DIALOGIC ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT 1. INOC-Meeting, May 29-30, 2015 in Wiesloch, Germany
MICHAEL ROEHRIG
ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT RELOADED
1. Some useful Frameworks about
Leading / Enabling Change
2. Dialogic Organization Development:
A New Generative Image
3. Amplifying Change:
Organizing for “Planned Emergence”
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A DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK
PERFORMANCE CAPABILITIES
l Strategy l Structure l Processes l Tools
Michael Roehrig, 2012
What?
JOINT INSPIRATION
l Purpose l Function l Reason for Being
Why?
PREFERED FUTURE
l Joint Vision l Desired Future l Strategic Advantage
What for?
CULTURAL CAPABILITIES
l Identity l Values l Behavioral Patterns l Skills
How?
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What matters Now?
NOWNESS
l Mindfulness l Transparency l Real-time Feedback
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CONTEXT AWARENESS IN DECISION MAKING
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l Different contexts require different patterns of decision making and acting
l Most change contexts today are complex
l The decision logic for complex situations is: Probe, Sense, Respond
l Traditional decision making, based on analysis and results hardly works in these situations
COMPLICATED COMPLEX
OBVIOUS CHAOTIC
Sense Analyze Respond
Probe Sense Respond
Sense Categorize Respond
Act Sense Respond
GOOD PRACTICE EMERGENT
BEST PRACTICE NOVEL
Disorder
Source: modified from Snowden/Boone: A Leader‘s Framework for Decision Making, 2007
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TWO PARADIGMS OF ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE
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Programmatic / Diagnostic
„Unfreeze – Move - Refreeze“ (Lewin)
Linear thinking
Top-down approach
„Closing gaps”
Hierarchy, control
Rational, technical topics
Tell, Sell, achieve „Buy-in“
Dealing with “resistance”
Project organization, nominations
Detailed planning: roadmap and milestones
Which results will our measures produce?
Deliverables
Controlling, Audits and Data
Learning from Experience
Consultant as expert and executor
Emergent / Dialogic
„Freeze – Adapt - Unfreeze“ (Rowland)
Systemic Thinking
Can start anywhere in the system
„unfolding potential”
Influence and snowball effect
Social, political, psycho-dynamic topics
Co-create, “embody” the new
Different qualities / energies in the system
Networks, communities, forums, dialogue circles
Big picture and next step(s)
Which effect will our activities have?
Inspired action, probes and prototypes
Change in mindset and relations
Learning from the emerging future
Consultant as facilitator and reflection partner
Michael Roehrig, 2012
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APPROACHES TO LEADING CHANGE
CO-CREATED PRE-DEFINED
l Initiatives l Programs, Tool Kits
l Self organized l Few “hard
rules”
l Competency Building l Learning Architectures l Dialogue Platforms
l Tell/Sell l Roll-Outs
“I can manage change”
“Launch enough and something will stick”
“I can only create the conditions for change to happen”
“I trust my people to solve things with us”
Source: adapted from Transcend Consultancy 2010
DIRECTIVE EMERGENT
SELF- ASSEMBLY
MASTER- FUL
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U-PROCESS AND LEVELS OF LISTENING
Voice of fear
Open will
Voice of cynicism
Open heart
Voice of judgment
Open mind LISTENING 2 From outside
Disconfirming (new) data
“Downloading” Habits of judgment
Reconfirming old habits and judgments
Factual Noticing differences
LISTENING 3 From within
Empathic Emotional connection
LISTENING 1 From habits
LISTENING 4 From source
Generative From the future wanting to emerge
Source: adapted from Otto Scharmer, 2015
Seeing through another person‘s eyes
Connecting to an emer- ging future whole: Shift in identity and self
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EXAMPLES OF DIALOGIC INTERVENTIONS
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1. Art of Convening (Neal and Neal)
2. Art of Hosting (artofhosting.org)
3. Appreciative Inquiry (Cooperrider)
4. Charettes (Lennertz)
5. Community Learning (Fulton)
6. Complex Responsive Processes (Stacey, Shaw)
7. Conference Model (Axelrod)
8. Coordinated Management of Meaning (Pearce & Cronen)
9. Cycle of Resolution (Levine)
10. Dynamic Facilitation (Rough)
11. Engaging Emergence (Holman)
12. Future Search (Weisbord)
13. Intergroup Dialogue (Nagada, Gurin)
14. Moments of Impact (Ertel & Solomon)
15. Narrative Mediation (Winslade & Monk)
16. Open Space Technology (Owen)
17. Organizational Learning Conversations (Bushe)
18. Participative Design (M. Emery)
19. Peer Spirit Circles (Baldwin)
20. Polarity Management (Johnson)
21. Preferred Futuring (Lippitt)
22. REAL Model (Wassermann & Gallegos)
23. Real Time Strategic Change (Jacobs)
24. Reflexive Inquiry (Oliver)
25. Re-Description (Storch)
26. Search Conference (Emery & Emery)
27. Six Conversations (Block)
28. SOAR (Stavros)
29. Social Labs (Hassan)
30. Solution Focused Dialogue (Jackson & McKergow)
31. Sustained Dialogue (Saunders)
32. Syntegration (Beer)
33. Systemic Sustainability (Amadeo & Cox)
34. Talking stick (pre-industrial)
35. Technology of Participation (Spencer)
36. Theory U (Scharmer)
37. Visual Explorer (Palus & Horth)
38. Whole Scale Change (Dannemiller)
39. Work Out (Ashkenas)
40. World Café (Brown & Issacs) Source: Bushe & Marshak, 2015
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Source: modified from Bushe & Marshak, 2015
COMMON THEMES IN DIALOGIC ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT
Bushe & Marshak propose the following common change processes that the Dialogic OD mindset is particularly attuned to, and that the successful Dialogic OD consultant will knowingly or intuitively mix and match a variety of methods in order to maximize the likelihood that one or all will be present:
1. A Disruption in the Ongoing Social Construction of Reality is stimulated or engaged in a way that leads to a more complex Reorganization.
2. A Generative Image is introduced or surfaces that provides new and compelling alternatives for thinking and acting. A generative image is a combination of words, pictures, or other symbolic media that provide new ways of thinking about social and organizational reality.
3. A Change to one or more Core Narratives takes place. The dialogic mindset assumes that transformational change is not possible without the emergence of new, socially-agreed-upon narratives that explain and support the new reality and possibilities, endorsed by those presently or historically in power and authority.
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ENABLING EMERGENCE
Unfolding Change:
• A disturbance, a disruption interrupts the current patterns of organizing • The system differentiates, new ideas and distinctions emerge • New sense making and coherence emerges in the interaction of the
system elements, encompassing a higher level of complexity
Source: adapted from Holman, 2013
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MICHAEL ROEHRIG
Illustration by Steven Wright
DIAGNOSTIC AND DIALOGIC MINDSETS (IDEAL TYPES)
Diagnostic OD Dialogic OD
Ontology Positivism, objective reality Interpretive, constructionist social reality
Organizations are Open systems Dialogic networks
Emphasis on Behavior and results Discourse and generativity
Change is Planned, episodic, more developmental
Emergent, continuous and iterative, more transformational
Consultants Stay apart at the margins, partner with
Are immersed with, part of
Change Processes Hierarchical, start at top, work down
Heterarchical, start anywhere, spread out
Sou
rce:
Bu
she
& M
arsh
ak, 2
01
5
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MICHAEL ROEHRIG
PREMISES OF DIALOGIC OD
1. Reality and relationships are socially constructed.
2. Organizations are meaning-making systems and continuously self-organizing.
3. Language, broadly defined, matters and creating Change requires changing conversations.
4. Participative inquiry and engagement to increase differentiation before seeking coherence.
5. Transformational change is more emergent than planned.
6. Consultants are a not apart but a part of the process.
Source: Schwendenwein, modified from Bushe & Marshak, 2015
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MICHAEL ROEHRIG
SOME TOUCHPOINTS OF DIALOGIC OD
Ro
ehri
g, m
od
ifie
d f
rom
Bu
she,
20
13
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WHAT AND HOW WE
THINK
DECISIONS & ACTIONS
SHARED ASSUMPTIONS
& SENSE-MAKING
ELEMENTS OF STRUCTURE & ENACTED
CULTURE
A
Generative Image
Increase differen-tiation
Identify new actions that lead to new results
Help embed new elements in the system
Instigate “productive Irritation”
Nurture mindfulnes
s & self-observation
Make mental models
transparent
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AMPLIFYING CHANGE – ORGANIZING FOR “PLANNED EMERGENCE”
Michael Roehrig, 2014
MICHAEL ROEHRIG
INSPIRE
l Instigate strategic dialogue
l Create a frame and a spirit of inquiry
l Establish strategic agenda and guiding questions
l Give permission and encouragement to explore
MODEL
l Encourage small scale initiatives and experimentation (explorative, entrepreneurial)
l Encourage/ensure involvement of key stakeholders
l Identify what works
NURTURE
l Amplify what works
l Engage different energies and qualities in the system
l Check Alignment of new solutions with strategy and culture
EMBED
l Adapt structures and processes to support the New
l Identify lessons learnt for ongoing change
l Publicly appreciate and value successes
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IMPLICATIONS
MICHAEL ROEHRIG
What resonates in you? Agreement? Doubts? News? Empathy?
Generative seeds?
What qualities of leadership in organizations would this approach require?
How would we arrange change processes? What would be different?
How can we ensure broad involvement and engagement?
Which organizational design, which governance is needed if change is the
new normal?
How can Coaching help in this?
REFERENCES
MICHAEL ROEHRIG
• Bushe, Gervase R. & Marshak; Robert J.: Dialogic Organization Development - The Theory and Practice of Transformational Change, 2015
• Bushe, Gervase R. & Marshak; Robert J.: Dialogic Organization Development in: Jones, B. & Brazzel, M. (eds): The
NTL Handbook of Organization Development, 2nd Ed., 2013 • Forchhammer, Lorenz S. & Straub, Walter: Verändern – Change Praxis für Entscheider und Führungskräfte, 2013
(Unternehmensentwicklung im Korridor) • Holman, Peggy: A Call to Engage in: OD Practitioner, Winter 2013, Vol. 45, No. 1 • Rowland, Deborah & Higgs, Malcolm: Sustaining Change – Leadership that Works, 2008 • Scharmer, C. Otto & Käufer, Katrin: Leading from the Emerging Future – From Ego-System to Eco-System
Economies, 2013 • Scharmer, C. Otto: Theory U – Leading from the Future as it Emerges, 2009 • Snowden, D. & Boone, M.: A Leader‘s Framework for Decision Making, in: Harvard Business Review, November
2007
Get in touch: www.michaelroehrig.de (website currently available in German)