Vernalis

In an increasingly complex, competitive environment, organizations are confronted with pressures calling for increased effectiveness levels. Along with this is an offering of innumerable "recipes" which stake a claim to take organizations out of their current state and place them on the growth path. A real problem facing managers is that often they do not know what they are looking for. All that they know is that something is not right. Thus they sense that things could be better without having the tools to translate their vague feelings into concrete action steps. In their anxiety organizations often jump into the action mode by choosing one or more of the above recipes. Most of these recipes are piece meal; they do not take an integrated view of the organization. Consequently, efforts at bringing about change often fail to bear fruit. It could also happen that the organisation may have prematurely reached a conclusion on what it should do without preceding the effort with a broad based diagnosis. A third reason for launching a diagnostic exercise through involvement of an external consultant pertains to the extent to which the organization culture enables real issues and concerns to be surfaced. In a relatively closed system, employees may experience considerable hesitation to voice what they classify as "undiscussables". Consequently, senior management remains isolated from the real issues impacting performance. In such cases it makes sense to plan an intervention with an external credible source who would be in a position to skillfully draw out all pertinent aspects vital to the diagnostic effort.

A critical success factor for any change or organization improvement effort is to correctly diagnose its state and more importantly establish starting points and priorities for the change exercise which would provide it the maximum leverage. A second important aspect is to build a shared understanding of the diagnostic process as well as its findings. This greatly enhances the sense of ownership of persons at various levels to support the change process.

The diagnosis was conducted in a compact manner largely relying on background material study and series of individual interviews with the Senior Management team including the Managing Director.

Our LOS on Diagnosis enables organizations to first define diagnostic steps leading to a better understanding of the core problem / issue which in turn will lead to an outlining of concrete action steps. The starting point for this diagnostic effort is a strong intent on part of a key stakeholder of the system to improve the way things are going. The scope of this diagnostic effort varies from a quick dip stick to a comprehensive effort covering wider parameters to an on-going diagnostic exercise.

The Vernalis approach rests solidly on joint diagnosis of the organisation's strengths and weaknesses and opportunities for improvement. Underlying this approach is a strong belief that problems will stay solved longer and be solved more effectively if the organization solves its own problems. The consulting role is to facilitate this clarity by evolving appropriate frameworks, posing questions, challenging assumptions, offering new and challenging alternatives etc.

Towards this end, Vernalis deploys a number of tools to suit particular contexts. These tools comprise:

		Background information on the system through secondary sources

		Individual interviews with key roles - within the system and across interfaces

		Focus group interactions

		Surveys to collect data on predefined parameters

		Workshops to feed preliminary data, clarify, identify patterns and root causes and evolve alternative options.

The consulting effort culminates in a report which consolidates the learning's from multiple sources, crystallizes the core issues and presents options. While this documentation is undertaken by Vernalis, the insights have been transferred to key stakeholders in the system to carry through the planned change process.