Organization Development Process (ODP) Training was organised by Caritas India in Don Bosco Provincial House, Matunga, Mumbai for the Development Organization leaders (Regional Fora Directors, Diocesan Directors, Congregation Provincials and senior development workers.  This training was participated by 6 Regional Fora Directors, 28 Diocesan Directors & Assistant Directors, 4 Congregation heads and 7 lay Thematic Experts.  Mr Khilesh Chaturvedi was the facilitator.

The Module comprises of the overall understanding of What, Why and How of Organisational Development starting from Conceptual Clarity and Theoretical understanding leading to introspection and relating the learning with one’s own organisation and finally assessing one’s organisation development status and plan of action.  Some of the sub-topics dealt with include the Concept of OD, the Life cycle of an organization, Components of a developed organization, Models of a developed organization, Process of OD, Self-analysis by the participants on the current stage of their organization, Successful cases of OD, Challenges and Pitfalls of OD process etc.

Fr. Paul Moonjely in his inaugural speech highlighted why we are organizing this Module on the “Organisation Development Process” under Caritas Institute for Development Action and Learning (CIDAL).  COVID pandemic and the resulting economic meltdown coupled with changes in legislation have indeed made us reflect, redefine, reimagine and reimage the GOAL of our organisation, in the light of three “C” ‘COVID, Climate and Conflict’ to remain relevant to the context and needs of the communities.  Hence, we initiated this training module with the intention of providing an opportunity for the Local partner’s directors so that they are informed and skilled to self-assess themselves/organizations and work towards strengthening their organisations and remain relevant for the community they work within their respective areas of work. In his message he quoted Pope Francis’ words “Time is greater than space” and that Time can do so much.   When the times are drastically changing creating new normal, the kind of challenges imposed on us due to COVID, Conflict and Legislation change, we need to remain prepared to be able to face the challenges by understanding and adapting or finding an alternative to the new context and sustain the effort for greater impact and positive changes. He thanked and encouraged everyone to make the most of the opportunity

The three-day training gave great insights to all the participants and that 95 % of the participants expressed their happiness on the quality of content, approaches, facilitation style, duration, and logistics of the training. The feedback received from the participants was very encouraging and many of the directors expressed that they have much taken away from the training including their individual plan of action that they have reflected at the end of the training.

What is most satisfying is the open sharing from a good number of participants with very honest self-critiquing of their organisation currently and how they visualized their organization in future and what they would do to realize that dream? Some of them expressed that their organisation needs complete revamping and a few others shared that their organisations are following certain components and aspects towards developed organization but needs to strengthen certain aspects and areas to become a developed organisation and become more relevant for their existence.