using OS for organizational designing and structuring

[Harrison Owen]

At 06:22 AM 7/14/2002 +0200, Tova averbuch wrote:

>         Did anyone use OS with management/senior team/whole system to
> redesign
>changes in organizational structure?
>         still tossing and turning with how and when in the process to use
> ost, with
>whom, etc/(high teck client, needs change done as of yesterday).
>         will deeply appreciate any relevant experience, soon

Hi Tova -- been away for the weekend and just now catching up... so events
may have passed me by. But. I think the question Ralph poses is the
critical one. "How Open is the Space? If the space is really open, and the
folks really want something good and quick, I think there is a lot of
experience that says the OS can help. On the other hand if folks want to
keep the cards in their hands all the while seeming to invite full
participation, the results will be miserable. Frustration would be the
least of the problems.

Presuming that the openness is present the story by Hugh Huntington In
Tales From Open Space could be helpful. All that occurred about 10 years
ago, and I think maybe we have learned something since that could make it
even better. That learning is all about Self-Organization. As you know, I
am convinced that the power behind Open Space (at least a part of it) is
self-organization. Open Space enables us to do consciously what we
ordinarily do "just" naturally. A second conviction, which a number of my
colleagues take to be pure heresy, is that all organizations are
self-organizing systems -- it is only that some people delude themselves
into thinking that they organized them. If there is any truth to  this
notion -- then the whole business of organization design and re-design is a
little off the mark. Why do something that is probably going to happen all
by itself? At best you are just wasting time -- at worst you could mess up
something that will take care of itself, if you let it.

Now for your situation. If it were me, and if the client were willing, I
would do  an OS for anybody who cared about the company. Top to bottom,
left to right. All comers who cared. But the theme would not be about
"re-design."  I would go for something a lot broader, and (to me) more
important. I don't know how this would come out in Hebrew, but in English,
the theme would be something like -- "What are the issues and opportunities
for building the business we would really love to be a part of?" I am sure
the folks would have lots of good ideas and lots of discussion. (Or , of
course, they could just decide to go out of business -- which happened to
me once.) And something else would happen -- they would naturally and
without thinking about it, create the organizational design to deal with
their business. Self-organize as it were. It would not come out all neat
like an organization chart -- but no organization works that way anyhow.
Just looks nice on paper. On the Bulletin Board and in the proceedings you
would see the natural groups, tasks to be done, people who cared -- and
further it would all be working right before your eyes. As a "next step"
(and this is a little over simplified) all you have to do is take notes,
clean it up, and get to work. You could even make a new Organization Chart,
if anybody cared, and some will. Best of all you will have a natural design
and not something arbitrary and abstract which is what you always get from
any organization design process.

Final suggestion. Stop working so hard.



Harrison




Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, MD 20854 USA
phone 301-365-2093
Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com
Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
Personal website www.mindspring.com\~owenhh

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