I was seeking to break into organisational development from training and development; I needed to begin with accurately defining what organisational development actually is. So I began undertaking some research into organisational development and I was surprised about the lack of definitive information regarding the term.

What I came up with after some research is organisational development is a planned, organisational-wide effort increasing organisational effectiveness and efficiency enabling the organisation to achieve strategic goals. When I was employed at a government training institution; the corporate world places training and development within the sphere of human resources. Organisational development is also linked to change management processes working together with frontline managers, middle managers and upper management.

This makes the human resources process infinitely more interesting – this is the natural procession from training and development. Now I am back employed in the private sector again, organisational development and the management of development programs is the next stage of evolution. Getting stuck in human resources was of no interest to me, I work in safety too, but I do not want to be attached to a human resources department that really does not have a safety focus, more of a compliance process. Embedding safety into organisational learning programs is more of interest to me.