Systemic consulting for organizational health development: theory and practice

Abstract

The present chapter outlines the practical steps of a targeted organizational health development (OHD) process. It summarizes the theoretical background of capacity building (CB) for OHD of the previous chapter X and introduces principles of consulting based on systems theory as a useful practical approach to CB in organizations. It then shows how this theoretical background transfers into practice. The initiation phase includes contracting between the consultant/client system, developing a project architecture that specifies which perspective is involved in which phase of the project, and finally building competence of managers of the organization for going through the second phase of a participatory optimization/renewal process with their teams. This second phase builds on existing team structures and applies a common four-step project cycle of analysis, planning, implementation, and evaluation. For each of these steps of systemic consulting it is specified how it contributes to CB for OHD in organizations – supporting practical implementation and theory-driven evaluation of this approach.