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Large Group Interventions

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Large Group Interventions

Large Group Interventions (LGIs) are technologies that have been used extensively throughout the world since the 1980s. Their development was rooted in a range of theories and approaches, including Kurt Lewin and Gestalt Psychology, Systems Theory, Open Systems and Power and Systems Labs and the work on Socio-Technical systems of Bion and later, Emery and Trist. In the 1970s, this work was further shaped by Beckard, Lippitt and Merrelyn Emery, who developed the Search Conference. Marvin Weisbord developed this further in the 1980s through his work on getting the whole system into the room.

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Large group interventions is a term coined by organisation development consultants Billie T. Alban and Barbara Benedict Bunker in 1992. The term covers a range of methods for creating a large-scale meeting in whichtypicallythe participants become aware of the need for change in their organisation or community, and develop plans for collaborative action that will bring the desired state of affairs into existence.

Large group interventions can play a significant role in: Enabling staff to engage with the organisations brand, story, vision and

strategy. Initiating collaborative projects that put the strategy into action. Redesigning the structure of the organisation. Finding ways to:

Eliminate a silo mentality. Transform corporate culture. Become more agile and innovative. Improve business processes and work practices. Integrate two businesses following a merger or acquisition.

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Traditional approaches Top-down and therefore often misunderstood or resisted by people lower down

in the organisation

Led by a selected working or project group, representative of the workforce. This approach often starts off well, but over time the representatives become distanced and isolated from their colleagues as they gather enthusiasm for their work and are privy to much more information than their colleagues back in the workplace

Bottom-up, where individual teams of employees are accountable for making changes in the way they themselves do business. While this generates enthusiasm and empowerment, teams using this approach largely end up working independently of each other and do not necessarily develop in line with corporate goals and objectives

Pilot strategies, identifying a specific part of the organisation as the flagship or leader for change. They have a well-defined task and the support of the organisations leaders, and are thus often given the necessary (and sometimes excessive) resources to ensure success.

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This page informs you about 'Large Group Interventions'. A Large Group Intervention (LGI) is a name for a broad range of methods that can be used to facilitate and manage organizational change. Characteristic for LGI is that the whole organization (or a representation of the organization) is involved in the change process. Also it is not uncommon for a LGI that other stakeholders such as customers, suppliers, financiers, and governments participate in the process. The number of participants of a LGI can vary from 10 to 3000 participants. Examples of large group intervention include:

Future search Open space technology Real time strategic change Simu Real Participative Work Design

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Large Group Interventions

Future Search Conference (Weisbord)

Open-Space Meeting (Owen)

Open System Planning (Beckhard)

Real-Time Strategic Change (Jacobs)

The Conference Model (Axelrod)

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Future Search

Future Search is a Large Group Interventions that is developed by Marvin Weisbord and Sandra Janoff. Future Search can be described as an innovative planning conference that helps to transform the capability of organizations for cooperative action in a relatively short time. Future search is - similar to scenario conferences - especially helpful in situaties in which people experience uncertainty and fast change.

Because within this form of lange group intervention people build on what they already have, they need no prior training or expertise.

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Open Space

Open Space Technology is a LGI intervention developed by Harrison Owen. At the very least, Open Space is a fast, cheap, and simple way to better, more productive meetings. At a deeper level, it enables people to experience a very different quality of organization in which self-managed work groups are the norm, leadership a constantly shared phenomenon, diversity becomes a resource to be used instead of a problem to be overcome, and personal empowerment a shared experience. It is also fun. In a word, the conditions are set for fundamental organizational change, indeed that change may already have occurred. By the end, groups face an interesting choice. They can do it again, they can do it better, or they can go back to their prior mode of behavior. Open Space is appropriate in situations where a major issue must be resolved, characterized by high levels of complexity, high levels of diversity (in terms of the people involved), the presence of potential or actual conflict, and with a decision time of yesterday

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Real Time Strategic Change

Real Time Strategic Change (RTSC) is more than a large group intervention method: it is a principle-based approach to transforming the whole organisation. RTSC begins with contracting and scoping. This is followed by a leadership alignment event which enables the formal and informal leaders of the organisation to understand the RTSC philosophy, agree purpose and outcomes for the change effort and make a commitment to moving forward together.

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Simu Real

Simu Real is a LGI developed by Don Klein. Simu-Real enables members of an organisation to work together on a real organisational task so that they can see the whole organisation in all its complexity, become aware of, and skilled in, dealing with organisational dynamics, and determine what, if anything, needs to be changed. The method is used to help organisations explore differences, solve complex problems, redesign work processes, agree goals and develop plans for realising them. The Simu-Real event takes place in a large room which, when the participants arrive, becomes a microcosm of the organisation in action. The departments or other organisational units are located in different parts of the room according to their place in the actual organisation. This is the Simu part of Simu-Real. The Real part is the task or project that the organisation will undertake. The task is conceived by a planning committee, whose members are drawn from the organisational units. The committee prepares all aspects of the Simu-Real event including the room layout and the decision making process. 12/30/2014 10

Participative Design

Participative Design was developed in 1971 by Fred and Merrelyn Emery. They developed the model as a faster and more acceptable alternative to the Socio-Technical Systems approach, where a multi-functional task force redesigns the organisation, usually taking a whole year to do so. A design created in such a way tends to be flawed, because it is based on an incomplete assessment of reality. Also, workers do not have ownership of the design, and this generates resistance to change. And, perhaps most significantly, the organisations underlying power structure remains intact. Whereas STS is based on what the Emerys call the bureaucratic design principle, Participative Design reflects the democratic design principle. This says that (1) those who have to do the work are in the best position to design the way in which it is structured, (2) effectiveness is greatly improved when teams take responsibility for controlling their own work, and (3) the organisation increases its flexibility and responsiveness when people are capable of performing multiple functions and tasks.

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Open System Methods Map the current environment facing the

organization.

Assess the organizations responses to the environmental expectations.

Identify the core mission of the organization.

Create a realistic future scenario of environmental expectations and organization responses.

Create an ideal future scenario of environmental expectations and organization responses.

Compare the present with the ideal future and prepare an action plan for reducing the discrepancy.

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Open Space Methods

Set the conditions for self-organizing Announce the theme of the session Establish norms for the meetings

The Law of Two Feet.

The Four Principles. Whoever comes is the right people.

Whatever happens is the only thing that could have.

Whenever it starts is the right time.

When it is over, it is over.

Volunteers create the agenda Coordinate activity through information

postings

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Large-Group Meeting Assumptions

Organization members perceptions play a major role in environmental relations.

Organization members must share a common view of the environment to permit coordinated action toward it.

Organization members perceptions must accurately reflect the condition of the environment if organizational responses are to be effective.

Organizations cannot only adapt to their environment but also proactively create it.

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Large-Group Method Application Stages

Preparing for the large-group meeting Identify a compelling meeting theme Select appropriate stakeholders to participate Develop relevant tasks to address meeting

theme

Conducting the meeting Open Systems Methods Open Space Methods

Following up on the meeting outcomes

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Managerial Grid

Behavioral leadership model developed by Robert R. Blake and Jane

Mouton.

This model originally identified five different leadership styles based on :-

Concern for people-the degree to which a leader considers the needs of team members, their interests, and areas of personal development when deciding how best to accomplish a task

Concern for production. The degree to which a leader emphasizes organizational efficiency and high productivity when deciding how best to accomplish a task

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Blake and Moutons Managerial Grid

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81 different positions one could land on

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How it began

Built from the work of researchers at these University of Michigan and Ohio State University.

Robert Blake and Jane Mouton (1960s) proposed a graphic portrayal of leadership styles through a managerial grid.

The grid depicts two dimensions of leader behavior, concern for people on y-axis and concern for production on x-axis,

each dimension ranging from low (1) to high (9), creates 81 different positions in which the leaders style may fall.

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Managers have low concern for

both people and production.

Managers use this style to preserve job and job seniority

The main concern for the manager is not to be held responsible for any mistakes, which results in less innovative decisions.

Impoverished style (Indifferent) (1, 1):

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Produce or Perish(The dictatorial)(9,1)

High concern for production, and a low concern for people, managers using this style find employee needs unimportant

Pressure employees through rules and punishments to achieve goals

This style is often used in cases of crisis management.

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Country Club (Accommodating) (1, 9)

High concern for people and a low concern for production.

Managers using this style pay much attention to the security and comfort of the employees, in hopes that this will increase performance.

The resulting atmosphere is usually friendly, but not necessarily very productive.

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Middle-of-the-road (Status quo) (5, 5)

Concern for both people and

production

Managers hope to achieve suitable performance

Balance between company goals and workers' needs.

Gives away a bit of each concern so that neither production nor people

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The Team style (sound)

High concern is paid both to people and production.

Managers choosing to use this style encourage teamwork and commitment among employees.

This method relies heavily on making employees feel themselves to be constructive parts of the company.

(9, 9)

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The opportunistic style: Individuals using this style do not have a fixed location on the grid. They adopt whichever behavior offers the greatest personal benefit.

The paternalistic style: Managers using this style praise and support, but discourage challenges to their thinking.

Merit: The Managerial or Leadership Grid is used to help managers analyze their own leadership styles through a technique known as grid training

Demerit: The model ignores the importance of internal and external limits, matter and scenario. Also, there are some more aspects of leadership that can be covered but are not.

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