Title: Senior Organization Development Consultant
Close Date: When Filled
Company: Knowledge Learning Corporation
Location: Portland, Oregon

Responsibilities
SCOPE AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
The Sr. OD Consultant will be a key member of enterprise wide project teams focused on change management and implementation. He/she will focus on the people side of change – including changes to business processes, systems and technology, job roles and organization structures. The primary focus will be creating and implementing change management plans that minimize employee resistance and maximize employee engagement. The Sr. OD Consultant will work to drive faster adoption, greater utilization and higher proficiency on the changes impacting employees in the organization such that business results are achieved.
While the Sr. OD Consultant does not have supervisory responsibility, this person will have to work through many others in the organization to succeed. The Sr. OD Consultant will act as a coach for senior leaders and executives in helping them fulfill the role of change sponsor. The Sr. OD Consultant will also support project teams in integrating change management activities into their project plans. Finally, the Sr. OD Consultant may provide direct support and coaching to front-line managers and supervisors as they help their direct reports through transitions.

SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES:
• Apply a structured change management approach and methodology focusing on adoption, utilization and proficiency of the changes impacting employees.
• As a member of the project team, work with Project Management and Project Team Leads or Track Leads to integrate change management activities into the overall project plan.
• Develop a change management strategy based on a situational awareness of the details of the change and the groups being impacted by the change.
• Identify potential people related risks and anticipated points of resistance, and develop specific plans to mitigate or address the concerns.
• Work with the project team and business unit leaders to conduct readiness assessments, evaluate results and present findings to stakeholders in a logical and easy-to-understand manner.
• Work with corporate communications, training, HR and OD specialists in the formulation of particular plans and activities to support project implementation.
• Develop a set of strategic and tactical targeted change management plans – including communication plan, sponsor roadmap, coaching plan, training plan and resistance management plan.
• Obtain business leader support and involvement in the execution of the change management plan.
• Support the execution of plans by business leaders.
• Be an active and visible coach to business leaders in their role as change sponsors.
• Identify change management success metrics. Create and manage measurement systems to track adoption, utilization and proficiency of individual changes.
• Identify plan or people related resistance, performance gaps, and work to develop and implement corrective actions.
• Create reinforcement and reward mechanisms that encourage celebrations of success and sustainable results.
• Design and develop or source and deliver targeted change management training and execute using a variety of learning platforms.

Requirements
EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:
• Minimum 10 years working on significant business transformations involving re-engineered business processes and systems changes; must have held significant change leader roles in the past 5 years with proven success.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent work experience required
• A solid understanding of how people and organizations go through a change and the change process
• Experience and knowledge of change management principles, methodologies, and best practices
• Familiarity with project management approaches, tools and phases of the project lifecycle
• Exceptional communication skills – both written and verbal
• Excellent active listening skills
• Superior group process design and facilitation skills
• Problem solving and root cause identification skills
• Strong analytic and decision making abilities
• Must be a team player and able to work with and through others.
• Ability to influence and work with others at all levels of the organization and move toward a common vision or goal.
• Direct experience leading change efforts with large-scale organizational impact, preferably with some IT systems implementation experience.
• Previous HR leadership and responsibility with a distributed workforce.
• Familiarity with a variety of communications and collaboration tool technology
• Design and delivery of strategic HR training initiatives and programs


COMPETENCIES:
Business Acumen – Knows how business works; knowledgeable in current and possible future policies, practices, trends, and information affecting his/her business and organization; knows the competition; is aware of how strategies and tactics work in the marketplace.

Problem Solving – Uses rigorous logic and methods to solve difficult problems with effective solutions; probes all fruitful sources for answers; can see hidden problems; is excellent at honest analysis; looks beyond the obvious and doesn’t stop at the first answer.

Managerial Courage – Doesn’t hold back anything that needs to be said; provides current, direct, complete, and actionable positive and corrective feedback to others; lets people know where they stand; faces up to people problems on any person or situation (not including direct reports) quickly and directly; is not afraid to take negative action when necessary.

Organizational Agility – Knowledgeable about how organizations work; knows how to get things done both through formal channels and the informal networks; understands the origin and reasoning behind key policies, practices and procedures; understands the cultures of organizations.

Political Savvy – Can maneuver through complex political situations effectively and quietly; is sensitive to how people and organizations function; anticipates where the land mines are and plans his/her approach accordingly; views corporate politics as a necessary part of organizational life and works to adjust to that reality is a maze-bright person.

Presentation Skills – is effective in a variety of formal presentation settings: one-on-one, small and large groups, with peers, direct reports, and bosses; is effective both inside and outside the organization, on both cool data and hot and controversial topics; commands attention and can manage group process during the presentation; can change tactics midstream when something isn’t working.

Comfort Around Higher Management– Can deal comfortably with more senior managers; can present to more senior managers without undue tension and nervousness; understands how senior managers think and work can determine the best way to get things done with them by talking their language and responding to their needs; can craft approaches likely to be seen as appropriate and positive.

Interpersonal Savvy – Relates well to all kinds of people, up, down and sideways, inside and outside the organization; builds appropriate rapport; builds constructive and effective relationships; uses diplomacy and tact; can diffuse even high-tension situations comfortably.

Integrity and Trust – Is widely trusted; is seen as a direct, truthful individual, can present the unvarnished truth in an appropriate and helpful manner; keeps confidences; admit mistakes; doesn’t misrepresent him/herself for personal gain.

PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES:
Behavioral attributes essential for this role include strong integrity, ability to build trusting relationships with individuals and teams, straight-forwardness, and composure. As a change leader, the individual must be able to be proactive, demonstrate customer focus and be an advocate for the importance of managing change to gain better results. As a Learning & Development team member, the individual must be resourceful, have a demonstrated drive for results, be a quick study, make appropriate decisions – often on the fly, and be skilled at driving change.

TRAVEL: 40-50% travel required.

About the Organization
Knowledge Learning Corporation® (KLC) is the nation's leading private provider of early childhood and school-age education and care, serving more than 300,000 children in the United States. KLC has business lines that include the KinderCare Learning Centers, Knowledge Beginnings, and Children’s Creative Learning Center brands supporting early childhood education and care through approximately 1,900 community-based centers and more than 130 employer-sponsored sites; and KLC School Partnerships, a leading provider of pre-K through 12 supplemental educational solutions, operating more than 1700 programs nationwide. We invite you to consider joining the more than 40,000 professional employees who are dedicated to making a difference in the lives of children.

Salary and Benefits

How To Apply
Please submit all resumes by clicking on the following link:
https://knowledgelearning.tms.hrdepartment.com/

Please indicate to the employer that you saw this posting on the ASTD-Cascadia Chapter web site.