of America, though appropriate because they’re considered unlucky).  Characterised in employment terms by the need for constant feedback, variety, independence and an appropriate balance between work, family and social commitments. 

Generation Y

Loosely defined as people born between 1981 and 2000 and also known as Millennials, Generation E's or Nexters.  Characterised in employment terms by their high (unrealistic) expectations, sense of global environmental responsibility and openness to diversity.

(Baby Boom) Generation

Loosely defined as people born between 1943 and 1960. Characterised in employment terms by their high sense of self worth and contribution, their commitment and concern for their health and secure future.

H H H

High Potential

Demonstrably above average capacity for advancement.  Characterised by appropriate contribution, behaviour, intelligence, performance record and values.

I I I

Implicit Knowledge

Knowledge that exists within an individual which is not made available to others because the individual is either unable or unwilling (or a combination of both) to articulate their knowledge. This type of knowledge is often linked with experience and is often best transfered through coaching or through mentoring rather than formal learning events.

Induction

The process of introducing the organisation to a new employee and integrating them into the organisation, their team and their role. Induction is important for legal compliance, cultural fit, employee satisfaction, and retention.

Intervention

An overarching term for capturing all the different kinds of people development. Training, coaching, elearning, workshops, action learning sets etc. are all interventions.

J J J

Just-in Time Training

Training delivered at the point of need. E-Learning and On-line Academies are very effective at delivering this kind of intervention. i.e. You unexpectedly need to interview somebody tomorrow, using elearning you can refresh your skills and by talking to a topic champion (accessed through your Academy hub) you can talk it over with an expert, minutes before you will use these new skills.

Not to be confused with.....

Just-in Case Training

Training delivered at the point of interest. Still quite common i.e. Understanding how to read a balance sheet (for instance) you think would be useful. You go and obtain the required skills. However, you don't use them for three months so when it comes to actually doing it, you can't remember what you learnt awhile ago.

K K K

Key Performance Indicators (KPI's)

The important few measures used to judge peoples’ performance.

Knowledge

Information that has been processed by an individual through the filters of experience and values to create a platform for informing action.  Knowledge is therefore created by each individual rather than given or acquired.

“An ordered set of information in space and time about important notions, data, facts, axioms, laws, and inference rules related to a specified field of human experience, embedded in a given thought-framework (sometimes called paradigm).” ROSKA

L L L

Lateral Placement

A job move across the organisation/hierarchy usually associated with some kind of development plan for the individual.

Learning

The creation of new mental models that directly affect behaviour.  Learning is controlled by the learner, not the teacher.  It can only be confirmed as having taken place when observable changes in behaviour take place.

"Learning is any relatively permanent change in behaviour that occurs as a result of experience." ROBINNS

Liquidity

Liquidity is a measure of how easily and quickly any assets can be turned into cash.  If you have a pile of chocolate Santas you can quickly sell them for cash, although perhaps not at the price you’d hoped for.  If you have a two bedroom apartment in Gdansk, it may be harder and take longer to convert to cash.  A SIV may not have any cash value at all at the moment, but could still have a future value, so is illiquid.

LIBOR

London Inter Bank Offered Rate is the interest rates at which banks offer to lend unsecured funds to each other.  Traditionally this has been close to Bank Of England rates, however, a break down in trust between banks can drive it higher.

M M M

Management Development

A planned series of structured interventions over a period of time designed to improve the effectiveness of individual managers and the management population as a whole.

Typical management development programmes include a blend of interventions including 360° feedback, action learning, coaching, e learning, mentoring, projects, psychometric testing, training and job rotation.

Mentoring

A process where an experienced and usually well respected individual (mentor) guides another individual in their personal and professional development.  This is done in a confidential way, and the mentor does not always work in the same organisation.  The aim of mentoring is to help the individual to challenge their career in order to grow and develop.

Morale

The collective spirit of a group of employees demonstrated positively by confidence, commitment, co-operation and willingness to perform, including those which may fall outside an individual’s job role.

Motivation

The drive to perform.  Motivation can be internal or external:

• Internal motivation comes from the employee who wishes to gain mental reward such as achievement and pride
• External motivation is provided by the organisation through rewards such as pay and recognition

N N N

Neets

Not in employment education or training

Nexters

Loosely defined as people born between 1981 and 2000 and also known as Millennials, Generation E's or Generation Y’s.  Characterised in employment terms by their high (unrealistic) expectations, sense of global environmental responsibility and openness to diversity.

See also:  Boomers, Generation X

NINJA Loan

A loan made to someone with No Income, No Job or Assets.

The collective spirit of a group of employees demonstrated positively by confidence, commitment, co-operation and willingness to perform, including those which may fall outside an individual’s job role.

O O O

Organisational Development

The managed processes and activities that are introduced at organisational level to bring about the necessary changes to meet the business plan requirements (incremental or transformational).

Organisational Maturity

The degree to which an organisation has professionalised in terms of formalisation and reduced dependency on personality.  The degree of maturity is not directly proportional to either age or size of organisation.

Ownership

See accountability

P P P

Performance

Delivery against the expectations of a role.

Performance Management

The ongoing and iterative process, between manager and employee, of goal setting and review to ensure effective delivery against the expectations of a role.

See also:  Performance, Remedial Management, Performance Review

Performance Review

An investigation into each employee’s successes and failures over a fixed and predefined period against pre set objectives, the reasons for those successes and failures.  The review is attended by the employee and their line manager and is often combined with objective setting for the next period along with a personal development planning session in which development activities for the employee are agreed.

Personal Development Plan

A document identifying training and development needs of an individual, the activities and resources needed to address those needs and the agreed development outcomes to be achieved by agreed dates.

See also: Development Plan

Perspective

Seeing the bigger picture. Because of someone’s open mindedness linked to a curiosity about the business and industry they operate in they have a wider view so can make more insightful and better judged comments.

Point of View

A vision for the future of a role, department, product or organisation that is strongly held, clearly articulated and withstands informed challenge.

Potential

Latent Capability that can be developed further. Something to be positively exploited.

Pragmatic Approach

A deliberate decision to take an expedient, convenient or practical course of action in any situation which may differ from a best practice approach.

Presence

The characteristics such as posture, voice, clothes and style that an individual projects in a business context.

Process

A formalised way of organising work into a repeatable, measurable and consistant set of parameters.

Promotability

The degree to which an employee displays the appropriate presence, appetite and values. These drive contribution.  Behaviour, is closely linked to contribution, and with performance  will encourage promotion within the organisation now or in the future.

Promotion

A role change into a more senior, or larger or higher grade role.

Q Q Q

Quality

Quality is best achieved at the point of production not at the point of inspection. This means accountabilty and empowerment linked to effective process becomes critical.

A practical, working definition of quailty: meets customers requirements profitably.

Quantitative Easing

A method of increasing the money supply by Central Banks buying assests such as bonds and mortgage backed securities for cash freeing more liquidity wihtout physically printing more currency.

R R R

Remedial Management

The process, between manager and employee, assisted by Human Resources where appropriate, or managing underperformance through to an acceptable standard of performance, or to an exit strategy.

Retention

The degree to which the organisation keeps those employees which it would wish to keep in employment.  The true figure can be masked by including all employees in any calculation as this may include employees that the organisation wishes to exit.

Reward Strategy

The design and implementation of a process to recompense for desired behaviour and discourage undesirable behaviour, with the purpose of retaining and motivating high performing and high potential employees.  

Rotation

A pro-active and planned process of moving people into new roles (often into new functional/divisional areas)  to facilitate both organisational and personal development.

S S S

Sarbanes-Oxley

Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, a United States federal law which establishes higher standards for accounting, internal controls, disclosure and Corporate Board responsibility, along with increased penalties for non-compliance.

Scenario Planning

A military technique popularised by Shell in response to the 1970s oil crises. It looks into the business future and models possible scenarios (possibilities) and what the organisational response should be to each one. This creates not only solutions to possible future problems, but also increases organisations to think more flexibly.

Scope/Scale Matrix

A process for establishing the importance of a role within an organisation.

SIV

Structured Investment Vehicle – an investment that no-one understands.  At its most basic a fund which lends for the long term whilst borrowing in short term credit markets.

Skill

A developed capability to carry out a particular task or set of tasks effectively.  Skills are developed through practice and training.  Skills may require continual usage to be maintained at the optimal level, but can often be recovered at an acceptable level after a short period of re-use.

Strategic Imperative

What the business needs to do to achieve its vision.

Sub-Prime

A euphemism for lending to people with poor or no credit history and limited ability to pay back loans.  Previously considered to be  low risk as house price rises meant repossessed properties would be worth more than outstanding loans, however, this strategy relied on high asset price growth

Succession Planning

A proactive process for identifying and developing individuals within the organisation to promote into critical roles in the future.

T T T

Talent

Natural, acquired or developed ability or demonstrable intellectual capacity to develop ability to perform at an above average level.

Talent is demonstrated through the three elements of bandwidth, capability and perspective. It is Talent that drives performance.

Talent Management

A proactive process for identifying talented individuals, creating an environment for nurturing talented individuals, providing resources, and valuing talent within the organisation.

Talent Pool

A group of individuals identified by the organisation as having demonstrable talent.  This pool will provide the organisation with high potential individuals for succession, and as such will receive resources and management time and attention to ensure retention and development.

Training

Instruction in new or developing skills.

Transformational Leadership

Leadership that brings about a discontinuous change in the organisation through a compelling point of view and a value set which is accepted and valued by followers.

U U U

There are currently no entries for U. If you would like to contribute to the Organisational Development Glossary please e-mail lynnj@predaptive.com with your suggestions.

V V V

Values

An individual’s or organisation’s underlying principles which define their mental models and form a basis for decision making and behaviour.

Vision

A Vision is an aspirational, passionately held directional point of view that gives people sense of purpose. It might be expressed in 100 words or in a single line but its essence can be understood by everybody. A Vision is not a ‘motherhood and apple pie’, alliterative, totally inclusive statement made up of a dozen sub-clauses contained within one mangled sentence.

W W W

Workshop

Group based learning led by a facilitator.

X X X

X Generation

Loosely defined as people born between 1961 and 1980 and also known as the 13th Generation (since the birth of the United States of America, though appropriate because they’re considered unlucky).  Characterised in employment terms by the need for constant feedback, variety, independence and an appropriate balance between work, family and social commitments. 

See also: Nexters, Boomers

Y Y Y

Year End

An interesting time when organisations do strange things with HR budgets.

Young Turks

Ambitious, dynamic professionals in their 20s who challenge the status quo. Sometimes used pejoratively.

Z Z Z

Zeitgeist

Originally a German expression that means "the spirit (Geist) of the time (Zeit)". It denotes the intellectual and cultural climate of an era.

Increasingly used to label a current fashion or idea that has come to represent the 'spirit of the age'.

Organisational development and HR practice that deviates from the current Zeitgeist would be controversial. i.e. promoting the notion of working long hours by putting your family second for an organisation that didn't care about its workforce or its environment.

0-9

360° Feedback

A method of gaining structured feedback for an individual from themselves, their manager, any direct reports and other key stakeholders.

180° Feedback, 270° Feedback, and 540° Feedback are variations where feedback is sought from smaller or larger groups of stakeholders, either inside or outside the organisation.

ACRONYMS

We hope that you find our Resources Section useful and would be delighted for you to use any of the information contained within it in your own work. All that we ask is that you credit any references to Predaptive OD Ltd and, where appropriate, provide reciprocal links to our web site.

If you'd like to discuss any information which appears on our web site or would like to contribute to our Resources Section please contact:

Claudine McClean
T: +44 (0) 1789 734333
E: claudinem@predaptive.com