CSR and OST

[Jean-Francois Gouin]

Hello,

CSR stand for Corporate Social Responsibility and it is a growing approach
to management. I am quite convinced, that Open Space is a powerful tool to
bring socially responsible practises within corporations. Many of you on
this list have practised this for many years so there isn't anything new
here except maybe a possibility for Open Space type methods to become a
mainstream management practice. Anyhow, the point of my message is to share
with you a message which was sent on CSR related email list. This comes from
someone who had never heard of Open Space before. I thought you will find
the convergence of ideas and even language quite remarkable. I have
contacted Ian (the author of this message) and gave hime some info about OST
since.
Take Care,

Jean-Francois.

Ian wrote:"

Greetings Fellow Change-makers,

Is there a place for a new consulting vision in CSR?  Can individual purpose
exist within organisations?  Is there a way to create value in the
individual within the corporate world rather than the current mentality of
value extraction?  I believe there is and there are methods to be discovered
to do it.

Being a part of the CSR Chicks Yahoo Group has in many ways helped reinforce
my ideas about humanising organisations.  Whether it is an email from a
passionate individual, frustrated that they can¢t make inroads in the CSR
domain, or a resident expert, several common threads unite the cause.

The most obvious one is that we want to make the world a better place.  Who
needs a more succinct motivation to pursue CSR?  It simply makes sense but
what sustains us in the battle?  Whilst CSR is gathering momentum, it still
has a long way to go.  Strangely enough though, there is no shortage of
people who are willing to face the challenge and I believe part of the
reason is because there is an opportunity to express themselves in new ways.
 This is exciting and invigorating.  This is why emails such as Devin¢s 3-4
weeks ago expressing his frustration, and the creation of environmentally
responsible products can coalesce; there is a desire to create. 
It would seem that creativity is part of a healthy existence.

Nonetheless, for those outside the ¡community of believers¢, when will they
have their opportunity?  I entitled this email ¡Humanising CSR¢ mainly
because I believe in CSR and want to be a part of it but it could well have
been called ¡Humanising Organisations¢ or ¡Humanising Corporate Life¢.  CSR
still needs to have an inward focus as well as an outward one.  One of my
greatest concerns is that CSR is trying to adopt a new vision using old
tools.  Will the same loneliness that exists at an executive level in
organisations remain?  Will the people beneath them continue to be
alienated?  Since CSR is new, relatively speaking, it must remain in the
creative sphere where ideas can flow and there is no repression from
organisational dogma.  With so much organisational change, we are perfectly
placed to envisage something new where people have a sense of meaning in
their work.  I know this sounds idealistic but is it?

For a long time, I thought that I wanted to develop CSR strategies within
corporations which would be the expression of my creative self.  However,
what I became conscious of was that I wanted to see people fulfilled at an
organisational level and I wanted to be the creative mediator in that.  This
epiphany if you like was because I realised that whilst I would express my
creative self by developing strategy, it may not necessarily reflect the
creative needs of individuals within the organisation.  That is to say, it
is the individuals themselves that needed to do the creating!

Furthermore, creating is an intuitive and messy process, shaped by the
framework of the individual, which is not necessarily of major importance in
our overly stratified organisational structures.  Organisations need to
appear to have control as do employees and as such, there is often not the
space to reflect on ideas.  Moreover, there is usually not the space to
explore problems.  We spend most of our time resolving problems when much
more could possibly be gained from exploring them, which is much more
systemic I believe.  At a people level, this is where value is added because
¡people do what they believe in, and they believe only in what they have
explored¢, as a friend of mine Tony wrote in his thesis.

As such, I believe there is method to help people find their collective
purpose and values in organisations rather than mission statements and
objectives, which are more often than not, numerically presented to provide
an allure of control.  Why shouldn¢t words hold as much value?

Consequently, I¢m of the opinion that when it comes to creativity, a space
needs to be opened for conceptual thinking before any implementation can
take place.  In addition, this space needs to be in a social environment
where people can express themselves and can create their purpose
collectively.  It is a process of discovery and requires time and patience. 

[...]"

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist