[...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
3. Peter Block (author of "The Empowered Manager", "Flawless
Consulting", and "Stewardship"): "STEWARDSHIP - A GOVERNANCE
STRATEGY FOR A LEARNING ORGANIZATION"
* We must redistribute power, choice, and accountability
from the "top" to the "bottom" of our organizations:
. Move from accountability with control to accountability
with service
. Move from the top being central to change to the core worker
being central to change
. Move from prescribing what is best for others to encouraging
local solutions and self control
. Move from patriarchy to a loving partnership ... if partnership
were the goal, would we do performance appraisals?
. The old contract was: We give you safety, you surrender your
sovereignty to us. It bred entitlement, care taking, and
self-interest.
. The new contract should be: We give you choice, you make us a
promise to be accountable. It will breed accountability,
stewardship. and service.
. "People don't wash rental cars" ... make them true partners.
. Peer pressure is the most powerful catalyst to change.
. Stop trying to do top-down change - let local units transform
themselves to meet aggressive business targets.
. Stop trying to change the whole system - focus on local units.
. 3 Suggestions/Assessments about personal governance:
1. What promises about outcomes am I making to my peers?
2. What consequences am I willing to pay if I don't deliver?
3. What measurements will I choose that have meaning to me?
. "The answer is in the question" - questions help us stay focused;
we learn more from asking questions than we do by answering them
The above 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