Fellow LO list members...
First my apologies to those who may also be on the ODnet list, I want to
tap the expertise and knowledge where I can... Here's my question....
A couple of colleagues and I have been having conversations about doing
what we are (at least for now) referring to as an "organizational systems
audit". Here's the premise...
Many institutions have been around for so long (particularly the
educational and governmental) that have systems and sub-systems in place
(dare I say, "entrenched") that were created at a time when they probably
made sense and worked fairly well. However, as we have moved into the 21st
century it is painfully obvious that these 18th, 19th, and 20th century
systems have not kept up with the societal changes around them.
What we see are these various systems bumping into each other and making
for slow, non-responsive organizations that still manage to do some good
work in spite of the barriers this presents. Our idea is that if we ever
have any hope of bringing any kind of "nimbleness" to these
organizations, we have to literally map out or draw pictures of these
systems. It's our hope that by doing this we then can see more clearly
what decades have blinded us to....
...it's then that we can begin to re-design the various systems that every
organization needs so that they can support each other (seeing to delivery
of the product or intended outcome). The ultimate idea is that we
re-design these systems so that they WORK FOR US, rather than we work for
it/them.
To this point I've been directed to look at resources by Marvin Weisbord
on "organizational diagnosis". The one thing I do know for sure is that
the deeper I dig into this the more I'm finding just how much I have to
learn.... one would suspect it's a never-ending spiral.
Can you direct me to additional resources that will help us in thinking
through how such an audit could be framed? If this generates a fair bit
of feedback, I'm most willing to compile that info to share back with the
group.
Thanks.... /jeff miller
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jeff Miller, Ph.D.
Innovative Leadership Solutions
6526 Oxford Drive
Zionsville, IN 46077
http://innovativeleadership.cc
------------------------------------------
office: 317-733-8635 -- fax: 603-590-6711
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e-mail: ils-jeff@mail.com (permanent)
or: jeff1@dtsnia.net
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