17 results
Prologue
- Margaret Attwood, Mike Pedler, Sue Pritchard, David Wilkinson
-
- Book:
- Leading Change
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 20 January 2022
- Print publication:
- 12 February 2003, pp xiii-xvi
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
This book has been some time in the writing. It represents the dialogue, bothconceptual and practical, between the four of us, as consultants, researchers andwriters concerned with the integration of thinking and action across threelargely disconnected fields of activity – organisation development, communitydevelopment and the implementation of government policy on public services.Its context is one of a rapidly changing social and public policy landscape.
The pressures continue to grow for new forms and standards of delivery andfor local joining up and reconnecting of services to users, citizens andcommunities. This demands new service configurations, and new forms ofpartnership and local and neighbourhood governance. The organisationalchallenges to meet these changing requirements are considerable. In this bookour exploration of them can be summarised as a question: How canorganisations fit to house the human spirit be created and sustained such thatthey meet the needs of communities and society at large?
Our responses to this from our various experiences have driven us to despairas well as giving a sense of the emerging possibilities.
On the dark side we see organisations whose design is still based on machine-like and territorial assumptions where:
•change is equated with restructuring, with the attendant dangers of movingthe chairs around the deck of the Titanic and, in the process, setting backprogress to improve services;
•managerial attention is focused on internal silos to the detriment of a coherentapproach to stakeholder needs;
•territory is defended against the demands or wishes of partners and residents,and even against the ‘unreasonable’ demands of staff;
•the attention span is short and of the ‘let’s fix it’ variety, rather than taking alonger-term and sustainable view.
Such organisations are not usually populated by bad or even incompetentpeople. People, we believe, are the product of the circumstances, the system, inwhich they find themselves. Firing the key people will not change these designassumptions; equally, developing individual competencies alone will not changethe way things work.
On the brighter side some people and organisations are:
•working creatively with local residents to improve services;
•asking different questions about ways of organising that support-improveddelivery;
•seeing structural change as only one ingredient of sustainable development;
Bibliography
- Margaret Attwood, Mike Pedler, Sue Pritchard, David Wilkinson
-
- Book:
- Leading Change
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 20 January 2022
- Print publication:
- 12 February 2003, pp 193-200
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
Eight - Follow-through and sticking with it
- Margaret Attwood, Mike Pedler, Sue Pritchard, David Wilkinson
-
- Book:
- Leading Change
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 20 January 2022
- Print publication:
- 12 February 2003, pp 131-142
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
A friend used to tell the story of a great African river that started high in the mountains and became a rushing torrent sweeping all before it; but when it came to the plain, its momentum slowed and it split into many rivulets on the flat land. Soon it became a huge swamp and the mighty river had disappeared. Change efforts often start with great momentum, as attempts to tackle previously intractable problems, but then, as time passes and the terrain changes, energy for these efforts dissipates.
This analogy, however, can be viewed somewhat differently in whole systems terms. As those who took O level Geography will recall, it is the force of the river in its early course that creates steep valleys; as the river grows in volume, its energy disperses and it meanders to the sea. But the energy does not disappear. A feature of meandering rivers is the oxbow lake – a deep bend in the river, which becomes isolated as the river takes the shortest course. And of course, it is in the rich river floodplains and deltas that agriculture does best. So the river does what it needs to do to meet the sea, bending around obstacles,and can look very different in appearance from the mountain stream to the broad delta. But it is all part of a connected cycle of rainfall, water catchment,coastal and ocean systems.
In whole systems terms, follow-through is inextricably linked with the challenge of implementation, of getting things done and generating change in the long term. It does not have the same connotations as follow-up (the odd meeting to catch up with progress), rather it carries with it the somewhat old-fashioned virtues of persistence, resilience and sticking with it, alongside the more modern attributes of sensitivity to, and awareness of, the changing character of the environment in which we operate. So by follow-through we mean allof those activities and processes that help bring about change, translate strategyinto actions and make a difference. Importantly, follow-through is not a fixedtop-down process; it is an organic, dynamic process intimately connected tothe circumstances and context in which the change challenge takes place.
In this chapter, we:
• introduce and develop the idea of change architecture;
• develop the links between change architectures, the Five Keys and the otherimportant principles for leading change developed in Chapter Three (holding frameworks, middle-ground frameworks and widening circles of inclusivity);
• reiterate and develop the role and purpose of action learning within wholesystems processes;
• emphasise the continuing importance of creating ‘memories of the future’ through scenario building and wider inclusion;
• connect to the last two chapters on the newer forms of organising andworking towards local solutions with wider whole systems.
Frontmatter
- Margaret Attwood, Mike Pedler, Sue Pritchard, David Wilkinson
-
- Book:
- Leading Change
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 20 January 2022
- Print publication:
- 12 February 2003, pp i-iv
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
Ten - Confirming cases: local problems andlocal solutions within whole systems
- Margaret Attwood, Mike Pedler, Sue Pritchard, David Wilkinson
-
- Book:
- Leading Change
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 20 January 2022
- Print publication:
- 12 February 2003, pp 163-182
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
At 3.00am in the morning of 30 October 2000 the River Aire startedto flood the Stockbridge neighbourhood of Keighley. Stockbridge is a relatively poor, ethnically mixed community. The housing stock consists of mostlyVictorian terraced houses and budget-priced 1930s semis, privately owned or rented. There is also a small amount of relatively new housing built on the flood plain, both privately and housing association owned. For the most part, it is a relatively low paid community.
Some people had about an hour’s warning, others none at all. By 10.00am people were arriving at the Keighley Leisure Centre (about half a mileaway), where the local authority (Bradford Metropolitan District Council) had set up an emergency response centre. Some arrived without shoes and socks and many were upset and disoriented by the experience. There was also a growing realisation that many had no household insurance.
A total of 292 households were affected. It was to be between 6 and 12 months before people were back in their homes. Not only was this a traumaticevent for individuals, it was a traumatic event for a fragile community. What happened next is a very positive story of what frontline interagency collaboration and fully involving local people, can achieve.
The story of the floods at Stockbridge illustrates how global problems areexperienced locally. It is not the citizens of Stockbridge (or Bangladesh) who have created the conditions which have submerged them, but they arenonetheless the main victims and those with the greatest interest in doing something about these conditions. There is also a responsibility on the public authorities within which these events occur to ensure they also learn from theexperience. It may be said that this is a huge problem – what does it have to do with local people and local solutions? It is of course true that issues of globalwarming must be tackled at a global level, and questions of flood defence at anational level, but these problems are experienced essentially at a local level, and their local solution is critical to sustainable development. This chapter makes the case for whole systems development as a methodology for combiningthe various levels at which action is needed, with local involvement andsustainable improvements at local level where the problems are experienced.
Four - Leadership: keeping the big picture in view
- Margaret Attwood, Mike Pedler, Sue Pritchard, David Wilkinson
-
- Book:
- Leading Change
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 20 January 2022
- Print publication:
- 12 February 2003, pp 57-76
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Our first attempts at the definition of the guiding principles for whole systems development did not include leadership. Experience of assisting with processes of change and learning across organisational boundaries suggests that this was a gross omission. Followers often express considerable anger and frustration that powerful individuals and organisations have failed to deal with issues that impact adversely on their daily lives. They are angry when a hospital blames the local social services department for the slowness of discharge procedures. They are unimpressed with the attempts of the railway companies to distance themselves from the problems of Railtrack. Explanations by car dealers about the impact of outsourcing of parts on the time taken to repair cars fall on deaf ears. It is the reality – the delivery on the ground – that matters. Effective leadership is an essential component of this.
Systemic change will not be effective if it ignores the responsibilities and accountabilities of individual organisations. Public service organisations are the servants of the public, and they should be held accountable by the politicians we elect for the resources they use. Similarly, commercial organisations are responsible to their shareholders. Collaboration or partnership across organisational boundaries runs into the sand if these constraints are not explained to those involved. This is the job of leadership. Leaders must frame these issues within a wider context, in ways that enable managers, staff, consumers and citizens to take responsibility for and begin to tackle these things themselves. Effectiveleadership is vital to the achievement of systemic change. These requirementsare mirrored in the research on organisational renewal by Beer et al:
Each revitalisation leader had to find a way to translate external pressuresinto internalised dissatisfaction with the status quo and/or excitement abouta better way. Dissatisfaction is fuelled by awareness that the organisation isno longer meeting the demands of its competitive environment. Excitementcan be stimulated by imagining an approach to organisation and managingthat eliminates many current problems or appeals to fundamental values.(1990, p 79)
In this chapter we:
• Contend that ‘hero leadership’ cannot be successful in tackling ‘wicked’ or intractable problems.
• See leadership as something for the many rather than the few ‘top’ people.
• Explore the processes involved in leading across ‘whole systems’ – assisting sense-making, establishing ‘holding frameworks’, using collective intelligence and so on – and some of the paradoxes with which leaders must grapple.
Index
- Margaret Attwood, Mike Pedler, Sue Pritchard, David Wilkinson
-
- Book:
- Leading Change
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 20 January 2022
- Print publication:
- 12 February 2003, pp 201-207
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
Two - How Do We Put These Fine Words Intoaction? An Overview of Whole Systems Development
- Margaret Attwood, Mike Pedler, Sue Pritchard, David Wilkinson
-
- Book:
- Leading Change
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 20 January 2022
- Print publication:
- 12 February 2003, pp 19-38
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Business is 5% strategy, 95% implementation.
As emphasised in Chapter One, it is implementation, and not vision or strategy, that is the biggest challenge for leaders seeking to bring about change. Whole systems development is a set of propositions, tools and practices that aims to engage all the people in the system in designing and implementing change. There is nothing magical or mysterious about this. Sustainable change, in contrast to that which is temporary and superficial, is only brought about by involving all those who are part of the problem in creating and implementingthe solutions.
In this chapter we:
•outline our practice of whole systems development at the three levels ofphilosophy, operating principles and processes;
•emphasise the importance of a pragmatic approach to change, action andlearning
•develop some principles for the whole systems way of working;
•explain how these are underpinned by five working processes, which weterm the Five Keys of whole systems development.
Philosophies – useful action and learning in the context ofthe whole system
Our standpoint is a pragmatic one: what works best in helping people bring about the changes they seek. As a philosophical movement, pragmatism flourished in the later 19th and early 20th century and is associated with people like Charles Peirce, William James, John Dewey and George Herbert Mead. Like many philosophers before them, pragmatists sought to unite reason and values, and their particular contribution was to ally scientific knowledge and the ideals of human conduct in an era characterised by rapid social and intellectual change. This led them to focus on the possibilities for, and the consequences of, human action in a changing world. They emphasised the need for experiment, reflection and learning in working out what is most useful for us, what works best.
William James tells a story that illustrates this position. While camping in the mountains with friends, James returned from a solitary walk to find them engaged in a furious metaphysical dispute:
The corpus of the dispute was a squirrel – a live squirrel supposed to be clinging to one side of a tree trunk; while over against the tree’s opposite side a human being was imagined to stand. This human witness tries to get sight of the squirrel by moving rapidly round the tree, but no matter how fast he goes, the squirrel moves as fast in the opposite direction, and always keeps the tree between himself and the man, so that never a glimpse of him is caught.
Three - The emerging practice of wholesystems development
- Margaret Attwood, Mike Pedler, Sue Pritchard, David Wilkinson
-
- Book:
- Leading Change
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 20 January 2022
- Print publication:
- 12 February 2003, pp 39-56
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
As indicated in the values statement in the Prologue, whole systems development aims to help people get things done locally. Because it is focused on local implementation rather than on dramatic intervention, whole systems development is not a neat, predictable process. Typically drawn in by a person or an organisation with a question, it starts from the problem and develops a change methodology in partnership with people in that setting. The principles that guide the work emerge as ‘grounded theory’ in particular contexts.
Nevertheless, a broad framework or ‘change architecture’ (see Chapter Eight) for such processes can be described. This framework has three components: context, content and process. Whole systems development operates within a context of change described by such dilemmas as those discussed in Chapter One – top-down and bottom-up, consumer and citizen, treatment and prevention, and consultation and participation. Within this context, the content or focus of the work is defined by the Five Keys of whole systems development, while the process is governed by some important principles of practice (see Chapter Two, pages 28-9).
In this chapter, through the case study of a courageous effort to deconstruct the old system of local government and challenge it with a structure based onresident self-governance through neighbourhood committees, we:
• illustrate the main principles and themes of whole systems development as they emerge from practice;
• demonstrate that all whole systems development activities are a process of action learning;
• develop a number of other themes and principles through the emergingstory of Gladwell – working via ‘widening circles of inclusivity’ withinmultiple, overlapping systems, using action learning in the whole systemscontext, creating the space for leadership via ‘holding frameworks’ and ‘middle-ground frameworks’. (These ideas are developed in more depth in the lastthree chapters.)
The story that emerges is more an account of our learning, than a cause–effect change intervention of what we did. This implies starting by trying something, reflecting and learning from it, and expecting to be confounded from time totime. It is vital to keep struggling to make sense, to learn, to act and to contribute.
We have also learned that it is not easy to keep hold of values and principles change of practice where people have a natural expectation that they employ you totell them what to do.
Seven - Meeting differently: large and small group working
- Margaret Attwood, Mike Pedler, Sue Pritchard, David Wilkinson
-
- Book:
- Leading Change
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 20 January 2022
- Print publication:
- 12 February 2003, pp 111-130
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Question: How do you eat an elephant?
Answer: In bite-sized chunks!
At the heart of this old analogy for managing big changes lies a fallacy: that splitting a whole into parts makes the change process easier.
Consider a visual image of the elephant:
Each person sees only that part of the elephant on which they are focusing – a leg or a tusk. The whole animal is not visible. The challenge of designing whole systems development processes is to enable everyone to see the whole elephant together. Although in most cases this is an impossible aspiration, the key issue is to develop ways in which the actors can see, understand and think through their ways of working together on issues that cross organisational and community boundaries.
In this chapter we:
•examine the ways in which groups – both large and small – can meet differently to enable the principles of whole systems development to be practised;
• explore the leadership, design and logistics of big events as one key mechanism for meeting differently;
• discuss the consultancy support needed to assist these ways of working;
• encourage you to reflect and learn from personal experiences of meeting differently;
• explore the notion of ‘everyone in the room together’ as a metaphor for meeting differently as practised particularly through processes of action learning.
Drawing the boundaries for ‘meeting differently’
The more we engage in systems thinking, the more arbitrary formal organisationsseem:
• Why aren’t students seen as part of a school’s organisation?
• Or tenants, part of a housing department?
• Or customers and suppliers, part of a manufacturing company?
None of these can exist in isolation from the others. But so frequently, as with the internal departments of an organisation, formal boundaries quickly become walls and those beyond them adversaries. Ironically, these divisions have oftenbeen established to manage past changes, but then themselves have become barriers to progress. And traditional boundaries can so easily change – as therecent fashion for outsourcing has shown. In so many instances, what is technically inside an organisation and what is outside is relatively arbitrary.
From this perspective, it is artificial and unhelpful to design processes thatare confined within the ‘walls’ of a single department or organisation or, indeed,at parts of the wider systems of which organisations are but one part.
Five - Public learning
- Margaret Attwood, Mike Pedler, Sue Pritchard, David Wilkinson
-
- Book:
- Leading Change
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 20 January 2022
- Print publication:
- 12 February 2003, pp 77-94
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
The story of Gladwell in Chapter Three illustrated that organisational learning:
… is not the same thing as individual learning, even when the individuals who learn are members of the organisation. There are too many cases in which organisations know less than their members. There are even cases in which the organisation cannot seem to learn what every member knows.(Argyris and Schon, 1978, p 9)
If this is true for the state of collective knowledge in organisations, it is even truer of systems. Separated by the boundaries of organisations, and with different ways of seeing based on culture, tradition and experience, people find it difficult,if not impossible, to create the shared meanings necessary to grapple effectively with the issues facing organisations as they strive to serve customers, communities and individual citizens more effectively. As a society, we have invested massively in transferring knowledge about how to organise health and social care, housing, education and other public services. Think about all the education and training processes devoted to these ends. However, most of this wisdom is created and disseminated through the separate silos of higher education institutions and professional bodies. Historically, academically, professionally and managerially, there has been territoriality or a tendency to look inward rather than to consider what to share with others so that understanding can be strengthened. “The world has problems, but universities have departments” (Brewer, 1999, p 328). We lack ways of connecting knowledge, which would assist understanding of ways in which changes in one part of society impact elsewhere. Yet, ironically, the need to develop this connectedness has never been greater. The ‘closely coupled’ nature of society means that changes introduced in one place quicklyhave an impact elsewhere.
This affects all of us. For example, the culture of long hours and the stressexperienced by many parents leads to the development of ‘parental time deficit’,where insufficient time is spent with children. Even when families have timetogether, parents can be tired and stressed, with obvious consequences for thedevelopment of their children. Alongside this, many schools are reportingincreased exclusions of pupils because of unacceptably disruptive behaviour.This is not just a response to the publication of league tables of examperformance.
one - Why do we need whole systems change?
- Margaret Attwood, Mike Pedler, Sue Pritchard, David Wilkinson
-
- Book:
- Leading Change
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 20 January 2022
- Print publication:
- 12 February 2003, pp 1-18
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Governments the world over are desperate to find ways of delivering better services and new forms of governance that are responsive to user, citizen and community needs. Economic forces and globalisation have pushed these previously domestic matters into a wider international context. Government priorities worldwide centre on stabilising national economies and improving public services, especially health and education, in the face of electorates apparently reluctant to pay higher taxes. The clarion call of politicians is ‘Delivery,delivery, delivery’. Their political lives now depend on it. But do politicians, their civil servants and managers have the conceptual, institutional and practical tools that are fit for this purpose?
The answer to the question seems to be no, at least not in any consistent sense. Top-down change initiatives increase in the hope of a ‘big’ answer around the corner. Private sector ideas such as internal markets, hit squads of super managers and tougher inspection regimes are imported in the hope of a fix. Yet many of these ideas are deeply flawed and not even effective in the commercial settings where they originate (Heller, 2001). However, while leaders are driven to desperate searches for big solutions, there are numerous examples of exciting innovations at the local level. Despite the persistent mantra of learning from best practice, much of this local innovation is not widely sharedand gets lost.
Whole systems approaches are rooted in years of evidence-based practice in public, private, voluntary and community domains (Wilkinson, 1997; Wilkinson and Appelbee, 1999). Despite the political slogan that ‘What works is what counts’, service improvements are ‘constructed’ and delivered through organisational frameworks and practices that have not themselves been subject to evidence-based enquiry. As Robert Heller puts it:
These schemes are devised, usually at ministerial behest, by civil servants who know little about management, and probably think less, and who are not expert in the practice of medicine, education, justice or transport. The inevitably misshapen plans are sold to politicians even less qualified than the Whitehall wizards. (Heller, 2001, p 9)
Whole systems approaches do not offer a single technique or new big answer. A large part of the problem is that we live in the continuing hope that we either have, or are about to discover, the final answer. There are no solutions that can be programmed in from the top.
Leading Change
- A Guide to Whole Systems Working
- Margaret Attwood, Mike Pedler, Sue Pritchard, David Wilkinson
-
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 20 January 2022
- Print publication:
- 12 February 2003
-
Six - Valuing difference and diversity: getting the whole systeminto the room
- Margaret Attwood, Mike Pedler, Sue Pritchard, David Wilkinson
-
- Book:
- Leading Change
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 20 January 2022
- Print publication:
- 12 February 2003, pp 95-110
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
We are seeing a societal learning curve where people are moving from a tendency to rely on experts to solve problems or to improve whole systems to individuals themselves wanting more control over issues that critically affect their lives. We see this in demands to be involved: by parents in decisions about the education of their children; by patients and carers in decisions about their personal health and social care; by communities in debates about the future of institutions such as hospitals or schools and in planning decisions. People are disenchanted with their inability to have a real voice in a society. This is also reflected in the apparent apathy of many people, often reflected by low turnouts at local and national elections.
Marvin Weisbord has characterised this as a historical trend over the lastcentury:
• 1900 – experts solve problems
• 1950 – ‘everybody’ solves problems
• 1965 – experts improve whole systems
• 2000 – ‘everybody’ improves whole systems (Weisbord and Janoff, 1995, p 2)
We are not suggesting that whole systems development is the universal panacea for all these ills. However, the principle that anyone affected by a change should be an architect of it does assist thinking about ways in which diverse perspectives and aspirations can be incorporated into decisions to improve the circumstances in which people live and work. People of all political persuasions and social and economic circumstances can have a hand in painting the big picture. They can start to align their own actions with those of colleagues or fellow citizens to bring this into being.
In this chapter we:
• explore how the difference and diversity within the whole system can beutilised to the benefit of all stakeholders;
• address how the whole system can come ‘into the room together’ to workon complex issues such as partnerships between organisations, ways ofimproving education or healthcare or dealing with urban poverty;
• discuss ways of ensuring that the voices of disadvantaged groups on the margin of society are heard, if not directly at least indirectly, in whole systems development.
Inviting local residents to plan the future of their communities
Your Community Tomorrow
A Better Future For All
We are forging a new direction, where local people have a say in their tomorrow. If you are an individual or part of a group interested in building the future together, we need to hear your views.
Contents
- Margaret Attwood, Mike Pedler, Sue Pritchard, David Wilkinson
-
- Book:
- Leading Change
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 20 January 2022
- Print publication:
- 12 February 2003, pp v-vi
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
Nine - From organisations to networks
- Margaret Attwood, Mike Pedler, Sue Pritchard, David Wilkinson
-
- Book:
- Leading Change
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 20 January 2022
- Print publication:
- 12 February 2003, pp 143-162
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Very little is accomplished now by the single organisation acting alone. Most organisations need business partners; not only horizontally, in alliances, supply chains or joint ventures, but also vertically around relationships with users andcustomers. The organisational life cycle is shorter than it was; organisations are founded, mature and die off with increasing speed. In seeking to respond to change and complexity, everyone must ‘spread their bets’; have multiple options and consider more futures. Moreover, the futures of more organisations are tied to the desires and ambitions of users and consumers in their communities and neighbourhoods.
The single organisation, traditionally the site for organisational development efforts, is no longer an adequate unit of analysis. It cannot embrace the connections and relationships needed for the way in which products and services are now designed, developed, produced and delivered. This is especially so when tackling innovative solutions to intractable problems, the ‘wicked issues’,and in moving to more preventative and sustainable outcomes. The network, including the notions of value chain or supply chain, alliances and partnerships,is the new organisational form of the 21st century, while network organising is the new skill to be mastered by leaders and managers.
This is particularly true of public services. Although, as noted earlier, whole systems development (WSD) is not limited to this field of endeavour, the complexity and paradoxical tensions found here make it a natural site for this way of working. As Revans has observed, these tensions cannot be resolved by simple applications of science or system, and their resolution in particulardemands the involvement of service users:
But, whatever our theoretical powers, the systems we need in order to understand the public services are not to be found in the libraries and computing rooms of universities. If they are to be found at all, it will be in such social laboratories as the back streets of Gateshead, and it is there thatwe shall need to learn how to work. Our problem at the moment is to getourselves invited. (Revans, 1975, p 492)
Whole systems development fits an era when organisational boundaries areloosening and becoming more complex and problematic. In giving voice tothe many different interests and motivations making up an organisational fieldof activity, WSD builds on the earlier organisation development (OD) andlearning organisation approaches.
Epilogue
- Margaret Attwood, Mike Pedler, Sue Pritchard, David Wilkinson
-
- Book:
- Leading Change
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 20 January 2022
- Print publication:
- 12 February 2003, pp 183-192
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
As noted at the outset, this book is based on a dialogue between the four of us, which has developed over the past six or seven years. Our prime motivation has been to understand and to improve our practice in a new area of work that brings together the hitherto disconnected activities of organisation development, community development and public service development.
We are excited by the emerging possibilities of the work, and this includes being sometimes downcast by the difficulties, complexities and depredations of what we have called Mad Management Virus. We have been sustained by working with many creative and engaging people, whose commitment and learning is infectious and encouraging.
The aim of the book is to help people in organisations work effectively aspart of a wider system of local communities, partner organisations, myriadnetworks and external relationships. While there are no simple prescriptionshere, we provide a framework to help people make sense of this new world ofpractice, without oversimplifying the complexity in the situation.
The various elements of our thinking and practice can be assembled in asynthesis that provides not so much a model, but more of a ‘retro-fit’ framework.This framework for whole systems development emerges as grounded theoryin particular contexts, and has three components: context, process and outcomes.
Whole systems development operates within a context of change defined by the underlying policy dilemmas and values that guide the work. The dilemmas provide the outer context; the values the inner. Within this context, the process of whole systems development work is defined by the Five Keys, and the outcomes change of this process are the substantive and specific outcomes of the particular task and the holding framework of the change architecture. A brief recapitulation of these elements serves as a summary of our argument.
Ten core values of whole systems development
Over time, we have developed a number of values in respect of our own activities. Some of these are personal values held over many years; others are more recent and stem from the experience of whole systems development work. As ever, we offer these ten core values in the spirit of learning rather than as ‘ten easysteps for consultants engaged with whole systems projects’. As stated in the Prologue, these are:
•optimism
•empathy and humility
•tenacity and courage
•learning
•whole systems perspective
•local knowledge
•local solutions
•building social capital
•celebrating small steps