Course Objectives
Over the years, we have felt a strong need for building internal leadership capacities to design organizations to achieve their purpose. This includes:- Developing the capability to identify and sense organizational issues and challenges
- Collaboratively design appropriate organizational change strategies
- Collectively implement and sustain the change successfully
- Creating an empowering and engaging work environment.
Course Outcomes
This one-year program, therefore, offers the opportunity for organizations to nominate two members from the leadership/ core team as OD&D Fellows who will - Reflect on and develop effective strategies to be impactful, empathetic and empowering organizational leaders.
- Learn to create safe, inclusive spaces in their organization for dialogue, ideation and experimentation.
- Experience the designing and facilitation of participatory OD approaches and methods.
- Learn to collectively identify the organization’s core strengths, belief systems and cultural values and potential for growth and sustainability.
- Develop the organizational capabilities to identify needs and challenges.
- Build the organization’s capacity to design structures, processes and strategies to meet organizational needs.
- Participate in a face to face OD workshop and virtual sessions on OD&D.
- Benefit from personalized leadership mentoring and coaching.
- Participate in a virtual Community of Practice (Learning Circles) and build strong relationships with other OD&D Fellows, practitioners and other members of the CoP for continuous support and learning.
- Have access to OD&D case-studies, tools, frameworks, and other materials.
Pre-requisites for organizations
- Organizations should have openness to learn, experiment and collaborate to make this partnership meaningful for everyone within the organization and the OD&D CoP.
- Organizations should be able to commit to being a part of the OD&D journey for the whole year. This commitment would mean being ready to: Identify two (2) members in the organization who could be OD&D Fellows and support them in every way possible (including re-thinking and re-designing their job roles) to give them sufficient bandwidth to participate in the OD&D Fellowship journey.
Pre-requisites for Fellows nominated by organizations
The nominated members should:- Have an understanding and perspective of the entire organization
- Be in leadership roles within the organization
- Have sufficient agency within the organization to undertake change processes necessary to solve organizational issues
- Be reasonably proficient in English, since the readings and the conversations are typically in English, as we cater to organizations and Fellows from across the country
- Be willing to learn and be curious to explore OD&D tools and methods
- Be able to and attend the face to face workshop in Bengaluru, attend the online learning sessions and the COP sessions.
- Be able to and attend the one on one mentoring and coaching conversations.
- We are expecting participants to commit 5 to 6 hours a week for the fellowship program.
Course Details
- To support the nominated OD Fellows through this process, each organisation (two internal team members) will be paired with another buddy fellow to work with them throughout the year.
- The program will kickstart with a 5 days in-person workshop in Bengaluru
- The year-long OD journey broadly includes:
- Self-reflection and personal leadership development;
- Building effective and collaborative relationships among peer fellows
- Preparing the organization for change;
- Identifying organizational challenges and designing for them in collaboration with external fellow and other organizational team members;
- Reflecting on solutions and modifying them as per need.
Course Facilitator
Prof. Sujatha Rao
Prof. Sujatha Rao is a Founder-Director of Viridus Social Impact Solutions. Sujatha works in the areas of education, technology and organization development. Over the last two decades, her interest and research has been in studying how social purpose organizations can be purposefully designed in ways that empower human agency and enhance organizational impact. She has worked in and consulted widely in the areas of organizational development, leadership development and in vocational and school education across private, not-for-profit and public sectors both in India and overseas.
Sujatha has taught at University of Western Sydney, University of Sydney, Azim Premji University, and Indian School of Development Management (ISDM). She holds a Postgraduate Degree in Personnel Management and Industrial Relations from XLRI Jamshedpur, and a PhD in Organization Studies from University of Sydney.
Testimonials
Niramaya Lamdade, Manager Organizational Development and Capacity Building, Gram Urja, Maharashtra.
For me, the OD journey has been extremely valuable, not only in addressing organizational challenges but also in my own development as a leader. One of the most important shifts for me has been understanding the difference between pushing decisions and enabling teams to take ownership of decisions and collective actions. This has changed the way I engage with my team and approach leadership.
The tools and frameworks introduced during this journey have been very practical. They are not just useful for solving immediate problems, but also powerful in creating long-term, sustainable change within the organization. In our day-to-day work, we often get stuck in operations and rarely take time for reflection. This journey has helped me slow down, think deeply, and reflect more intentionally, something that has significantly contributed to my growth. I have also experienced that when we trust the OD process and apply the tools consistently, it not only improves systems and processes but also brings a shift in behaviors and mindset.
Overall, this journey has strengthened both my leadership approach and my ability to contribute to meaningful organizational development.
Vasudha, Director, Mera Gaon Meri Dunia, Madhya Pradesh
"The major takeaway for me has been that it's not me (being in a leadership position) knows the best what is happening in my organisation. This mere awareness have made me more open to involve my teammates more meaningfully in the process of design of various org level structures and solutions.
Another important takeaway has been the lens of design. Many challenges seem tricky and sticky and because orgs hardly discuss with peers, they don't get to know that they are highly common. A simple idea to see and restructure them through a design lens has creates a lot of hope to rework things.
Abhishek Sharma, Co-founder, PRAYOG, Bihar
The course structure is very effective as it has taken me into depth of org design and development step by step without rushing. From the beginning the emphasis on sharing and practicing helped internalise the concepts. It has been a journey to self awareness which has been a big unlock for me.
Bibhu Prasad Sahu, Secretary and CEO, Youth for Social Development (YSD), Odisha
This OD journey has helped us strengthen internal clarity, team alignment, and leadership capacity. The reflective spaces and practical tools improved how we collaborate and make decisions. For example, we started creating more inclusive planning processes where team members contribute to decisions, leading to better ownership and outcomes. This journey has added value by building our confidence to experiment, adapt, and grow as a resilient grassroots organisation while staying deeply connected to community realities.
