Topics
Models and thinking tools for taking a closer look at structure, governance, collaboration, and change in organizations.
Structure and governance
Viable System Model (VSM)
The Viable System Model (VSM) by Stafford Beer: five systems, variety, recursion, communication channels, typical patterns, and a quick check for your own organization.
Leadership as a function of the organization
Leadership as a function of the organization: management and leadership, the clarification pyramid, GRPI, FIRO, task maturity, and team roles, with practical cases, misconceptions, and limits.
Complexity and communication
Complexity management
Complexity management with c2m: telling complicated from complex, differentiation and dimensioning, the levels K0 to K5, nine misconceptions, and how it differs from Cynefin, MHC, and VSM.
Understanding communication systems
Communication as a system of its own: meaning, conveying, understanding according to Luhmann and Gitta Peyn (FORMwelt), the frame of reference for distinction, six emphasis patterns, meta-intervention, with practice and limits.
Systems thinking in organizations
Systemic and meta-systemic thinking in organizations: basic concepts from Luhmann, von Foerster, and Ashby, how systems get in their own way, five observer positions, and what this means for leadership.
Collaboration and change
Conflicts in organizations
Making sense of conflicts in organizations: types of conflict, intentions and motives, Glasl's nine stages of conflict escalation, and Berkel's conflict diagnosis, with practical cases and limits.
Development in organizations
Development in organizations with STAGES as a thinking model: three lines of view, Kim Barta's organizational grid and organizational shadow, with a way of working, practical occasions, and limits.
Change in organizations
Making sense of change in organizations: drivers, types, and phases according to SITA by Gisela Wendling and The Grove, liminality as the transitional space, Change Literacy, and Damon Centola's complex contagion, with practical situations and limits.
Formats for complex questions in groups
Group formats for complex questions: Jim Rough's Dynamic Facilitation, the target for clarifying goals and interests, Daniel Meier's Solution Circle, and the fishbowl, with uses, process, and limits.
Topics in integral perspective
Every topic can be viewed from four directions: the experience and the behavior of individuals, the shared culture, and systems and structures. The classification follows Ken Wilber's four quadrants and shows where a topic has its focus and what else it touches.
inner · individual
Experience
outer · individual
Behavior
inner · collective
Relationships and culture
- Change in organizations (Focus)
- Complexity management (Focus)
- Conflicts in organizations (Focus)
- Development in organizations (Focus)
- Formats for complex questions in groups (Focus)
- Leadership as a function of the organization (Focus)
- Understanding communication systems (Focus)
- Systems thinking in organizations (touches)
- Viable System Model (VSM) (touches)
outer · collective
Systems
- Change in organizations (Focus)
- Leadership as a function of the organization (Focus)
- Systems thinking in organizations (Focus)
- Viable System Model (VSM) (Focus)
- Complexity management (touches)
- Conflicts in organizations (touches)
- Development in organizations (touches)
- Understanding communication systems (touches)
Topics on personal development, experience, and guidance are on begleiter.org.