-- Rick Karash, rkarash@world.std.com, host for learning-org
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Subj: Stuck in the middle
From: TFYY93A@prodigy.com (MR GEOFFREY F FOUNTAIN)
I can appreciate your frustration. I work for a primary
contractor at a DOE site with 18,000 people. I've attended
all four annual Systems Thinking In Action conferences. I
was the only representative from my site at the last one.
I agree with the other responses. Along with patience and
persistence, you have to pick a key project that is a
"basket case" for applying ST and the other principles of
the LO. I am at the point where I have the right project
(Configuration Management, which is the "mother" of systems
at our site and currently totaly dysfunctional), and I
have convinced the CM project manager that establishing a
implementation planning team that will be facilitated using
ST concepts is his key strategy for success.
Our next step is to sell the decision makers on the need for
a team, and the need for using ST methods. Hope to have
that done in February.
Other things I have done over the last three years:
* introduced the LO concepts to TQ resources (they are very
receptive and become active supporters later on when you
get into implementation efforts
* identified a senior manager who was a natural systems
thinker, then slowly began "exposing" him to ST articles,
discussions, etc
* attended a cross functional issue meeting on waste
handling expecting the main problem was many functions
(Environ., Waste Cert., Chem. Coor., Oper., Mat'l Control,
etc) had their hand in the pie but no one had
responsibility for the whole picture; when the opportunity
arose, I passed out the picture of the five blind men
holding the elephant; the next day, the picture was blown up
to poster size, each blind man was tagged as one of the
functions, the elephant was named "Waste", and the picture
was hung outside the senior manager's office for four weeks;
that picture did more to define the problem, overcome turf
barriers, and pull the group together than anything else
* start an electronic ST network, recruit them one-by-one,
look for natural systems thinkers (many are visual thinkers
rather than auditory "talkers"), be opportunistic, patient,
persistent.
Look for opportunities to demonstrate the concepts and keep
networking with others who are trying. If interpesonal
communciation skills are not your strength, find someone who
has them and sway them over so they can help sell the ideas.
I would be interested in hearing lessons learned from others
on successes/failures in the implementation of LO concepts,
especially grass roots approaches.