This page informs you about 'Large Group Interventions'. A Large Group Intervention
(LGI) is a name for a broad range of methods that can be used to facilitate
and manage organizational change. Characteristic for LGI is that the
whole organization (or a representation of the organization) is involved
in the change process. Also it is not uncommon for a LGI that other
stakeholders such as customers, suppliers, financiers, and governments
participate in the process. The number of participants of a LGI can
vary from 10 to 3000 participants.
General information about LGI
If you want to read more about LGI's wander around on the following
pages:
Click here to read
an article by Robert H. Rouda. This article discusses the background
and theory of large scale organizational change methods. Rouda informs
you about the most popular LGI's such as: Interactive Strategic
Planning, Future Search, Conference Model and Open Space.
Click here to read
a chapter by Martin Leith about 'Creating collaborative gatherings
using large group interventions'. This chapter, that is part of
the 'Gower Handbook of Training and Development' (edited by Anthony
Landale, 1999), includes a brief description of the main LGI methods
(Future Search, Real Time Strategic Change, Participative Design,
Open Space Technology, and Simu Real) and describes the common principles
that underpin the methods.
Also by Martin
Leith: Leith's Guidelines
to Large Group Intevention Methods. These guidelines inform
you about how to use LGI methods and collective gatherings to address
complex strategic issues. For more information by Martin Leith on
LGI, see his homepage.
On this page
you can find assembled material by Carter McNamara about LGI.
Click here
for a critical discussion of Bunker and Alban's book about 'Large
Group Interventions'.
On this
page you can read the article 'Towards a critical perspective
of large scale interventions'.
Future Search is a Large Group Interventions that is developed by Marvin
Weisbord and Sandra Janoff. Future Search can be described as an innovative
planning conference that helps to transform the capability of organizations
for cooperative action in a relatively short time. Future search is
- similar to scenario conferences - especially helpful in uncertain,
fast-changing situations. Because people build on what they already
have, they need no prior training or expertise. http://www.change-management-toolbook.com/FS.html.
Click here for 'A conversation
with Marvin Weisbord about Future Search.
For more information about Future Search, its principles, methodology,
and applications see Future Search.net.
If you are interested in Future Search you can join the Future Search Network.
This network is created for those who want to encourage cooperative
planning anywhere in the world.
On the website of Michael Pannwitz, a consultant, you
can read more about Future Search and Open Space.
Read more about Future Search? ...Click here.
Open Space Technology is a LGI intervention developed by Harrison
Owen. At the very least, Open Space is a fast, cheap, and simple
way to better, more productive meetings. At a deeper level, it enables
people to experience a very different quality of organization in which
self-managed work groups are the norm, leadership a constantly shared
phenomenon, diversity becomes a resource to be used instead of a problem
to be overcome, and personal empowerment a shared experience. It is
also fun. In a word, the conditions are set for fundamental organizational
change, indeed that change may already have occurred. By the end,
groups face an interesting choice. They can do it again, they can
do it better, or they can go back to their prior mode of behavior.
Open Space is appropriate in situations where a major issue must be
resolved, characterized by high levels of complexity, high levels
of diversity (in terms of the people involved), the presence of potential
or actual conflict, and with a decision time of yesterday. (Source:
http://www.globalchicago.net/ost/#anchor318036.
On the website created by Owen, 'The Pracite of Peach', you
can find more information about Open Space.
Real Time Strategic Change (RTSC) is more than a large group intervention
method: it is a principle-based approach to transforming the whole
organisation. RTSC begins with contracting and scoping. This is
followed by a leadership alignment event which enables the formal
and informal leaders of the organisation to understand the RTSC
philosophy, agree purpose and outcomes for the change effort and
make a commitment to moving forward together. (Source: http://www.martinleith.com/nowtonew/lgi/chapter.html).
Read more?
Managing Change
with Large-Scale, Real-Time Interventions, an article by Robert
H. Rouda & Mitchell E. Kusy. Click here
On this site you can view an outline and summary
of the book 'Real Time Strategic Change', by R.W. Jabobs.
Click here
to view some sheets about Real Time Strategic Change.
On this
page you can find an article on Real Time Strategic Change.
Simu Real is a LGI developed by Don Klein. Simu-Real enables members
of an organisation to work together on a real organisational task
so that they can see the whole organisation in all its complexity,
become aware of, and skilled in, dealing with organisational dynamics,
and determine what, if anything, needs to be changed. The method
is used to help organisations explore differences, solve complex
problems, redesign work processes, agree goals and develop plans
for realising them. The Simu-Real event takes place in a large room
which, when the participants arrive, becomes a microcosm of the
organisation in action. The departments or other organisational
units are located in different parts of the room according to their
place in the actual organisation. This is the ‘Simu?part of
Simu-Real. The ‘Real?part is the task or project that the organisation
will undertake. The task is conceived by a planning committee, whose
members are drawn from the organisational units. The committee prepares
all aspects of the Simu-Real event including the room layout and
the decision making process (Source: http://www.martinleith.com/nowtonew/lgi/chapter.html).
Participative Design was developed in 1971 by Fred and Merrelyn
Emery. They developed the model as a faster and more acceptable
alternative to the Socio-Technical Systems approach, where a multi-functional
task force redesigns the organisation, usually taking a whole year
to do so. A design created in such a way tends to be flawed, because
it is based on an incomplete assessment of reality. Also, workers
do not have ownership of the design, and this generates resistance
to change. And, perhaps most significantly, the organisation’s
underlying power structure remains intact. Whereas STS is based
on what the Emerys call the ‘bureaucratic design principle?
Participative Design reflects the ‘democratic design principle?
This says that (1) those who have to do the work are in the best
position to design the way in which it is structured, (2) effectiveness
is greatly improved when teams take responsibility for controlling
their own work, and (3) the organisation increases its flexibility
and responsiveness when people are capable of performing multiple
functions and tasks. (Source: http://www.martinleith.com/nowtonew/lgi/chapter.html.)
More information about Participative Work Desigh, see:
An article
about Participative Design by Steve Cabana.
An article
about Participative Design by Frank Heckman.
Consultancies that work with LGI:
Vaughan Consulting Group
Vaughan Consulting Group helps organizations create strategic visions
supported with commitment and passion and help companies create
organizational structures that are participative and self-managed.
Using cutting-edge large group intervention strategies, such as
search conferences and participative design workshops, Vaughan aims
to create a sense of community in which employees are highly motivated
to achieve a shared vision.
On this website you can also find some general information about
large group interventions and an overview of some possible large
group methodologies (e.g. search conferences, participative design,
open space technology). Click here.
Mediated Solutions Incorporated
MSI has experience managing large group intervention disputes including
poisoned work environment and government consultations. For example,
in the role as mediation service provider for the Walkerton Compensation
Plan, MSI has designed, convened and facilitated various multi-party
interventions between employees and management to address poisoned
work environments, and sexual harassment situations under the Human
Rights Code. These cases involved 25 to 400 employees in private
and public professional settings.
Colosseum
The Colosseum mission is to raise the profile and understanding
of how leaders and managers can best facilitate the never ending
change processes within their organisations. Their expertise is
in five main areas: OD, Change management, LGI, Conflict resolution/mediation,
Management development and training Colosseum works with LGI and
provides some general information about it such as: the purpose
of GI, their key assumptions, and their methods.
The PAR group
PAR (Participatory Research) is de naam van een interdisciplinaire
groep onderzoekers die zich bezig houdt met strategische probleemoplossing
en organisatieverandering. Het gaat daarbij om zogeheten 'messy
problems' in organisaties. Problemen die complex zijn, en waarover
binnen een (management)team duidelijk verschillen van opvatting
bestaan, niet alleen over wat het probleem is, maar ook over de
vraag óf er eigenlijk wel een probleem is. Verschillen van
perceptie en belangentegenstelling verhinderen een organisatie vaak
om een probleem goed in kaart te brengen en tot robuuste oplossingen
te geraken. Beslissingen die genomen worden, kunnen dan ook vaak
op weinig draagvlak rekenen. De PAR groep heeft een aantal (large
group) interventiemethoden tot haar beschikking die juist in deze
situaties hun nut kunnen bewijzen.
Reference List
Click
here
to view an extensive list of references on LGI.
