Developing internal organization development consultants

This research project was designed to address the current void in the literature regarding developing organizational development skills and knowledge in internal personnel representing unions, management and support staff, who are undereducated and inexperienced in organization development (OD). The venue was a copper smelting and refining complex, which was implementing a socio-technical redesign and required support in the transition to the new design. The project describes the OD skills and knowledge required; the nominal level required of these skills; the training methodology employed to build skills to the nominal level, referred to as “Consulting University”; ananalysis of the effectiveness of the training intervention; and key learnings.