In Development: Warzynski named director of OOD

Robert Nesmith
Communications & Marketing

Executive Vice President of Administration and Finance Steven Swant has named Chester “Chet” Warzynski executive director of the Office of Organizational Development (OOD), effective July 20.

	Chester "Chet" Warzynski

As executive director, Warzynski is responsible for the office’s career mentoring and support, consulting services, training, leadership services and strategic planning support.
Warzynski most recently served as director of Organizational Development Services at Cornell University. Part of the Division of Human Resources, the unit works to deliver professional development and support faculty and staff and their departments.

His office served both academic and administrative units by providing strategic planning, organizational development, leadership development, performance management, professional development and career services.

“OOD [organizational development] looks at the organization as a system of interrelated components consisting of strategy, culture, structure, process, technology and people, operating within a complex and dynamic environment,” Warzynski said, adding that people are not just a means achieving results, but also an end in themselves.

“The department is staffed with a group of highly qualified and dedicated individuals who work with administrative and academic leaders and their employees to develop the organization at the personal, group, departmental and system level. OOD offers an integrative, systemic approach in working with others to strengthen the performance and enhance the innovative capacity of the Institute.”

In building on what OOD already offers—internal consulting, employee training and career development, and leadership support—Warzynski says the department is investigating with other administrative Tech units ways to deploy resources for the Institute.

During this era of tighter budgets and a new Institute president, Warzynski says the department plans to benchmark and disseminate best practices; to aid offices and departments in streamlining, assessing their roles and services and adjusting to reflect Institute changes; and implement “Maintaining Momentum,” a set of offerings to aid employees and organizations as they move through periods of acute change without losing focus.

Warzynski said OOD would continue to implement a Georgia Tech–specific College Business Management Institute for employees, in addition to the Master Series Executive Leadership Program, the University Leadership Program and other development courses.
New programs to identify and assist in developing best practices across the Institute, as well as aiding in office and departmental strategic planning during transitions, also are in the planning stages.

“Georgia Tech, under the leadership of President Peterson, is engaging a broad cross section of the campus in developing a strategic vision to define the Institute’s position in the state, the nation and the world in 2035,” Warzynski said. “OOD’s role in this process will be to support the leaders in designing strategies and developing plans to realize this future.”

At Cornell, Warzynski taught graduate courses in organizational development in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, and leadership for scientists in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. He also taught an undergraduate course in strategic management at Ithaca College. From 2000 to 2003, Warzynski was an adviser to the MBA Team Fellows Program in the Johnson Graduate School of Management. He also served as a management instructor at the School of Banking Administration at the University of Wisconsin.

He recounts his interest in technology studies, particularly Actor-network Theory, as one of the main reasons for coming to Tech. “I think Georgia Tech is on the cutting edge of technology because of a combination of factors,” Warzynski said. “While steeped in tradition, the culture also consists of a pragmatic, ‘make things happen’ approach toward problem solving. People at Tech are trying to solve real-world issues: energy, sustainability, hunger and healthcare.

“When I first met the people [at Tech], I saw incredibly talented and experienced individuals, and a culture that is positive and focused on innovation, [which are] prerequisites to being a leader in today’s world,” he said.

He earned a master’s degree in sociology in 1973 from the University of Western Ontario, and did post-graduate studies in educational planning at the University of Toronto. He earned his bachelors degree in sociology from Southern Illinois University in 1969.

Prior to his joining Cornell, Warzynski held a number of leadership positions at both academic and business organizations in the United States and Canada. He served as the director of Training, Development and Planning for Dow Jones Inc. in New York (9 years as a consultant, and 3 years as an employee), and headed his own consulting firm in which he advised a number of Fortune 500 companies.