Organisational development and design roles

Organisation development and design (OD&D) specialists help organisations understand their current and desired future states, while taking a systemic approach to guiding the organisation forward.

What does an OD&D specialist do?

OD&D specialists help enable the success of organisation strategy by bringing together all parts of the organisation to make sure ‘the system’ operates at its best. They’ll look at both the ‘hard’ elements (structures, systems, policies and metrics) and ‘soft’ elements of an organisation (culture, values, behaviours and relationships), combining these into a wider, integrated ecosystem.

As an OD&D specialist, you’ll likely use systems thinking to support organisational performance and outcomes, and key concepts in behavioural science to help the organisation shape its culture.

Your typical activities

Here are some of the activities you can expect to be involved in as an OD&D specialist:

• Advising on organisational design and structures
• Organisational diagnostics
• Creating organisational development interventions
• Designing values and behavioural interventions
• Leading on culture-change programmes
• Advising on work design choices and approaches.

Types of roles in organisation development and design

Here is a shortlist of the types of job titles you might find in organisation development and design. As you can see, OD&D specialists are at all levels of experience and seniority:

• Organisational Development Officer
• Organisational Development Business Partner
• Organisation Design Specialist
• Head of Organisational Development
• Director of Organisational Development.