Kathie Dannemiller's passing

Wed Dec 31 03:44:10 PST 2003

Whilst browsing I pasted this in case it helps remind us -
Source is around about
http://www.behavior.net/cgi-bin/nph-display.cgi?config=wholescale
<http://www.behavior.net/cgi-bin/nph-display.cgi?config=wholescale&uid=n
C1M8.user&MessageID=8&new=0> &uid=nC1M8.user&MessageID=8&new=0

Whole-scale change dialogue
Kathleen Dannemiller . 11/14/97 at 5:44 PM ET
Thank you for inviting me to be here. You can learn more about me from
other parts of this site, but I wanted to pose a question for all/any of
you to answer. We began doing whole-scale change processes in l98l with
leadership from Ford Motor Company. We continued with what we had
uncovered/discovered with Boeing with Marriott Hotels, Resorts and
Suite, with Corning Glass and with many defense industry clients (after
the Wall came down and there was a danger of peace (!)
We at our company have learned a lot over the past years and we know
that these processes are robust ways to help organizations become whole
in order to bring about the rapid change needed. We have recently (past
five years) realized how important these processes can be in the old
Third World countries...India, South Africa. etc., to get their
companies moving quickly to respond to global opportunities. Probably
the most important thing the people in India taught me is that an Indian
national, at any level from top to bottom of a organization, tends to
see the world through a systems window -- they don't think in the old
industrial model.
My question to any of you is this: Where have you found systems thinking
as a worldview/ It really excited me to think of untapped possibilities
for quick change. Any answers? Thanks...Kathie
Rhythm: the system of time
Jim Anderson . 11/14/97 at 9:09 PM ET
As a drummer and a psychotherapist, I have found that the system of
music functions at a systemic level of unconscious flow that transcends
literary logic. I do workshops utilizing rhythm and drumming as a way to
bring corporations together. Through my work as a musician I have
discovered that sometimes the greatest systemic train of thought is the
non-thought of foreward motion we feel in the world of music. Go out
side and listen to the universe (uni - one & verse - song) Go figure!
Replies:
Synergy Through Samba
Al Blixt . 12/12/97 at 10:36 PM ET
Jim, I am one of Kathie's partners at Dannemiller Tyson and your note
reminded me of my experience at the Center for the Study of Work Teams
conference in October. One of the presenters was Gary Musznyski who
worked with about 50 of the conference participants at a pre-conference
workshop in which he turned them into a wonderful rhythmic ensemble that
performed as the keynote at one of the general sessions. Participants
reported that they were amazed at how much they learned about their own
capabilities and about becoming a team in the process. We need to find
more ways to tap the non-verbal wisdom that connects us so powerfully.
Replies:
Systems Thinking in My Neighborhood
Gil Levin . 11/22/97 at 6:05 PM ET
My only VERY loosely related experience is in working with several U.S.
ethnic groups and with colleagues in the Department of Psychiatry for
many years. In the 1970s I collaborated with Edward Roberts of the MIT
System Dynamics group in the construction of computer models to study
the impact of health and mental health policies. It was a great surprise
to learn was how closely Ed's approach resembled the process of medical
problem solving.
The thrust of system dynamics is to identify the most troubling
symptomatic conditions and then to build a conceptual account of the
system of time-varying forces that could produce and sustain those
conditions. Physician's and especially dynamically oriented
psychiatrists excel at this process and contributed greatly to the work.

However my colleagues were not able to apply that skill at all well in
working within an organizational framework, this despite the fact that
in their clinical work they were superbly sensitive to interpersonal
relations. The interpersonal skills and systems thinking that were so
effective in dyadic interactions did not carry over very well to the
organizational context.
I have always wondered what inhibited the transfer (does sustained and
disciplined attention to the dyad mitigate against it, in the way that
years of doing fine needle work harms the vision of a skilled
seamstress?) and what might be done to facilitate it.
Whole-Scale Change musings
Kathleen Dannemiller . 1/9/98 at 4:12 PM ET
This is Kathie Dannemiller, currently in Watertown, Mass. I have a
genetic problem that has emerged (!) in the past few year, called
Charcot;Marie-Tooth Disorder, causing Neuropathy and therefore slowing
my ability to walk and climb stairs. Western medicine tells me there is
no "cure"/treatment but that I won't lose my legs or die of it. So I
have found a wonderful Japanese acupuncturist here in Watertown, called
M. Kuahara..he does "non-invasive" treatment. I am living in Watertown
for the month of January in order to have a treatment every day. I am
staying with an old friend and colleague, Brian McDonald. He gave me a
newsletter today that I thought might interest someone out there. It's a
special issue of At Work: Stories of tomorrow's workplace...a special
issue from July/August, 1995. The subject of the first article by Joan
Saries is "System Thinking in Action" and I quote: "My son's headaches
were so severe even demurral was ineffective at fending off papin. The
neurologist tried everything and came up with nothing. We decided to try
acupuncture. During the first visit, the acupuncturist checked my son's
tongue and asked questions about his birth daily food, and exercise. No
questions about his head. For me, this was a disorienting and unfamiliar
medical practice. Fortunately, it works whether you understand it or
not. My son's headaches disssipated.
"Chinese medicine is systems thinking in action. {NOTE FROM KATHIE;
SUBSTITUTE JAPANESE MEDICINE FOR MY PERSONAL STORY -- same truth} It
applies a holistic approach to healing and health; disease is viewed as
inseparable from the patient. Diagnosis uncovers patterns of disharmony
in the whole system rather than a single problem. Doctors search for
cause and effect, but cause is defined in terms of relationship,
underlying patterns, and themes of imbalance in the system. By contrast,
Western doctors describe specific illnesses and look for direct causes.
"The work of doctors and organizational consultants is similar. In the
Western model, the clients often has an expectation that the consultant
will "fix" the problem so business can resume as usual. The problem is
seen as a single effect looking for a single cause. Systems thinking
offers an alternative, a way to see things in relationship by attending
to all of the parts and how they integrate into a whole. A whole systems
consultant {NOTE; DANNEMILLER TYSON's WHOLE-SCALE CHANGE PROCESSES} will
work with patterns in the system in much the same way that Chinese
medicine uses patterns of harmony and disharmony in diagnosing a
patient."
Joan Saries continues the article by focussing on future search, open
space and the processes we at Dannemiller Tyson used to call "Real Time
Strategic Change" and have now named it "Whole-Scale Change", as a more
accurate phrase to describe working with a microcosm of a whole system
to enable the system (at whatever scale) to bring about its own healing.

Any reactions to these thoughts? It is clear to me, when the Axelrod's,
Marv Weisbord and Sandra Janoff, Harrison Owen and others get together
at the yearly OD Net Large Scale Conference in Dallas that all of us
grew up in NTL in the 60s and simply all see organizations as total
systems, not "broken" parts of a system. Each of us has developed our
own means of "doing acupuncture-type healing" in organizations.
Responses? experiences? Kathie
Real Time System Change - Success
Ken Guarino . 2/25/98 at 8:58 PM ET
Kathie,
I attended your presentation this summer. I took good notes, modified my
design to fit our culture. Long Story Short - We completed a Real Time
Strategic Change Conference for 120 people in February. We had a cross
section of the entire community - 4 levels deep, from 24 geographic
locations. I was apprehensive at first - but some things you just go
with a "Design - Do - Develop Model. It was a success. As with anything
you make changes during the design (although it appears somewhat
seamless to the group). Others you capture as critical lessons learned
for future designs.
Having done one - I feel very confident about doing it again even with a
larger group.
I want to thank Kathie D. for the insights & encouragements to just go
out & do it. I wrote down all those things she said - "Tattoo this &
that" and went out & did it.
Kathie if you are there - leave a message.
Ken Guarino
Kathie Dannemiller . 2/28/98 at 3:35 PM ET
Wow -- what a great message, Ken. And any of the rest of you who read
what Ken says:
The key to whole system change is (tattoo this on your arm!): think
whole, use a microcosm design team, trust your intuition and just use
the wisdom you've gained in your previous work. It's common sense...and
I feel comforted every time I hear from someone who have the courage to
try -- like you,
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