About OPD
Organization Planning & Design, Inc. specializes in organizational architecture and the integration of strategy, design and continuous improvement. We assist client organizations in the planning and design of important business processes -- developing strategy, designing products and services, making and supplying products, and creating demand. We also assist in the design of such enabling processes as performance management and managing organizational knowledge.
Paul Gustavson founded Organization Planning & Design, Inc. in 1984. We are in the business of helping our clients achieve their desired outcomes. Over the years, we have been privileged to work with clients who have been recognized nationally for innovative organizational design. The Veteran's Administration, for example, was the first winner of the Al Gore Hammer Award for reinventing government. Colgate's Hill's Pet Nutrition facility in Richmond, Indiana has won many national awards as a start-up plant for innovative work design. And several of our clients, including I/N Tek, American Transtech, and AT&T Credit Crop. have been featured on Work in America's national tour of outstanding organizations.
OPD's work has been featured in several periodicals, including Business Week, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Fortune magazine. Our work has also been featured in Peter Senge's The Fifth Discipline Handbook, Michael Hammer's Reengineering the Corporation, Robert Mile's Corporate Comeback, Katzenbach & Smith's The Wisdom of Teams and Ned Herrmann's The Whole Brain Business Book.
Recent News
Picking Up Leadership’s Five Smooth Stones
On October 8, 2009 Mr. Paul Gustavson of Organization Planning and Design, Inc. presented “Leadership’s Five Smooth Stones” to the Salt Lake Chapter of the BYU Management Society. Mr. Gustavson founded his company in 1984 and has since worked with clients like American Express, Bristol Myers Squibb, GE and Xerox. He has consulted with BYU football head coach Bronco Mendenhall since he was named Head Coach 5 years ago. [ full article ]
Recent News
One of your favorite expressions regarding organizational change is “capturing the hearts and minds” of the people. How can you capture the heart and minds of each person in a company?
Winning hearts and minds come from a connection with the customer. The challenge is helping each individual understand how they are unique and how they contribute to the organization’s uniqueness. You have to connect your people with the value of what they provide for your customer.
Starbucks assigns their mid-level managers and above to open a Starbucks outlet with a store manager at least once a month. That means getting up at 4 a.m. and going down to meet the manager and help open that store.
If you can connect people to the actual value they provide the customer, their perspective changes. Now, when you’ve got all these supervisors at Starbucks sitting in a meeting, they are connected to the customer and they think differently—they’re more creative and eager to help the customer. [ full article ]
Article copyrighted by Chevron U.S.A. Inc. and used with permission.
Recent News
The Bronco Way
“I feel that I’ve been a good defensive coordinator,” Gustavson remembers Mendenhall saying over the phone, “but I’ve never been a head football coach. I want to be a great head football coach, and I understand that you can help me.”
The two proved to be a perfect match. Gustavson was a wellspring of ideas, and Mendenhall was a model student. Regularly flying to Utah to meet with the coach, Gustavson would present ideas and leave articles and books on management. By the time Gustavson would return, Mendenhall would not only have underlined and scribbled notes all over the texts but also have taught the principles to his assistant coaches and built team activities around them.
“He’s a master learner,” says Gustavson of Mendenhall, who is now a subscriber to the Harvard Business Review. “He reads, he underlines, he ponders, he prays about it.” [ full article ]
"Of all the experiences I've had as a head coach, what I've learned from Paul, and how it's helped me grow as a person, as a leader, as a manager, is the most significant experience to date.
"Every time I meet with him, it's directly applicable to helping this football team win. My job is to apply it, but he's a wonderful teacher, and as a new football coach, with so many things to manage, I find I'm in an uncharted territory. He's given me a database leadership that's been proven in the most successful companies in the world. Why not apply it to this one?" [ full article ]
"Mendenhall has sought counsel from inside and outside. He's tapped in to traditional BYU sources and invited advice from professional organizational behavioral scientists including Paul Gustavson, a former football player who's San Jose-based Organization Planning and Design, Inc., has serviced the likes of National Semiconductor, the Veterans Administration, AT&T Credit Corp and NASA." [ full article ]
"Many of Mendenhall's ideas have come from Silicon Valley management consultant Paul Gustavson, a former player who offered his services when Mendenhall got the job. Others he draws from the church structure itself." [ full article ]
Mendenhall's Cougars are on a mission at Brigham Young
Eyes On Performance
"Last, although never least, both of us sincerely value the contributions our colleague Paul Gustavson has made to us and to this book."
The NEW Book Seeing Is Believing by Stewart Liff and Pamela A. Posey features:
- Visual strategies for organizations
- Work done by Paul Gustavson
- Application of the OSD Model (pages 56-58)
Contact Information
Organization Planning & Design, Inc.
20751 Scenic Vista Court
San Jose, CA 95120Tel: 408-997-6019
Fax: 408-997-9529Email: Paul Gustavson
To report a problem with or make a change to the web site: Tommy
Our Team
Paul W. Gustavson, M.O.B.
Paul is a leading organizational design architect specializing in strategy making, the design of high performance work systems, change management and knowledge management. In the early 70's, he began an in-depth study of high performance teams and the systemic design of high commitment work systems...[more]
Shane R. Cragun, M.B.A.
Shane has particular expertise in leading organizational transformation projects. He diligently works with clients to deliver extraordinary business results through changes in organizational focus, process and systems design, structural realignment, and culture...[more]
R. Kendall Lyman, M.B.A.
Kendall has expertise in managing large-scale organization change projects, facilitating strategic planning sessions with senior leadership groups, managing teams to diagnose competitive positions and organizational issues, reengineering key business processes and functions, and coaching executives about personal and organizational effectiveness...[more]
Kyle Smith, M.B.A.
Kyle founded RedWind in September 1999. He has 20 years experience in business planning, procurement, accounting, and administrative work systems. His major area of focus is in the redesign, development and management of high performance work systems for tribal, manufacturing, government and service sectors. He has led and facilitated multiple teams in organizational redesign, business process redesign, and project implementation, including the installation of enterprise-wide information systems and shared service organizations...[more]
Mark Rhodes, Ph.D.
Mark's expertise spans business strategy, strategic decision making, and organizational design and change management. His consulting work includes advising leaders and teams on the design of innovative work systems, as well as the development and implementation of organizational measurement systems. His experience spans service, manufacturing, government, and tribal sectors...[more]
William M. Snyder, Ph.D.
William M. Snyder is an internationally known expert in the fields of Knowledge Management, specializing in building Communities of Practice (CoP's) to enable members of large organizations extend learning across organizational boundaries. Bill is the founder of Social Capital Group, a research-consulting group that helps civic leaders organize community-based approaches to social and economic development. He is a co-founder (with Etienne Wenger) of CPsquare, a cross-organizational, cross-sector community of practice on communities of practice...[more]
Carlene Reinhart, Ed.D.
Carlene joined OPD in 1992. She has over 25 years experience in the design of learning and performance support systems, performance consulting, the development of performance and competency models, and helping to link performance to their strategic goals. Carlene came to OPD after 14 years with Xerox Corporation where she managed both US and international training support organizations...[more]
Alyson Von Feldt
Alyson has worked on organizational designs in both the profit and non-project sectors for such enterprises as Colgate-Palmolive, AT&T Capital, National Semiconductor, the Veterans' Administration, MidAmerican Energy, Hallmark, BP, People to People, and the Cherokee Nation. She specializes in organizational design. She also writes and customizes design materials for individual organizations. She has a master's in organizational behavior...[more]
Kris Anne Gustavson
Kris Anne specializes in teaching leaders and members of organizations how to recognize and build on their learning preferences. She taught all the new members and leaders of the I/N Tek (Inland Steel & Nippon Steel joint venture) and Colgate-Palmolive's Hill's Richmond plant about how to capitalize on their learning capabilities. Kris Anne has been with the firm since 1984...[more]
