Developing an Effective High Commitment, High Performance Organization Through Honest, Collective and Public Conversations

The field of organization development is fragmented and lacks a coherent and integrated theory and method for developing an effective organization. A 30-year action research program led to the development and evaluation of the Strategic Fitness Process (SFP). SFP is a structured leadership platform by which senior leadership teams can have a safe and productive honest, collective, and public conversation (nothing is hidden) with key people below them. The conversation is designed to learn about the enterprise’s capability to successfully achieve their leadership team’s espoused purpose, strategy, and cultural values for the enterprise. The intervention has been applied in hundreds of organizations around the globe. The research has identified a syndrome of seven silent barriers to effectiveness and a dynamic theory of organizational effectiveness. Empirical evidence from the 20-year study demonstrates that SFP always enables truth to speak to power safely and productively (no mistakes of defensiveness or blaming. The honest conversation develops a partnership between leaders and led. That partnership leads to higher trust and commitment by all to transform how the enterprise is organized, managed, and led. Improvements in effectiveness, trust, commitment, and performance occur. The amount of change depends on senior teams transforming silent barriers into strengths and on recycling of SFP periodically. In effect SFP becomes and ongoing strategic governance and learning process for continuous improvement in effectiveness of the organization and its leaders.