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The U-Process is
Generon Consulting’s core social technology for fostering breakthrough
thinking and action on complex, cross-sector problems. It enables groups made up of highly
diverse individuals to pay attention to, and learn from, emerging realities or opportunities
together, and co-create breakthrough innovations and solutions to previously stuck problems.
The U-Process is described in the book Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future
by Peter Senge, Claus Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski, and Betty Sue Flowers (Society for
Organizational Learning, 2004). Learn about the value and effectiveness of this method as
generated in business, government, and civil society organizations, and tri-sector regional and
national collaborations. |
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Giving a group
a tool to recognize and leverage lessons that emerge during the course of their
work can help them make a pragmatic link between theory and practice. The Emergent
Learning Map™ is a tool designed to help teams ground their organizational learning in practice
and share this knowledge across teams. Using an iterative process that allows participants to
process information visually, keep a clear focus, think in a more disciplined manner, and
organize the defining moments they hope to learn from, EL Maps provide a way for a team to
learn their way through future challenges. They also help surface patterns across teams or
projects. Learn about EL maps and how The Nature Conservancy has used them to become
more innovative in determining what biodiversity to conserve and where, and to test out new
methods to accomplish that end. |
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Most managers are
looking for ways to use knowledge management to transform their
business. Unilever has developed a web- based tool that facilitates this process by helping
managers understand all aspects of the organization—e.g., strategy, organization architecture,
leadership, and capability building—and how they interact with each other. The tool guides
managers and teams on how and when to address these aspects in a balanced way, and it
captures Unilever’s knowledge in managing both change and external best practices. Learn
about this organization transformation framework and how it compares to other models.
Discover how it was built and is currently being used. See a demo of the web tool, and find out
how Unilever has changed. |
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How can an organization
combine the forces of leadership, action, and knowledge so that it is
capable of advancement rather than stuck in patterns of oscillation? Through exploring the
work he’s developed over the past 20 years on structural dynamics, Fritz shows how structural
tension—the relationship between an organization’s vision and current reality—can
be applied
throughout an organization in “outcome- oriented management.” He shares the organizational
application of this discipline, which begins with leadership, and moves through tying purpose to
business strategy and then to management strategy down to local strategies. Hear many
examples of model companies who have used this approach for the past number of years. |
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A unique team from
the intelligence community has been exploring the use of simulation and
gaming as a way to facilitate organizational learning and transformation within the government
and industry. Based on the six steps of the Applied Learning Process—a unique approach that
embodies creativity, diversity, risk- taking, debate, and spirituality—the team has made
valuable discoveries in enabling organizational transformation and creating knowledge for
fundamental innovation. Hear the story of how leaders from the National Security Agency
developed a process for sustaining improvements in the intelligence business. Participate in a
brainstorming session to explore the use of gaming scenarios to create new knowledge that can
be used for fundamental innovation.
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David L. Cooperrider,
the founder of the theory and practice of appreciative inquiry, has
written that this action research methodology "...involves the mobilization of inquiry through
the
crafting of the 'unconditional positive question' often-involving hundreds or sometimes
thousands of people." At this year's meeting, we will use an abbreviated form of Appreciative
Inquiry to "heighten the positive potential" of the group to bring about the outcomes we desire.
Welcome
to the "AI Commons"--a worldwide portal devoted to the fullest sharing of
academic resources and practical tools on Appreciative Inquiry and the rapidly growing
discipline of positive change. This site is a resource for you and many of us--leaders of
change, scholars, students, and business managers-- and it is proudly hosted by Case Western
Reserve University's Weatherhead School of Management.
In the years since
the original theory and vision for "Appreciative Inquiry Into Organizational
Life" was articulated by two professors at the Weatherhead School of Management (see David
Cooperrider and Suresh Srivastva, 1987) there have been literally hundreds of people involved
in co-creating new concepts and practices for doing AI, and for bringing the spirit and
methodology of AI into organizations all over the world. Commenting on her assessment of
AI's uniqueness, a senior executive at one company recently said: "I know what Ai is about...it
is about creating a positive revolution in change". And in words that echo the same thing,
University of Michigan Professor Robert Quinn, in his acclaimed book Change the World
writes: " Appreciative Inquiry is currently revolutionizing the field of organizational development."
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Scope and challenge
Although it is
still possible to gather and configure so much detail into book form (or onto the
CD-ROM version of the Encyclopedia and Yearbook), the editors are much concerned with
new ways of visualizing complex networks of relationships. The challenge is to find meaningful
ways to navigate through such complexity and to evoke imaginative insights in response to it. In
a section on transformative approaches, the editors explore the implications for computer
graphics, transformative conferencing and the design of policy cycles capable of responding to
vicious problem cycles.
Much emphasis is
placed on the potential of new metaphors for governance as a major
unexplored resource to enable paradim shifts. The suggestion is made that many institutions and
policies are trapped in inadequate policy metaphors. In this spirit the Encyclopedia even
contains an extensive exploration of the relevance to governance of fruitful cross- fertilization
between poetry-making and policy-making -- seen as equivalent to the mythical challenge of
arranging a marriage between Beauty and the Beast.
The Encyclopedia
offers radically different perspectives to policy- makers, social researchers
and those concerned with development strategy. It is also fascinating reading for any individual
with concern for human affairs and wary of the risks of "tunnel vision" in conventional
approaches to crises and opportunities.
Most encyclopedias
focus only on positive, sanitized aspects of society, presenting an idealized
worldview that denies the shadow of humanity. This is one of the few even to mention the
existence of such phenomena as corruption (96 entries), torture and many others that do not
appear on the agendas of international conferences. It attempts to present the world as many
experience it, whether negatively or positively.
Users of the Encyclopedia
are encouraged to discover new approaches to understanding and
action through the deliberate juxtaposition, within the same context, of contradictory
perceptions and fundamentally incompatible viewpoints. By juxtaposing different, but
complementary, perspectives, the Encyclopedia is deliberately designed to challenge
unquestioned patterns of response to the crises of the times and to evoke new insights in the
reader. In this sense it is full of shocks and creative surprises.
This unique 3-volume
reference book is a comprehensive sourcebook of information on
recognized world problems, their interconnections and the human resources available to analyze
and ultimately respond to them. Many are seldom, if ever, described elsewhere in specific or
precise terms. Much of the information derives from the United Nations and other
intergovernmental agencies, as well as from the many international nongovernmental bodies
documented in the companion 4-volume Yearbook of International Organizations
.
A unique source of information on problems and strategies transcending national boundaries
The Encyclopedia
is innovative in that considerable effort has been devoted to identifying and
juxtaposing the many conflicting perceptions and priorities which constitute the dynamic reality
of world society. Such information is usually difficult to extract from research literature stressing
theories, administrative documents justifying programs, political manifestos defending
ideological positions, or from news commentaries on current events.
No other publication
identifies such a complete range of problems transcending national
boundaries. The world problems in Volume 1 are complemented by a group of sections in
Volume 2 indicating ways in which appropriate responses may be conceived. What emerges
are patterns, relationships and configurations uncharacteristic of the usual fragmented and
specialized perceptions, or of the policies and institutions that have themselves become barriers
to understanding and meaningful change.
The phenomena identified
in this publication are those which inspire both hopes and fears,
whether real or imaginary, about the world's future. They constitute a challenge to creative
remedial action, functioning as a powerful stimulus to the development of society. The
Encyclopedia deliberately presents fundamental contradictions -- of cultures, ideologies, beliefs
and even "facts" -- in an effort to explore the complex, dynamic middle ground of possible
solutions to the problems of the global village.
Cross-references
There are cross-references
between entries in the principal sections. If present, these are
listed at the end of each entry. In some cases there are also cross-references between entries in
different sections. Generally there are two main groups of cross-references:
Logical relationship
between entries in a section:
Functional relationship
between entries in a section:
For world problems,
a further distinction may be made in each case between a constructive
and a destructive causal chain.
Vicious problem
cycles and sustainable strategic loops: The functional relationships
between problems have been searched to locate vicious loops, shifting the level of analysis from
isolated problems to problem cycles. These are listed in Volume 3. Information in Volume 3
also permits detection of serendipitous relationships between strategies. |
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The first volume
of the 3-volume Encyclopedia (now in its 4th edition) currently describes
12,000 world problems clustered into 320 overlapping hierarchies in 1,200 pages. The
problems are linked by some 120,000 relationships of 7 types. Problems included are those
identified in international periodicals but especially in the documents of some 20,000
international non- profit organizations (profiled in the companion 3-volume Yearbook of
International Organizations, now in its 32nd edition). The Encyclopedia includes problems
which such groups choose to perceive and act upon, whether or not their existence is denied by
others claiming greater expertise. Indeed such claims and counter-claims figure in many of the
problem descriptions in order to reflect the often paralyzing dynamics of international debate. In
the light of the interdependence demonstrated among world problems in every sector, emphasis
is placed on the need for approaches which are sufficiently complex to encompass the factions,
conflicts and rival worldviews that undermine collective initiative towards a promising future.
Problems are grouped
into the following sections:
The number of world
problems described is now 9,832, with a further 2,380 referenced by
index only. New problems for this edition number 1,675. Considerable effort has been devoted
to consolidating and improving previous texts (increased by 33%). Over 70% of problems with
incidence have been updated. The number of cross-references between entries has increased
by 49% to 119,000. |
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The human potential
volume is divided into 5 sections:
The number of human
development entries has increased by 10% to 4,475, with the cross-
references between them increased by 19% to 17,900. The human values section has been
adapted and extended in order also to serve as a unique index to world problems from a value
perspective.
The second volume
of the Encyclopedia contains the most comprehensive description of the
variety of approaches to human development. While their intention may be to alleviate suffering,
paradoxically their blinkered pursuit is often a prime cause of world problems, notably in the
case of religious conflict. Not only are there some 1,400 understandings of human development
from the spiritual and psychological disciplines of different cultures and traditions, but also
3,050 modes of awareness or experience that are reported to be accessible through such
disciplines, often through identifiable sequences or pathways. Buddhism offers the most
elaborate perspective, requiring 1,360 interlinked entries (which can be explored as
hyperlinks). An extensive bibliography is also included.
Integrative concepts
The Encyclopedia
programme has included work on interdisciplinary, integrative and unitary
concepts since the first edition in 1976. The intention was to present understandings of
integration and ways of dealing with the cognitive complexity characteristic of networks of
problems, organizations and strategies. Profiles of some 600 such concepts were presented in
the 1991 edition. The 1994 edition includes the bibliography (in Volume 2) plus extensive
commentary on the challenge of interdisciplinarity and logical discontinuities between
disciplinary approaches (in Volume 3).
The 1991 edition
included examples of some 80 metaphors potentially significant to new and
more fruitful understanding of discontinuity and disagreement. In the current edition the focus is
placed on extensive commentary on the relevance of metaphor to governance faced with
conflicting demands and understandings. Some of the original research material
can be reviewed
on this site. An extensive bibliography is also included.
Extensive commentary
is provided on a range of transformative approaches
, from mapping
techniques to the relevance of poetry-making to policy-making.
The Encyclopedia
takes an unusual approach to the range of human values. Rather than limiting
its focus to the dozen values most frequently discussed (peace, justice, and the like), Volume 2
identifies 987 "constructive" or positive values as well as 1,990 "destructive"
or negative values.
The positive and negative values are clustered into 230 value polarities (like beauty- ugliness) to
transcend the semantic confusion associated with many value-words. It is however the negative
value terms which are used to sharpen the problematic nature of the problem names given in
Volume 1. Negative values are systematically cross- referenced to both world problem names
and to the complementary positive values (via the polarities). For the first time it becomes
possible to trace the positive values in terms of which problems becomes perceptible. Also for
the first time, values are cross-referenced to human development where particular approaches
or experiences enhance the understanding of a particular value. The editors explore a variety of
possibilities of organizing value terms as a prelude to any justification for the current
preoccupation with so-called basic values. |
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The 4th edition
of the Encyclopedia has been extended to include a new third volume on
international organization action strategies.
Volume 3 of the
book contains descriptions of over 15,000 international strategies and action
plans (29,000 included in the CD-ROM version). It cross-references the world problems in
Volume 1 and the international organizations described in the companion Yearbook of
International Organizations
This section profiles
strategies currently employed by international bodies, whether in response
to world problems or to enhance particular values or modes of development. It also provide
the first systematic identification of several thousand vicious problem cycles to which such
strategies need to respond. It identifies mutually reinforcing strategic cycles.
Strategies are
grouped into the following sections:
-
In CD-Rom and book:
- Basic general strategies (158)
- Cross-sectoral strategies (1,100)
- Detailed strategies (3,325)
- Emanations of other strategies (3,008)
- Exceptional fuzzy strategies (1,382)
- Strategy polarities (240)
- In CD-Rom but not in book:
- Very specific strategies (7,685)
- Insufficiently cross-referenced strategies
(4,983)
- Uncross-referenced strategies (7,627)
The information
on strategies and action plans, developed from a section last included in the
1986 edition, provides the necessary remedial focus to balance the information in Volume 1. It
too relies on information provided by international organizations.
The volume also
lists a selection of 836 vicious problem loops |
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1. Schedule
