OST and Strategic Manag

[Lindfield, Michael J]

Greetings Uwe,

I'm back in the office and can finally respond to your question about
using OS with the executive team to help them articulate the
'challenge'.

I have not used OS in this way. Normally the OS session is a coming
together to respond to the challenge and so I meet with the client
(individual or group) ahead of the session to have them identify what
the question is. I engage them in a dialogue about what is at the heart
of the issue facing them and then have them spend time crafting the
question. I often make the point that many teams have all too often come
back with brilliant 'right' answers but unfortunately, to the wrong
question. I believe that it is important to have people understand that
the key to success is in the framing of the question. The question is
both a doorway into the world of the unknown that the OS participants
may enter on their journey of discovery as well as an invocation that
calls out to the right 'elements' inside the field to be present and
'organize' themselves in a way that shows up as something which might be
called 'an answer'.

I'm not sure if this is exactly what you were asking for but it is what
came to mind. To be continued...

Best wishes,

Michael


"Bid me run and I will strive for things impossible"  (Shakespeare)

Michael Lindfield
Organization Development Consultant

The Boeing Company
P.O. Box 3707,  MS 7A-25,
Seattle,  WA 98124-2207,  USA

206-865-2255 (Office/Voice Mail)     206-865-4851 (FAX)
michael.j.lindfield at boeing.com

>----------
>From:  Uwe Weissflog[SMTP:uwe.weissflog at sdrc.com]
>Sent:  Friday, March 07, 1997 2:07 PM
>To:    Multiple recipients of list OSLIST
>Subject:       Re: OST and Strategic Manag
>
>                      RE>>OST and Strategic Managemen              3/7/97
>
>Michael,
>thanks for your insights into OST at Boeing. This is the second time I'm
>hearing about OST at your company. It seems to produce results.
>
>You stated that "The 'challenge' that is issued and for which the OS is a
>vehicle of response, is a major key to success" and that exactly is  my
>challenge. I like to use OS with our executive team to formulate one
>unambiguous  "challenge" for which a second OS (or FSC) event is the means to
>respond. Are you aware of examples where OST was used in this context?
>