[...Note: Bob's report divided into sections by your host...]
Hi,
This is a "trip report" for the recent Systems Thinking In Action (STIA)
forum in Boston that my colleague Jeanne Hazell and I just attended.
I realize that others have shared their insightful summaries of speaker's
messages with this mailing list before. We circulated this trip report
internally in IBM, and I thought it might also be of interest to some of
you, as additional "learning".
The best of the best (IMHO) are signified with an * bullet.
Bob
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TRIP REPORT
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WHAT: "SYSTEMS THINKING IN ACTION CONFERENCE: BUILDING
ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING INFRASTRUCTURES"
SPONSOR: Pegasus Communications
WHEN: Sept.18-20, 1995
WHERE: Boston, Marriott Copley Place Hotel
WHO: About 1200 attendees from business, government, education,
consulting, etc.... 7 IBMers - from Canada, U.S, Europe
2. Karl-Henrik Robert (Chairman of "The Natural Step"(TNS), a federation
of 19 associations of professionals in Sweden which cooperate on
ecologically sustainable development): "THE NATURAL STEP -
A FRAMEWORK FOR LARGE-SCALE CHANGE"
. In 1990, as a doctor doing doing research on childhood cancer,
he asked his colleagues for help in defining the root causes
of cancer. Their iterative exchange of drafts of papers led
to a consensus on 4 principles and 4 conditions for
sustainable, ecologically-sound development.
. In 5 years, they have gotten 25 of Sweden's largest corporations,
40 municipalities, and 10,000 professionals to commit to use
the principles as guidance in their decisions; the king of Sweden
is their patron; it is taught in schools; a colour booklet and
audio cassette were mailed to every home and school in Sweden as a
public launch of the scientists' consensus on the "cyclic society",
depicted in a beautifully simple little diagram; training sessions
for business and governmental leaders have been held; a tour train
of mobile exhibits and performances toured 20 cities in 1993 and
1995; they have just expanded to the U.S.
* HOW? They do not use "in your face" approaches - they do not
pressure people to do what is suggested. Instead, THEY PRESENT
THE UNDISPUTED CONSENSUS INFORMATION IN ATTRACTIVE, NON-THREATENING
WAYS, AND THEN OPEN A DIALOGUE AND ASK FOR IDEAS ON WHAT CAN BE
DONE. This ensures that the responsibility for action remains
with those in a position to act. This approach has obviously
worked!
. They use the consensus approach to create papers that describe
strategies in different areas, such as energy, agriculture,
metal flows, etc. They draft papers for review by experts in
each field, and publish papers anchored in the original consensus
on the 4 principles.
. The Natural Step uses a scientific dialogue method called
"Simplicity Without Reductionism" - that is, without reducing
the whole into a collection of details. They stick to the
indisputable principles, which form the "trunk" of their tree
metaphor for a sustainable ecology - they avoid debates about
the "leaves", and let those that own the problems work on them.
. They use "backcasting": define the goal, and work backwards
from it, rather than forecasting from today's trends
. (He received a standing ovation from the 1200 attendees - the only
time this happened)
Our report is distilled from a 700 page handout and many pages of
additional notes. Some of these ideas are great, some are strange,
but all are stimulating. Hopefully it has been worth your while to
scan them.
Bob Willard & Jeanne Hazell
IBM Canada, Leadership Development
-- Regards, R. G. (Bob) Willard IBM Canada, Leadership Development rgwilla@ibm.net