As I was looking at Toni Stafford's Transforming the Forest Service blog, I decided it time to take another look at both the bright and the dark side of organization. On the bright side, I updated my "Effective Organizations" outline. In Effective Organizations I attempt to interrelate:
- W. Edwards Deming's 14 Points and Seven Deadly Diseases
- Peter Block's Stewardship
- Ronald Heifetz's Leadership
- Karl Weick's Mindfulness
- Donald Schön's Reflection
- Peter Senge's Systems Thinking
- Chris Argyris' Overcoming Organizational Defenses
- Margaret Wheatley's A Simpler Way
- Gifford and Elizabeth Pinchot's Rights and Responsibilities
- and more, including Dialogue, Collaboration and Learning
The task of moving from an 'oppressive bureaucracy' to an 'empowered collaborative' is huge. But the payoff is massive. Moving from a fear-based hierarchy/patriarchy to a self-organizing, federation is a journey none of us ought to pass up willingly.
As the journey is begun (or not, as the case may be) we ought not to forget the dark side, as I have noted before:
- US Forest Service Deeply Flawed Planning Culture, 2004
- Five Habits of Highly Defective Organizations, and Five Leadership/Management Needs, 2003
- The Forest Service as a Learning Challenged Organization, 1999
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