Organisation Workshop - Exploration in Systems Thinking

Most explorative work usually is around the individual. I am often asked if there are effective designs around exploring Organisation dynamics. Yes there is, and it is the Organisation Workshop introduced by Barry Oshry.

In this workshop, participants are randomly selected to play the roles of Tops, Middle, Bottoms, and Customer(s). Each day in the organization is of 15 minutes with reflection time built in between each day (Time out of time).

Instructions are few and simple. Tops have wide powers around organization and direction. Each day costs are clarified by way of expenses and variable costs: some fixed and some discretionary. The task is relatively simple and explained by the Customer to the Tops, who then go about communicating and executing through the Middle and to the Bottom. The ensuring drama provides rich data on how people communicate, collaborate, and act. A classic for reviewing systems thinking.

Several days are played out before the simulation ends. Then de-brief begins.

The whole simulation is not role playing but real play.

I have used this often in my work and it is a treasure house to reflect on Organisation.

“The nature of system is certainty; the nature of structure is security; the nature of beauty is order. These define the ‘oughts’ of a good society. When the ‘oughts’ become ‘musts’, they become tools of oppression and unleash great sorrow. When that sad day arrives, the way to regenerate the society is not to defy or to deny but to define; not to resist or to desist but to persist.”~ Pulin K. Garg