Organizational development is explored through this discussion of a series of projects initiated by researchers at the University of Oregon to provide consultation and training to a school district in the Northwest. The primary focus was the improvement of problem-solving skills in the district and the development of a heightened capacity for organizational self-renewal. A cadre of organizational specialists was found to be an important innovation in managing school districts. This book not only documents the functions of such a cadre, but also offers empirical data to guide others interested in the cadre idea. It is divided into three sections covering the story of the particular school district, the underlying theory and technology and the instruments for data collection, and the data on the effects of training and coping with innovation. Details of costs and savings, the experimental design, and the use of nonmetric multidimensional scaling are appended. (Author/WD)