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BARRY OSHRY AND TOM DEVANE

Organization Workshop

I can see clearly now, the rain is gone,

I can see all obstacles in my way

Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind

It’s gonna be a bright, bright sun-shiny day.

—Johnny Nash

High-Tech Entrepreneurialism

Between 7:30 and 8:00 A.M., 50 workshop participants arrived at the conference center nestled among the pine trees in a rural setting. Though the senior executives, middle managers, and frontline workers present had received a preworkshop briefing, there was a high level of anticipation and some anxiety in the room. The California-based H-Tech Company is a 5,000-person high-tech manufacturing organization that was seeking to change its organizational culture. Its target was a culture with more entrepreneurialism, less blame, more individual responsibility, and greater partnership across organizational lines. At 8:00 sharp, the participants were assigned to one of four groups (see figure 1)

• Tops, who had overall responsibility for the organization;

• Bottoms, who were the frontline producers or servicers;

• Middles, who each had responsibility for a Bottom group; and

• Potential Customers, who had projects for the organization and money to pay.

The first exercise lasted the entire morning. Periodically, action halted and members held a Time Out of Time (TOOT). The TOOT’s purpose was for people to talk about life in their positions—what was going on in their world, their issues, their feelings (usually a mixture of stress, frustrations, and anxiety), how they experienced other parts of the system, and what their peer relationships were like. The TOOT shed light on what was happening at all levels in this simulated organization; equally important, the TOOT illuminated issues that participants were experiencing in their change efforts back in their real company. For this group, as is almost universal, this was a turning point both personally and organizationally. People recognized that this exercise—which was not constructed as a simulation of their organization—was in fact very much like their organization in the areas of personal frustrations, misunderstandings, and multilevel organizational issues. High-leverage systemic work began here.

Figure 1. The Four Groups

Table 1 shows participants’ workshop experiences, mirrored in organizational life: At 1:00 P.M., everyone returned to the conference room and changed organizational positions. As usual in the workshops, ex-Tops who were now Bottoms expressed relief; ex-Bottoms who had become Tops were already feeling the stress and tension of responsibility. (It was a moment of humility for some Bottoms—who had spent energy in the morning criticizing Tops—to find themselves as Tops.) Customers felt separate from the organization. New Middles weren’t sure how they felt. Their general sense was that they had no control over what their life would be, and that their experience would depend on the actions of Tops, Bottoms, and Customers.

Table 1. Comparison of Participant Experience with Exercise and with Organizational Life

Before proceeding with the second exercise, participants were presented with a strategic framework that helped them see why organizations—despite good intentions and high-quality processes—keep falling into the same old self-limiting patterns. In addition, they were presented with principles and strategies for building healthier, more effective organizations.

The afternoon exercise became a practice field for participants to develop ways out of the common traps present for each organizational space. At the end of the day, participants reported various insights into increasingly successful partnering—both within the organization and with customers—to achieve the organization’s overall objectives. At day’s close, participants left emotionally charged, eager to bring their new learning back to the workplace.

Four months later, the CEO reported that the initial and ongoing Organization Workshops had dramatic effects on how people interacted, positively affecting performance. Customer satisfaction went way up, and the company significantly decreased new product development time.

The Basics

The Organization Workshop (OW) is a group learning session in which participants experience universal conditions, traps, and dilemmas of organizational life. By learning firsthand about these traps, along with solid theory on avoiding them, participants emerge with concepts, methods, and a common language to improve their interaction in any organization. The result is better partnerships for higher performance.

In the Organization Workshop, participants directly experience the costs of system blind-ness—the costs to them personally and to the organization—and they experience the organizational power as well as the personal liberation, creativity, and empowerment that come from moving from system blindness to system sight.

Organizations have reported a variety of outcomes, including reduced cycle times, improved quality, lower costs, and higher customer service levels. While the Organization Workshop does not directly address any of these improvement areas, it creates conditions for realizing them through improved system sight.

The Organization Workshop helps organizations become powerful organizational systems—the organization gets what it needs, and individuals get what they need.

Table of Uses

About the Authors

Barry Oshry, Ph.D. ([email protected]), is a distinguished educator and pioneer in the field of human systems thinking. Barry’s area of research, writing, and teaching has been the human systems dynamics arising when people are in top, middle, bottom, and customer relationships with one another. He’s been exploring with special interest the issue of “middles” in organizations for more than 30 years. Barry’s books include Seeing Systems, The Possibilities of Organization, and In the Middle.

Tom Devane ([email protected]) helps organizations and communities thrive in their respective environments. His diverse background in strategy, Six Sigma, technology, organizational development, community planning, and leadership effectiveness provides for dramatic, sustainable improvement. With BS and MS degrees in finance, Big Six consulting, and industry leadership experience, he founded his own firm in 1988. Clients include Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Johnson & Johnson, General Electric, the U.S. Forest Service, AT&T, Honeywell, and the Republic of South Africa.

Where to Go for More Information

REFERENCES

Oshry, Barry. In the Middle. Boston: Power & Systems, 1994.

———. The Possibilities of Organization. Prudential Station, MA: Power & Systems, 1992.

———. Seeing Systems: Unlocking the Mysteries of Organizational Life. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 1995.

———. Space Work. Boston: Power & Systems, 1992.

ORGANIZATION

Power+Systems—www.powerandsystems.com