New WorldsGISC Gathering June 2012

Rob FarrandsDominik Heil

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Connecting in a disconnected worldGISC’s journey to encompass leadership and ODWhat ideas were informing our approach?What practices would make a differenceWere there structural constraints on the dream?

Research: approaches to organizing?Four open inquiry meetings – USA & SwedenEight internal papers, two Board reportsPublished articles on consulting, ethics & Gestalt

practiceA background conversation: virtual & actualClient work, conferences to socialise the

discussionMany questions: familiar solutions. Empiricism?

Asking different questions…Meeting Dominik HeilPursuing Maurice Merleau-PontyDaring to ask the ontological questionsRe-framing my own pastQuestioning GestaltArguing with Edwin

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The corporation as a physical object / machine

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The Corporation as an Organism

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The Corporation as a Human Being

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Categories of Being

A non organic entity e.g. a stone or a machine

A non human organism e.g. plant or animal

A human being A human work e.g. an art work

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The organisation as a Work/WorldA Work as in a work of art: a created form or

structure that throws out a World.Think of the experience of going into a cathedral,

a Merchant Bank, a school, Apple Co.Sets up a whole World to support and shape

human activity e.g. a ‘world of medicine’ or ‘worlds apart’.

The experience of being in a world is lived; it is not a series of assumptions held cognitively.

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“World” as a totality of Interpretations within which Humans move confidently

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Engaged AgencyOrganisational actors are always already profoundly

engaged and subject to taken for granted assumptions A world is not experienced as a set of assumptions

‘over there’. It is felt as the natural way to be. People are ‘touched’ and ‘moved’ into place. A world is what we live through not what we think.

Individual differentiation takes place from out of a intimate felt connection to a shared world

The organisation can only be understood from the inside

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Method

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Work/World: holistic form

WORK

WORLD

Confers intelligibility-makes WORK possible

Holds the WORLD in place-confers identity

Taken for Granted Basic assumptions

We are gripped. Freedom?

We are relational.

What is true?

Towards new practice…..Freedom to think requires freedom from taken for

granted basic assumptions – grip of the worldThis means engaging with the invisibility of the body.Truth is disclosure of the always already lived (not

correspondence)This requires authentic expression ….& then dialogue

Key practices: affect management, thinking and dialogue

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Methodological PrinciplesUse of self. Internal and external data are of equal

value & subject to equivalent constraintsTruth is a process of disclosing what already is

with as much integrity as possible: say how it is honestly

Freedom requires affective sensitivity & releaseRelying on experience requires being as open as

possible to contradictory or disconfirming dataListening freely becomes critical

Methodological toolsRe-thinking corporate strategy“World” Inquiry instrumentThinking feeling instrumentConversation/dialogue/listeningConsulting model: immerse/express/dialogueothers

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Strategic Inquiry & contextWORLD WORK

What is this world? How is it held in place?

What is possible in this world? How do we need to change it?

Strategic Intent

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Deliberate Inquiry: 20 Qs (Schein/Heil)

Cultural overview

Strategy Physical Layout

Authority/power

Accountabil-ity

Systems Success Failure Time Change

Abilities Sub-cultures

Relationship

Being human

Attitude to nature

History Defining moments

Trends Developme-nts

Metaphor

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Consulting modelClient Contact Intervention goals1. Diagnostic. Immerse in the client World. Build trust & relationship.

2. Describe/express the world/work structure. Explore strategic fit & possibilities. Dialogic process.

3. Offer & explore possibilities . Build leadership capacity. Dialogue again…..

4. Design programs to re-design and/or develop the world/work structure.

5. Proceed dialogically building momentum, refining diagnostic & building trust.

Articulation: re-gathering & retrieval of forgotten or occluded. Re-focus shared understanding of the “always already”.

Restructuring: attending to marginalized practices by drawing them into attention.

Cross Appropriation: Borrow from neighboring practice/theory.

Concluding

Being Outrageous

FREEDOM & TRUTH!

Gestalt CorrespondenceThe deep wisdom of Gestalt formTrapped in naïve “tactical” humanism Awareness as disclosing the always already – truthBodily sensitivity as a precursor to freedomLanguage/Listening as fundamentalsA body of practice that needs re-directingPotential for rejuvenation

Prospects…

The entities vital to sustainabile life such as organisms, humans and society cannot show up in their very nature in the predominant corporate world

Current arguments of sustainability & humanism are made in purely instrumental terms

What does it take to create organizations within which organisms, humans and society can show up in their very nature so that we can save the planet & ourselves?