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At 06:22 AM 7/14/2002 +0200, Tova averbuch wrote:<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>
Did anyone use OS with management/senior team/whole system to
redesign<br>
changes in organizational structure?<br>
still tossing and turning with
how and when in the process to use ost, with<br>
whom, etc/(high teck client, needs change done as of yesterday).<br>
will deeply appreciate any
relevant experience, soon</blockquote><br>
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 <i>seeming</i>
to invite full participation, the results will be miserable. Frustration
would be the least of the problems.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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. <br><br>
Final suggestion. Stop working so hard. <br><br>
<br><br>
Harrison <br><br>
<br><br>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<div align="center">Harrison Owen<br>
7808 River Falls Drive<br>
Potomac, MD 20854 USA<br>
phone 301-365-2093<br>
Open Space Training
<a href="http://www.openspaceworld.com/" eudora="autourl">www.openspaceworld.com</a>
<br>
Open Space Institute <a href="http://www.openspaceworld.org/" eudora="autourl">www.openspaceworld.org</a><br>
Personal website <a href="http://www.mindspring.com/~owenhh" eudora="autourl">www.mindspring.com\~owenhh</a><br><br>
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