Doug, I think the issue for the admin/support staff is that they are
continually getting whipsawed because they are the last step in producing
documents, materials, and arrangements. And, they feel powerless to do
anything about this.
They are like the factory in the beer game. It's structural.
When I've had admin people in systems thinking programs, the critical
issue is to get them out of the "woe is us, we're powerless" mindset.
I've found they often have pretty good systems thinking skills, they can
see the structure that's causing problems, but what can they do about it?
In the setting in which you're working, can you make them a real part of
the team, able to cause changes to problematic structures? This would be
the break-through, I think.
On Wed, 27 Sep 1995, Doug Reeler wrote:
> Does anyone have an exercise for introducing systems thinking to a
> workshop of 16 admin/support staff - I have thought maybe a drama or a
> setup for a drama - lasting 1 hourish. I am designing a 2-day workshop
> for admin\support staff to revalue and transform their roles and I want to
> ground it in systems thinking.
>
> I would be willing to share my workshop design with anyone who
> contributes ideas to it.
--
Richard Karash ("Rick") | <http://world.std.com/~rkarash>
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