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Why Whole System Interventions? What Whole System Interventions?

We are in a world economy where we need to create change almost instanta­neously. The changes at a geopolitical scale have prevented even successful organizations from taking their success for granted. These changes have also forced organizations to reassess how they function, right from organization structure and design to the way customers and employees are engaged.

Consultants(internal and external) have been consistently challenged to assist organizations to manage in this turbulent and changing landscape. Equipped with methods like survey feedback, interviews, and team organizing initiatives consultants have experienced a fair share of success. But with the pace of change stepping on the accelerator leading to shortening of duration between each version of the industrial revolutions themselves, an evolution of the approach used to assist organization is requisite.

Whole System Interventions allow the whole system(different stakeholders) to get into a place at one time and take action towards improving the organization. According to Weisbord and Janoff(1995), everyone needs to be included due to the impact the change has on them and their part in executing the change. It is more holistic, enables collaboration and allows reflection at a systemic level. Whole System Interventions. Due to the inherent benefits of this approach organizations tend to develop the capability to change fast enough to keep up with the pace of change in the outside world and face the complexity inside the organization.

Whole System Interventions is an approach. While there are some common assumptions form the conceptual foundation for large group interven­tions, methods of intervening are multiple. Some of the well-researched methods with proven success are as follows
  1. Future Search
  2. Search Conference
  3. Open Space
  4. Large Scale Interactive Process
  5. Simu-Real
In the next post, each of these methods will be described in brief by exploring the process, their fundamental assumptions and the role of a consultant.


Reference Article: Michael R. Manning Ghazi Faisal Binzagr, (1996), "METHODS, VALUES, AND ASSUMPTIONS UNDERLYING LARGE GROUP INTERVENTIONS INTENDED TO CHANGE WHOLE SYSTEMS", The International Journal of Organizational Analysis, Vol. 4 Iss 3 pp. 268 - 284

http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/eb028852 


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