The Interventions Insights

Being an OD student, experiential learning ranks HIGHEST when it comes to pick a format for choice based learning. LSIP sessions tend to take the experiential route when lectures turn into Discussions and Discussions into unlayering concepts , tools and methodologies that are the new way of facilitating the idea of Large scale interventions within an organisation/system. When I was first introduced to the concept of Future Search ,one of the many methodologies framed by Weisbord and Sandra Janoff,  I was intrigued at how such a simple process could create such a Big Impact!! Let's dwell into the world of Future search and discover the details together! Future Search enables diverse groups of people with a stake in an organisation or a community to plan their own future. This method brings a ‘whole system’ into the room to explore participants’ past, present and desired future as a back-drop to action planning. People seek common ground rather than resolve conflicts, ...

As an OD student from the Past One and a Half years almost and being a part of the First Masters Batch of Organisational Development, Change and Leadership - Looking at Organisations from Systems Thinking Point of View now comes as second nature (Or at least that is the attempt). As I sat today to pen down my thoughts in regards to the Art and Science of Large Scale Interventions - there was one prominent thought. Before gathering my thoughts on the tools and the process structure of a LSI, what struck me to be the most important was understanding and looking into what exactly did LSI stand for? How was a Large Scale Intervention different from any other traditional resources.  As Part 1 of the Blog Series, The First Question that we are going to be addressing is  "WHAT DO WE REALLY MEAN BY LARGE SCALE INTERVENTION"  " A complex world requires strategic collaboration " Large Scale Interventions (LSI) are an approach for organising sustainable change...

Part II Communicating Change by Leadership Inspiration People often refute that business shouldn’t be about stories but about facts and figure, about rational analysis and objectivity, rather than about emotions and subjectivity. Probably it should be when it comes to taking important decisions. But once decisions are taken, the biggest challenge lies in changing the mindsets of people to adhere to the decision and in igniting the action that is needed to make the decision real. Storytelling is a highly effective tool to tackle those challenges, because our brains are built this way. Research shows that storytelling evokes a strong neurological response. Our brain produces the stress hormone Cortisol during the tense moment in a story, which allows us to focus, while the human, emotional factor releases Oxytocin, the feel-good chemical that promotes connection and empathy. Other neurological research teaches us that a happy ending to a story triggers the limbic system, to...

Part I Project Campfire at IBM I have been an avid reader of fiction since childhood. The adventures of the The Famous Five used to make me vicariously experience their thrill and excitement in solving friendly neighborhood mysteries. Every time I read Harry Potter (counting more than twenty-five times already!), I would be immediately transported to the towering castle of Hogwarts, immersed in the fascinating shops of Diagon Alley,   nail-bitingly engaged at the outcome of Quidditch, reeling at the threat of Death Eaters or alas You-Know-Who ! Every time I join Harry, Hermione and Ron in their quest to kill Voldemort, meet the myriad challenges of growing up in the magical world, and having fun of a close knit friendship along the way, I forget all about the outside world momentarily. That’s the power of a good story—to transport you someplace you’ve never been. It lets you experience something as if you are actually there. Leaders throughout history have...

Currently i am attending a facilitation workshop. In the workshop i have expierienced   World cafe. It is a process of LSIP. It is a group process where   different groups come together to generate ideas and create knowledge. World cafe is mainly giving space to people to have a conversation and come up with new ideas. It is a very effective group process. In the workshop all of us divided into 4 groups of 6-7 memebers in each group. We have been given a topic. The instructions were to write 2,3 points about that topic on the flipchart on the wall. After writing atleast 3 ideas about that topic, every group have to move to another flip chart of other group and write 2,3 points on different topic. After completing all 4 topics, again we have to go to our own original topic and use two tools Tick and question mark , to show our like and doubts regarding the points which other teams mentioned on the chart. We have to do this activity for all the four charts. After that w...

System traps are ways a system can go wrong, can end up in dysfunctional behavior. System traps can be escaped by recognizing them in advance and not getting caught in them, by changing the structure, by reformulating goals, by altering or adding feedback loops. That is why these are not just traps, but opportunities. Trap 1: Rule Beating Whenever there are rules, there is likely to be rule beating. The cause of rule breaking is usually related to the fact that these rules are perceived as unjust or not flexible enough with respect to real life issues. Ideas for way out : Improve Rules in order to support self organisation. Design, or redesign, rules to release creativity not in the direction of beating the rules, but in the direction of achieving the purpose of the rules Trap 2: Shifting the Burden Shifting the burden, dependence, and addiction arise when a solution to a systemic problem reduces the symptoms, but does nothing to solve the underlying problem. The system w...