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Organisations continue to be challenged in the area of Talent Management. As members of organisations we are aware of the problem but may not have analysed it sufficiently to develop practical approaches to addressing it successfully. 
As organisations seek to engage consultants in the process of organisational development, one of the recurring themes and expectations is around the issue of organisational capacity building. This notion of transferring technology is a desirable one and needs to be understood and addressed in the interest of both consultants and organisations. Any entry into an organisation ought to make a real difference but the sustainability of the difference and the growth that it creates is of even greater importance. While the organisation has to take responsibility for ensuring that the growth and development continues, there is a corresponding responsibility on the part of the consultant to provide the framework, space, insight, support and encouragement for it to happen. Too often, consultants position themselves as the “sage on the stage” rather than the “guide on the side”. That posture is one of the expert consultant who provides expertise and information but leaves the organisation without the learning and the tools to continue the process. This short-sighted approach often results in the organisation having to recall the consultant repeatedly to do the same or similar work. In cases such as this, real development is not very evident or likely. Professional respect for the organisation and its people requires that this dependency approach be abandoned. In its place, process consulting is of much greater use to the organisation in terms of its continuing and sustainable development. This process consulting approach may take longer as people in the organisation are guided to discover their power to transform themselves and the organisation. The impact though, is that the organisation discovers and develops the power to examine itself, to critique the way it functions and shapes appropriate ways of achieving its strategic objectives. In its application of this approach, Odyssey Consultinc has developed and fine-tuned the concept of the Core Team. Essentially, this is a group of employees who function as counterparts to the consultants in an OD intervention. The group is identified based on a range of criteria determined by the consultants as appropriate to the intervention. On most occasions, the Core Team represents a diagonal slice of the organisation – all functions and all levels. The initial process of Core Team selection is one of the early steps in the process of helping the organisation to challenge itself and to discover its power to change. Team orientation sessions are designed to focus the team on its Purpose and its Products, to ensure that team members and the organisation understand why the team exists and what it is to deliver. Even more importantly, the teambuilding process helps team members to discover themselves and to establish the processes that will guide their functioning. This approach is consistent with the Odyssey 4P Team Model that addresses the People and Process dimensions of teams. This begins the process of dismantling “silo thinking” and prepares the organisation to utilise an organisation-wide systemic approach to understanding itself and addressing issues of growth and development. Having been selected and aligned to one another, to their function and to the Consultant, the Core Team is ready to execute its mandate. The experience, the effectiveness and the results of this approach we will explore in the next issue. L. Anthony Watkins is an accomplished Organisational Development Consultant. After majoring in Psychology at the University of Toronto he worked extensively in the fields of Social Pathology / Mental Health, Correctional Services and Psychiatric Forensic Assessment. On his return to Trinidad and Tobago, he worked as a Guidance Officer, tutored with the University of the West Indies School of Continuing Studies and was the National Coordinator for the Attitudinal Development Project of the Youth and Employment Partnership Programme (YTEPP). He is a founding Partner and Director of Toronto-based consulting firm Global Management Solutions Inc. As Principal of his company, ODYSSEY CONSULTinc, he has worked extensively across the region with major companies in the Finance, Energy, Service, Public and Manufacturing Sectors.
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