People Skills: Building Analytics Decision Models That Managers Use—A Change Management Perspective

Abstract

This is another in a series of articles about some of the most effective models, methods, and processes of organization development (OD), also known as change management, a discipline that offers much to professionals intent on solving real-world problems. Because it is based on a systemic view of organizations, OD includes the whole universe of fuzzy people issues that increasingly determine the success or failure of efforts to implement otherwise flawless technical solutions. This article examines the increasingly important issue of how to develop prescriptive analytical models, particularly decision support models, that managers will use; suggests that classic operations research and management science model-building principles developed by John Little in the 1960s and 1970s are still applicable today; and examines why they work, based on fundamental principles of OD/change management developed by Kurt Lewin.