|
|
Wave Rider -- The Way of High Performance The achievement of superior performance for individuals and groups has become the holy grail for organizations and institutions of all sorts. For some, particularly businesses, this is a matter of competitive advantage. Governments, NGO's, and other social service organizations have a similar need but for possibly different reasons. In order to optimize their energy and resources in service to the people they support, wasted effort must be avoided and every opportunity to maximize the "bang for the buck" seized upon. Individuals have similar concerns, whether that be for reasons of profit, service, or simple survival in a sometimes not too friendly world. How we get there from here is a critical question. To date, our efforts to reach our goal have largely revolved around planning and design in the belief that we may sufficiently understand our human systems and the environment in which they operate in order to create truly efficient and effective operations. These efforts are laudable and massive, but I believe it fair to state that holy grail of High Performance continues to elude our grasp. We have learned a vast amount about the complexity and inter-relatedness of our systems, but that knowledge has served only to increase the enormity of our task. Perhaps the day will come when we are able to minutely plan, design and control our organizations to the point that genuine high performance is a common experience. But I wouldn't hold my breath, and in the interim there are alternatives. The modern sciences of chaos and complexity have introduced us to a world of bewildering interconnections and detail. What may have seemed so simple on the surface turns out to be a monster of complexity, made all the more daunting by virtue of the fact that it is in constant and unpredictable transformation. It is a world, the scientists tell us, where a metaphorical butterfly flaps its wings in Thailand thereby changing the weather patterns in California. That butterfly has never been found, still less has it been caught in the act. With such a world, ordered, intelligible change seems little more than a phantasm, a wisp of smoke. And yet the fact remains that for something like 14 billion years the cosmos, and later our little planet, has been evolving into its present ordered state. To be sure there have been lapses and loopholes, but the progress is undeniable. Were you to ask how did all of this happen the traditional answer is that God did it. I have no problem with that answer, but it now appears that the Almighty (by whatever name or gender) performed this miracle through an elegantly simple means -- the power of Self Organization. The 20 year natural experiment with Open Space Technology has shown us how we may cooperate with the primal force of self organization thereby utilizing it power to achieve genuine High Performance for ourselves and our organizations. We call this The Way of the Wave Rider, which you are invited to explore and appropriate through this program.
Program Outline The program typically last two and a half days and the basic design is simplicity itself. Each morning, Harrison Owen will offer a presentation with the balance of the day spent in Open Space. This is not to be confused with the more standard lecture/discussion format in which the professor pontificates and the students will listen. Instead, the several presentations are offered in the spirit of a multi-part fugue with Harrison's presentation being but a single part designed to initiate a conversation in which all participants are equal players drawing upon their own unique knowledge and experience. It should be noted that this is not an Open Space Technology training program, however since the majority of time will be spent in Open Space the participants will have ample opportunity to experience and understand the approach. Day I The Meaning of High Performance and Why We Fail to Reach it. Day II The Gifts of Self Organization as the Way to High Performance. Day III The Way of the Wave Rider: Creating the conditions for High Performance for Individuals and Organizations.
Who Should Come? This program will be of interest to every person concerned to raise and sustain the level of performance for individuals and organizations. Certainly this will include executives and managers as well as parents, children, community workers, politicians, social activists, technicians, and just plain folks. Anybody can effectively become a Wave Rider and all will enjoy and benefit from the experience.
Further Information Go to Program Dates for current offerings. If nothing meets your needs contact Harrison Owen. |