The Organizational Dynamics of Health and Justice

By Sarina Pasricha

Backstory: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/09/29/10/aquino-visits-bar-blast-victims-pgh

I condemn the recent bombings during the BAR Exams in Manila, Philippines, where about fifty law graduates were injured.

This is an open letter to San Sebastian law student Raissa Laurel, one of the victims who lost both legs because of the blast.

Dear Raissa,

No matter how hard you try, there will never be an answer to the question “Why?” From this moment, the identity and meaning of who you are changes. Without your permission. At this crossroad, you can either evolve to the next level, and come out better from the experience, or go back to the basics, and spiral down to meaninglessness and self-pity.

I want to reach out to you in the form of a letter. For I, too, reached the edge of chaos when one day I could not stand up and walk; I needed a major surgery to put ten screws, four plates, and two rods in my spine; even while going to graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania. We share almost the same pain.

So from my experience, I want to narrate the working dynamics that defines the mess that no intelligence can fathom except that evil exists because good men do nothing.

The Goal: A Quality of Life

At this time, as you go through unexplainable suffering and endure so much pain, that is only made tepid by the painkillers and morphine drips, never lose your sight on the goal of a quality of life. You have survived injustice, there is meaning in that. Not many can say that they have come out on the other end of a terrorist act with life. Jesus came to give life so that you might live. You are an example that the law exempts no one and justice is for all. For this can only be said on the quality of your life. Think of coming days — being a productive and useful member of society. Think of coming days — being filled with the same wonder and awe in your eyes as when you decided to take up law.

The Means: Unconditional Positive Regard

Look at yourself and those around you with what Carl Rogers calls Unconditional Positive Regard. And, beheld with an equal kind of regard and acceptance. There is no room for hate or self-pity in recovery and rehabilitation. The harder part is now, and it gets more difficult as you push to regain your life back with what seems normalcy. My warning, there is a “new normal”. One that is marked by how you wrestle with your pain. Oh yes, the pain will always be there to answer your question. So be kind to yourself. Do not take it personally when you see them look at you with pity or sorrow or fear. They are the driving forces that push you to recover faster and better.

The Future: Laban!

Finally, Raissa, you are going to win over this, and it will be an episode in your memory and in history. Yours will be a success story that moves a nation into the right path. Lumaban ka! Fight! You will regain your feet. You will walk, skip, hop, and dance! You will live out your dreams with no one telling you of limits. You may choose to expand your horizons and share your survival story beyond. Remember, Penn and other Ivy League universities accept people with merit even in wheelchairs. Remember also, that as you reach the absolute limit of all possible suffering, you might now find yourself that suffering has no limits, and there is more intense suffering in store. Your faith will be your companion in these times, so will your family and friends. You are not alone in this journey. Life begins now.

Best wishes on your recovery and rehabilitation.

Regards,
Sara

When Stories Spark Systems

By Sarina Pasricha

Here, at Organizational Dynamics at Penn, we always kick start our engagements with opportunities to come together to share stories and experiences. As everyone knows, we begin each class with our trademark dinners at the Inn at the Penn. We also begin each term with our OD Brunch, where the community can discover first hand the state of the program, and reconnect with friends and professors.

For Fall 2010, the speaker for the Brunch is Dr. J. Gerald Suarez, Professor of the Practice in Systems Thinking and Design, Department of Management and Organization, Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland.

Prior to joining the Smith School, Dr. Suarez served under two administrations in the White House as the Director of Presidential Quality. In this capacity, he initiated efforts to inculcate systems thinking and organizational redesign into the White House Communications Agency, the White House Military Office and the Executive Office of the President of the United States.

Dr. Suarez rocked the house down with his down to earth humor and his striking wit, as he shared “Meaningful Insights from the White House to the Classroom.”

Dr. Suarez’s brilliance comes from his ability to share stories that spark systems. He talked about how a minute is not just sixty seconds when in a discussion with an undergraduate. He talked about how it is a kind of systems oriented mess when students don’t really know what they want to do in life. He talked about how we never reach the future, but are always just in pursuit. We must never get weary of the chase.

His honesty resonates as he tells of how working in the White House meant a promising past will always overwhelm the future.

His most meaningful story is of a little boy whose father died in the September 11, 2001 attacks. The boy embraces Dr. Suarez and says, “When you find whoever is responsible, give them a time out, and no t.v.”

Second-Order Change

Dear Professor Larry:

Hello. I hope all is well. I hope you are keeping cool in this hot and humid weather.

I write this to mark a milestone. This week I turned 32. This week is different, because I have begun to understand how magical life is, despite the hardships and struggles. I can walk more than half a mile. I can meet up with friends for mocha frappuccino with whipped cream and chocolate drizzle for caffeine hit, house special pan fried noodles for long life, crispy flounder with walnuts for good health, and frozen yogurt ice cream for bliss and wonder. After the trauma of spine surgery, food is delicious again. Laughter is heard again. Hugs are felt again. Even then, I learn how I, just like everyone else, can change the world – this lesson from Organizational Dynamics at Penn. So for my birthday, I wish to make an effort to create Second Order change that transforms “functions” and “relationships” within myself, and within the active space that I move between.

At 32, I am grateful for a second chance at a quality life, and the power to make a difference to those who have given up. I am grateful for knowledge and skills mobilized by the Penn experience, both in education and in health care. I have benefitted from an envelope-wide system that has supported me wholistically. This is the reason why I push forward. I stay strong. I take the small step that leads to a big leap, and I go.

I would like you to know that my Penn experience would not have been possible if not for the following people:

1) Alan Barstow – He reached out and called me up in the hospital to wish me well for my surgery. His concern for students’ well-being is sincere and honest. I saw this every time he cheered for my achievements in physical therapy and rehabilitation. He sat down and listened with an open ear and an open mind about the things that interest and concerned me. Now, because of his recent experience, we share an understanding of how valuable life is. We understand that pain and discomfort remind us that we are alive.

2) Dana Kaminstein – I thank him for his insightful comments and feedback for my papers. He takes his role seriously and gives his 100% to the vocation he has taken on. He taught me to put meat and kick in my expression. As a writer, I appreciate this as it is an opportunity to grow and extend myself. As a patient in recovery, I appreciate the flowers he sent to the hospital room, and the good wishes and thoughts sent by him and his wife.

3) Janet Greco – I owe to Janet my ability to see overarching themes and connect seemingly disjointed points into a coherent story. Because of her, I am able to use metaphors and stories as I try to implement change in what is routine and ordinary. Janet allowed me the opportunity to express a personal narrative that challenges the myth of the circus freak into a heroic character sitting at the back of a motorcycle moving at the speed of a song, leather jacket closed, helmet on.

4) Nancy Bauer – Nancy inspires me to take the gauntlet and tear down strongholds that say no. She moves my spirit and my mind with self-knowledge and confidence that allows me to speak and face others, as equal, as partner, as Sara. She encourages me to open up the box that always kept me separate from those around me.

5) Bill Wilkinsky – It is with a humble and grateful voice that I say that I survived surgery and the difficult stage of recovery because of Bill. Bill taught me two specific lessons that kept me determined to win over my frail and broken body: authenticity and unconditional positive regard. He saw me take my first thirty steps. He cheered me in physical therapy, gave me a prize for every achievement in exercise, and taught me that healing begins when I begin to reach out to other people who are broken and frail, too. Bill maybe ruff and gruff, but his commitment to each student’s welfare and future achievement is legendary. To combat the hallucinations from morphine, anaesthesia, and painkillers that took control over my mind, Bill has provided structure and sanity that now makes me walk half a mile.

My journey at Penn and my bigger journey of life are soaked with meaning and purpose because of these five professors. I thank you for making them a part of Organizational Dynamics at Penn. I wish that other students know them the way I had. I wish that there will always be opportunities for these professors to realize Second Order change in the lives of future members of Organizational Dynamics.

Thank you for allowing me to express myself on my birthday. I greet you a beautiful and warm summer’s day where the sun and the shadow swirl in this dance that only happens in Penn.

Regards,

Sara

America, America!

By Sarina Pasricha

Where liberty is freedom from each other; where opportunity is grabbing something before someone else does; where control is the measure of an individual’s success over the environment. (Bauer, 2010)

Where for the rest of us, liberty is “personal freedom from servitude or confinement or oppression” (when you had once long ago promoted slavery); opportunity is “a possibility due to a favorable combination of circumstances” (when you had been against preference option for any single individual); and, control is the “power to direct or determine” another (when you fight wars to promote self-direction and self-determination).

It is timely that this reading comes on the week of the Oscar Awards. Everyone from the Philippines, who is educated and from the middle class to the elite would be glued to the television watching the designer dresses, the Hollywood glamour, and of course the winners of the prestigious award show. Perhaps our idolatry towards the United States come from our shared history and shared bonds. You are our big brother who saved us from Japanese occupation and gave us our freedom. You are our friend who made us discover “liberty, opportunity, and control” (Bauer, 2010).

Our values just as our vision are intertwined. But just as we stand shoulder to shoulder, we are dwarfs to you who are giants. Poverty, crime, and corruption have stalled the arrival of our vision. It has also corrupted our values. The Philippines has survived “luckily” thanks to the consistent money remittances to families of overseas Filipinos largely coming from the United States. Millions have come to this country to find their dream come true. Filipinos are the second largest immigrants here. We are your teachers and nurses who have left family and the familiar to try our luck in your land. Success seems to come in each personal journey, from the Pacific islands.

For me, the United States had always been in my psyche especially for your protection of minority rights even when the majority rules (Bauer, 2010). This week’s article personally resonates with me because despite the criticisms of the American Way, and how America struggles with controlling its future, your protection of the minority and the different, the weak and the oppressed makes you keeper of the history of the world.

Although I love my country, I have come here to the United States to taste the feeling of how it is to be a contributor in my difference. I realize that many have suffered to promote and protect this value – women, African-American, Native Indians, veterans, persons with disabilities, etc. Your framework is not perfect and your superiority is arrogant, but though you conveniently forget the losses of the past, you have learned that there is no “I” in team. “We” are the world’s citizens. Another’s victory like China’s is not America’s defeat but America’s renewed potential for growth, “Bigness and Expansionism,” (Bauer, 2010) and allowing them the opportunity for economic well being as well.

China’s values of saving, obedience, and study – values exactly non-American (Bauer, 2010) make them successful too on the world’s stage as prima ballerina for 21st century. In contrast, to your key traits and values historically built on top of each other and cumulative given by the Spanish/Portuguese, French, and British, have made you for many ages the danseur noble.

But history is a pas de deux or a dance for two.

Though America might not appreciate its history, thus disabling it to move towards the future – you are who we aspire to become. The realization that each family can have a good job, a decent college education, a car, and the latest techno gadgets is what moves us Filipinos to mold ourselves to become like you. We live on less than a dollar a day when you spend five dollars for your morning coffee and bagel. Our children spend Christmas in the streets selling cigarettes and gum when your children dress up as Disney princesses and superheroes. Our families spend their entire life living in slums beside polluted rivers when your families own a family van and live in suburbia while going to soccer practices and other diversions.

As we get to know you more through your movies, through your songs, through your bestseller diet books, I just hope we are in no danger of losing the lessons that made us who we are. You have made us free, but we have spent that freedom being a prisoner to your identity.

Allow us to shine too.

Reference:
Bauer, N. (2010). THE AMERICAN WAY: How It Came To Be and Why Current Challenges Are Such a Surprise.

Waltz for Two

By Sarina Pasricha

Assumption: “That is one reason why the National Intelligence Council, in its 2008 predictions for the world in 2025, said that China will shortly be the world’s second largest economy and will surpass the United States as the world’s largest sometime after 2030.” (Karabell, 2009, p. 288)

The first half of the 20th century saw Britain bankrupt and in need of financial help from the United States, in order to rebuild from two wars and the Great Depression. The capitalist USA agreed only with interest causing America to become the great power of the time. A new leaf turns with a new century. The US, now, is in need of help to balance its budget and finances. It is China who comes to the rescue. Will China do an “America” as it did to Britain?

Little China

The older generation, particularly the generation of my parents based on how I have experienced them, see the world as polar opposites. Good and evil. Right and wrong. Black and white. Male and female. Democrat and Republican. Capitalist and Communist. Democracy and Authoritarian. My generation, however, sees differently. For us, there are many answers, many options, and many choices. Ultimately, there is a compromise. Perhaps this is why, in our time, the possibility of Superfusion (Karabell, 2009) is not repulsive. Should I say not surprising? Let me say why and how.

I have a love-hate relationship with China, since working for a Chinese Financial Company in Asia as a writer for their corporate handbooks as required by the Security Exchange Commission. I loved the Confucian work-ethic of reciprocity or the golden rule. People worked hard; no one was late or absent. Everyone rendered good work. The goal was to improve as “In Confucianism, human beings are teachable, improvable and perfectible through personal and communal endeavor especially including self-cultivation and self-creation.” At the same time, I did not like the value of conformity and obedience that the Chinese culture demanded. There was no room for individuality and identity in the family or in the workplace.

As a young female, I was down the ranks in the etiquette of “relationships” – an internal codified rule of rituals in Confucian culture. I was not allowed to speak to my elders/bosses unless spoken to. I was not allowed to look into their eyes, eyeball to eyeball, or to explain myself, to argue back, for the times when I did not conform to the norm. The environment was highly restrictive for me. I was expected to do my work well and follow the rules; in return I got paid. I hated myself so much to the point of self-disgust for denying myself in favor of the survival of the group at a time when I was struggling to figure out who I am. In spite of this, I cannot say that the Chinese psyche is ineffective. It is in fact the Chinese Tai Pans or businessmen, the rich upper 4 to 10% who have invested in the Philippine economy, are employing majority of the Filipinos and providing opportunities to the middle class.

The Tai Pans have fused into Philippine society so well that if you look closely they are running every kind of show – from retail to fast food to banking. This is replicated in every Chinatown located in the heart of each megacity in the world, where clusters of Chinese immigrants create their own sub-group that is authentically Chinese yet fused with the local culture. I argue that it is in the Chinese nature to be inter-dependent yet wary of a marriage of partners or a waltz for two.

Big China

While Superfusion sees the marriage of two great powers in the new economy, in the macroeconomic level, China may have been successful in Superfusion with America because of three reasons – culture, media and history.

Culturally, based on the values of Confucianism, the Chinese rely on the wisdom and care of their elders. The elders or the leadership dictate the terms on which decisions are made with a degree of pragmatism. “It is tempting to impute to Chinese leaders an unusual degree of wisdom and foresight. They seem to have absorbed the lessons of thousands of years of ups and downs, and distilled those experiences into a pragmatic realism that respects the status quo as a necessary barrier against chaos yet admits the necessity of change as the only guarantee of ultimate stability.” (Karabell, 2009, p. 10)

In the media, the press was blind to the waking of a sleeping giant. For years, there were news of Monica Lewinsky, the rise of technology, to 9/11 terrorist attacks, but no one was questioning why and how China was controlling $ 2 trillion dollars in reserves, or why the cargo vans which came with Chinese imports did not leave with US exports. “Ready to resolve all outstanding issues, Zhu travelled to Washington in April 1999. The city was then consumed, as was much of the nation, with the unfolding of a soap opera… Little else received much media attention, not the intervention of the United States to secure the independence of Kosovo, not the continued tensions over the no-fly zone in Iraq, and not the visit of the number two official of China…” (Karabell, 2009, p. 121)

History saw the beginning of the Superfusion not with the Tank Man, but with the Chinese soldiers whetting their appetite with KFC just down the street from Tiananmen Square, later Mao’s tomb. “Yet, another symbol, less vaunted but immune to the currents that buffeted China in the spring of 1989, survived.” (Karabell, 2009, p. 57) True to the promise of Deng, I will give you prosperity if you obey the government. For “China’s leaders learned several lessons watching Russia unravel: reform, but do so in a controlled way; change, but set your own pace; globalize, but in stages; attract foreign investment; but on your own terms. (Karabell, 2009, p. 35)

Conclusion

Reading Karabell’s “Superfusion,” I find the plot to be a romantic narrative of the story of China and the United States. China is the virgin bride, secretive but smart, reluctant to embrace globalization, liberalization, and free enterprise for the love and respect of her history and those in authority over her. She gives her dowry to the United States, the bankrupt gambler, who has lost everything to speculation and living on a spending spree of wild credit. Will the marriage be of equals? Will the marriage last? More importantly, will Chimerica be a chimera (defined as a horrible or unreal creature of the imagination)?

Reference:
Karabell, Z. (2009). Superfusion: How China and America became one economy and why the world’s prosperity depends on it, New York: Simon and Schuster.

Russell Ackoff: The Sun

Text by Sarina Pasricha
Photos by J. Pasricha

Russell Ackoff is the sun and we are all in orbit.

The following are the stars during his memorial service and life celebration at the University of Pennsylvania:

Larry Starr, executive director Organizational Dynamics Graduate Studies, School of Arts and Sciences
Helen Ackoff
Vince Barabba, chairman, Market Insight Corporation and State of the USA
Bill Bellows, associate fellow, Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne
Steve Brant, Trimtab Management Systems
John Clark, vice president Business Development CGX Energy
Thomas Gerrity, Joseph J. Aresty professor and dean emeritus, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Bill Finnie, Business Strategy consultant and adjunct professor, Washington University in St. Louis
Jamshid Gharajedaghi, managing partner INTERACT
Jaime Jimenex, IIMAS, Universidad Nacional de Mexico
Mike Jackson, professor and dean, Hull University Business School, UK
Jason Magidson, Wildfire Commerce Management Consultancy
Erwann Michel-Kerjan, managing director, Wharton Risk Management Center, Wharton School
Jack Purnell, executive in residence, John M. Olin School of Business, Washington University in St. Louis
Barry Silverman, professor of engineering, Medicine and Wharton, and director of the Ackoff Collaboratory for Advancement of the Systems Approach
J. Gerald Suarez, associate dean and professor of Practice, Systems Thinking and Design, Robert H. Smith School of Business, Universty of Maryland.

Messages are read on behalf of

Thomas S. Robertson, dean, Wharton School
Eduardo Glandt, dean, School of Engineering and Applied Science
Rebecca Bushnell, dean, School of Arts and Sciences
Ray Stata, chairman of the board of directors, Analog Devices Inc.
Bo Ekman, founder and chairman, Tailberg Foundation
New Bulgarian University, Sofia, Bulgaria
Tomsk State University, Tomsk, Russia
Da Vinci Institute, Johannesburg, South Africa

Winter 2010 at UPenn

Viridian in Spring, Glorious in Summer, Clinquant in Fall, White in Winter. Here are the images of Winter 2010 at UPenn. I was told most international students rarely get to see winter storms in Philadelphia in their student life. I was fortunate to experience three “severe” ones this year leaving the campus completely white and covered.

Design Thinking in times of Complexity

Introduction

Metaphor of Design Thinking

When a first time tourist who speaks no other language other than his own goes to another country, France, for example, and visits a local restaurant that speaks no English, ordering the menu becomes a dilemma — So what to do? Find a connection. Be inspired. Flap your make shift wings and say, Cock-a-doodle-doo. Five minutes later, an authentically French recipe of “chicken” comes out of the kitchen door and onto the table.

This is perhaps how best to describe Design Thinking at the moment. Each of us knows how to flap our “wings” and make chicken noises, because we have a clear idea inside our head, like we know what Design Thinking is when we see it, but we cannot seem to put a boxed definition of Design Thinking. Probably, because it is new, hence there is no right answer. Probably, because it is experienced differently, hence there are no words to write a user’s manual. Probably, because we are still struggling hence, to design think the process of design thinking.

Definition of Design Thinking

Thus, to define Design Thinking to me involves three of its characteristics:

1. There is no right answer. (ends)
2. Each experience is unique. (lead)
3. Design Thinking is a creative struggle. (means)

Tim Brown is CEO of IDEO, a design thinker’s paradise and a reputable company that has helped create solutions for its clients through their innovative approach.

 In a Harvard Business Review article, Tim defined Design Thinking as “a discipline that uses the designer’s sensibility and methods to match people’s needs with what is technologically feasible and what a viable business strategy can convert into customer value and market opportunity.” (Brown, 2008)

But, Tim in his blog (http://designthinking.ideo.com/?p=49) throws the question off to the world and many respond with their own definition of Design Thinking too. Not one definition duplicates the other. However, from a community of practitioners’ standpoint, we can say that what we then consider Design Thinking to be is a way to providing value, whether it is alone in the design studio or with the help of a team to reach the capitalist shelves of the marketplace.

 So having agreed that Design Thinking is a way to providing value, this article proposes how Design Thinking can be used as an effective approach in times of complexity.

To move forward, we need to define times of “complexity”.

Definition of Complexity

Complexity is also known as the “domain of emergence” that is “consisting of many different and connected parts”. Complexity is characterized by flux and unpredictability (characteristic: each experience is unique); no right answers (characteristic: there is not a right answer); many competing ideas (characteristic: is a creative struggle); emergent patterns provide instruction to move forward. (Snowden & Boone, 2007)

A leader’s job, therefore, in times of complexity, (Snowden & Boone, 2007) is to:

• Probe – Sense – Respond
• Recognize Patterns
• Foster an environment to promote innovation, and support emergent patterns
• Increase interaction and communication

A leader’s job is then to seek changes, however small, that can have the maximum impact. A leader cannot do this alone, nor can he task a group of specialists or subject matter experts because complexity does not have direct cause and effect relationships. I would argue then that the best means of decision-making during complexity is to for the leader to be open to incorporate the Design Thinking Approach.

Case Analysis I

The IDEO Way as described by Bruce Nussbaum in his article published in Business Week, for example, is one such effective approach. It involves five stages.

The first stage is observation.  Here, the IDEO team partner with clients to better understand the need. The second stage is brain-storming. Here, an intense, idea-generating session analyzes data gathered through observation.  Ideas during the brain-storming stage help translate the abstract into concrete in a rapid prototyping stage. Prototypes are then refined through the combination of models to narrow down choices. Finally, the IDEO team implements the best idea that has emerged. (Nussbaum, 2004)

We find in the IDEO Way the three characteristics that match Design Thinking and Complexity as discussed above. Observing, Brain-storming, Prototyping, Refining, and Implementing work around the fact that there is no right answer, each experience is unique, and both Design Thinking and Complexity are a creative struggle.

Case Analysis II

We look at another situation when a company might have used Design Thinking in times of complexity but did not.

Acme Technologies (real name disguised) is a $ 2 billion company in the business of virtualization that serves the world’s Fortune 500, it is the fourth largest IT services company in India, with 50,000 employees.

Like many of its competitors, Acme Technologies is able to deliver to customers from across the world at the best price/cost for the customer. Virtualization is keeping the cost reasonable and effective. It opens the market to competition enabling providers to be efficient in the management of their business.

Through virtualization, the issues of travel and logistics especially of expert teams become inconsequent, as this brings down operating costs. Hence, we see the trend of offshoring and outsourcing. Companies find other companies are more efficient in handling business tasks such as billing and customer service. So these companies outsource these business functions to others for cost benefit. It so happens that the most cost effective service providers of this nature come (at this moment) from India, China, etc. 

Acme Technologies as an organization has been in the news spotlight for some time for not so good reasons. It all began when the company’s founder resigned early January 2009.

For weeks later, the Indian public, including Acme Technologies’s very own employees, was to discover the unraveling of the great mystery of where the money went and the disillusionment with a giant of a man who was even given the E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year 2007 and the Golden Peacock Award for Corporate Governance 2008.

One morning, the employees, customers, and the investors of Acme Technologies awoke to a time of complexity .

That morning, Acme Technologies’s chairman and founder took responsibility in his letter to the board of directors for broad accounting improprieties that overstated the company’s revenues and profits, and reported a cash holding of approximately $1.04 billion that did not exist. Even if, the chairman along with his brother (the CEO/managing director), and the chief financial officer are in jail now for breaking the law, many stakeholders were affected. A lot have lost their jobs and their investments. True to the trait found in times of complexity, there were many different and connected parts that imploded. There was a breach of trust that had affected good will and lost customers and resulted in investor fall out.

When all of these happen together, the remaining leaders take authority and control to contain the anxiety and do damage control, when the best approach is using Design Thinking.

Acme Technologies’s interim leadership sent reassuring emails to staff and to the public to communicate that all contingencies were being done. In reality, those contingencies involved knee-jerk responses such as cutting a staff base of 50,000 employees to half, and selling off the company to a willing buyer.

A year before the scandal should have signalled the coming deluge, the IT giant was preparing for strategic and organizational changes that Acme Technologies needed to make in order to face the challenges the environment brought on — Challenges such as the Rise in Oil Prices, Rupee Appreciation, Subprime Crisis, Financial Crisis, and Recession.  There was a string of cost cutting measures and organization-wide restructuring and firing within Acme Technologies that started Fiscal Year 2008-09.

“Acme Technologies, which has just started giving pink slips to its employees, could potentially downsize its workforce by a whopping 4,500 employees. This translates to a little less than 9% of the 51,000 employees that the company employs. Company sources say 1,500 employees have been put under the performance improvement plan (PIP), euphemism for employees put on watch list and asked to shape up or ship out. Apart from this, 3,000 others have not been given any increment in the last appraisal cycle, thereby indicating that their services are dispensable.” (http://ashq.wordpress.com/2008/09/15/Acme Technologies-layoff-4500-employees/)

Another measure designed to save on costs was to move some of the company’s strategic consulting services that the company paid McKinsey and Company to do for its onsite relationships, alliances, businesses, projects, etc., in-house to leadership consultants who could have seen why these engagements were experiencing difficulties in performance.

Why were clients like Nissan, Citigroup, and Chevron threatening to withdraw from the relationship? What was going on in the ground? Is Acme Technologies delivering on the promise? What was being done to escalate these types of issues to the leadership team of Acme Technologies so that swift action can be taken?

If there is a threat of client withdrawal, is there something deeper at the heart of the issue? Perhaps promises were not kept; expectations were not met, etc. Consultants should be able to identify/diagnose and suggest an intervention.

Conclusion

What if Design Thinking were employed? What would have been the result?

I argue that if Acme Technologies’s leadership probed the financial statements, months or years before the scandal and saw the diminishing margins, they would have recognized an emerging fractal pattern and questioned what is wrong when revenues are on the rise. Leadership would have then increased interaction and communication by calling in a Design Thinking team to understand the emergent pattern.  Through brain-storming of possible ideas of what was happening and prototyping through the modelling of different situations, it would emerge that the books were being cooked, or at least there was something fishy going on.

Leadership would have then held the chairman and his closely-knit group accountable for the cheating. By doing so, they would have inoculated the company from the chairman’s actions instead of engaging in a breach of trust with stakeholders.

Leadership and the Design Thinking Team could have “located responsibility in the system” prior to implosion by designing a system for intrinsic responsibility. It means that the system is to be designed “to send feedback about the consequences of decision-making directly, quickly, and compellingly to the decision-makers”.  (Meadows, 2008)

From the above example, I can argue that Design Thinking can be used as an effective tool in times of complexity because it would have involved a way of providing value where:

• there is no one right answer;
• each experience is unique;
• and, it involves a creative struggle.

References:

Brown, T. & Katz, B. (2009). Change by Design, New York: Harper Collins Publishers.

Brown, T. (2008). Design Thinking, Harvard Business Review.

Jackson, M. (2003). Systems Thinking: Creative Holism for Managers, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Meadows, D. (2008). Thinking in Systems, Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing.

Nussbaum , B. (2004). Power of Design, Business Week

Snowden, D. & Boone, M. (2007). A Leader’s Framework for Decision Making, Harvard Business Review.

http://designthinking.ideo.com/?p=49

http://ashq.wordpress.com/2008/09/15/Acme Technologies-layoff-4500-employees/

Goodbye, Russ!

A tribute to Russell Ackoff  (February 12, 1919 — October 29, 2009)

By Sarina Pasricha

Russell Ackoff’s death is a sad loss not only to the Penn community but to the world. He said of his own work, “My objective is not to convert those who are satisfied – even though I believe they need conversion – but to give those who are dissatisfied cause for hope and something to do about it.”

Russ gave anyone who wished to learn from him hope. There is no better time when hope was most needed than right now.

I came to know of Russ in the classroom of John Pourdehnad, my Systems Thinking professor. I never actually met Russ in person, but he was present in the video streams of Youtube, in the PowerPoint presentations and lectures, in the books that we read, and in the disciplines that Russ himself had formulated throughout his life’s work.

As a tribute to the life of Russ Ackoff, I would like to dedicate this page to learning the unique contribution he made.

For my Systems Thinking class, I am learning Russ’ particular approach to planning which is known as “interactive planning”. It is different from three other types of planning: reactivist, inactivist, and preactivist.

Reactivists reminisce of a Rennaissance age so they approach problems in piecemeal fashion, where they identify deficiencies and reduce or remove them. Reactivists live in the past, and do not grasp current realities.

Inactivists try to maintain the status quo by avoiding real change, and keeping things as they are. Inactivists treat problems separately by “satisficing” or attempting to meet the criteria for adequacy, rather than to identify an optimal solution.

Preactivists plan, predict, and prepare for the future.  Preactivists tackle problems through forecasting techniques and quantitative models.

Then, there are the Interactivists or Russ’ preferred approach. Interactivists do not want to return to the past like the reactivist, accept things as they are like the inactivist, or prepare for an inevitable future like the preactivist. Interactivists are interested in inventing ways of designing a desirable present to shape an ideal future. Interactivists are interested in dissolving problems by changing the containing system radically.

 Interactive Planning involves five phases.

• Formulating the Mess
  • This phase involves identifying the messes or how disaster will occur if the current behavior continues. This is done through systems analysis + obstruction analysis + reference projection.
• Ends Planning
  • This phase involves formulating a mission statement, outlining ideals, going through an idealized design process, approximating the ideal design, and identifying the gaps between the approximated design versus the current state.
• Means Planning
  • This phase is concerned with producing the means to pursue the ends. This is done examining procedures and processes in place and evaluating them according to their ability to close the gap between the idealized design and the desired state.
• Resource Planning
  • This phase happens when planners determine what resources (inputs, facilities and equipment, personnel, and money) will be required and when.
• Implementation and Control
  • This phase is done when planners determine who is to do what, when, and where and when planners decide how the implementation and its consequences are to be controlled.

 

Russ believed that by affecting the system, we as individuals and as part of a whole can be called to act in a more extraordinary and purposeful way.

 I believe that is how we will celebrate his life.

Reference:

Jackson, M. (2003). Systems Thinking:  Creative Holism for Managers,West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Calling OD International Students

Organizational Dynamics at Penn is arranging a social event for its international student community. Others in the OD community who are interested are also invited to join.

On October 20, 2009, Tuesday, international students will meet for dinner at Inn at the Penn. There, they will interact, have fun, get to know each other, and also talk about revitalizing ODISC, the Organizational Dynamics International Student Community.

ODISC has been instrumental in welcoming and helping Organizational Dynamics international students adjust to life at Penn and in the United States.

After dinner, international students will proceed to watch a live Philadelphia 76ers Basketball game, tickets courtesy of the department.

Please contact Professor Alan Barstow (215) 898 6967 if you can come.

Think Design

By Sarina Pasricha

I am reading some interesting articles for a class that I am taking currently. I find that more and more people are talking and writing about design thinking as it relates to solving problems and ultimately improving human life.

In contrast to analysis, design thinking uses synthesis, where instead of focusing on choosing from a series of alternatives for the best solution, effort is made to come up with the most innovative concept and improve condition. We are so used to picking from a stack, the challenge is to rethink our paradigm to questioning the purpose and meaning of “the stack”, which to the users might take some time and adjustment to when we are counting the cost. But to forego design thinking is to forego an opportunity for the better answer or the next big thing that goes to market. There are numerous examples of innovative design thinking in the marketplace, in architecture, in technology, etc. Some would be post-its, the iPod, flat screen television, touch screen technology, and many more.

This building up of ideas is risky but the rewards are well-worth it because the final result is not only utility but character. And in a world of cut and dry goods and services, consumers will pay for character even at a time of a tight economy. We see this time and again. Our purchases are ultimately a mark of the story of our identity as human beings.

How does one build up ideas in the work place? Well, it starts by what Steve Jobs says in the graduation speech he made at Stanford. Do not be afraid of failure. “No failure is big in the face of death,” Jobs articulates. And it is true.

Mistakes are a learning opportunity. Leaders and managers need to realize that experimentation and free association and dreaming lead to better results for the bottom line in the end.

So what will it take you to lead the way and think design in your organization? Go on take the risk, raise your hand, and move the world forward.

Announcement from J

Every semester, some students have trouble figuring out how to use Blackboard, our online class content system. This year, some student volunteers will be giving Blackboard tutorials and question/answer sessions over dinner every night next week from Tues, 9/22 – Fri, 9/25.

Blackboard is the online course materials website, used by most classes. If you need to learn how to use it, or just have some questions, stop by the Blackboard Tutorial Table at dinner at the Inn at Penn before class, where volunteer students will walk you through it. If you are already a Blackboard user, do feel free to join us and help out your fellows!

Time: Every night Tues, 9/22 – Fri, 9/25 in the before-dinner period. The tutorial walkthrough will start at 5:45 (3:45 on Fri).

Bring: Your PennKey & password. This is the login & password that gives you access to all of Penn’s online system. If you don’t know what it is, think back to the information you got when you first registered– it included an ID card with an ID number, and a setup code for PennKey. If you are a new student or just forgot, information can be found at http://www.upenn.edu/computing/pennkey/. If possible, bring a laptop.

Tips for OD Newbies

I am a full time International student. If you are like me, it would be the same for you as it was for me last year. You would just be coming to the United States to start your first day of school as an Organizational Dynamics student. Welcome.

Here are ten survival tips to help you adjust to your new life at Penn.

1. Get your immunization shots as soon as possible at the Penn Student Health located at 3535 Market Street. There are ten or more vaccines to be spread out in six months. If you do not schedule and take your shots, your enrollment would be placed on hold and you would not be able to register for Spring. Do not be afraid. The nurses are kind. You can even sing while they give you your shot.
2. The cheapest place to buy ready to eat meals is at the Food Trucks located in front of the Wharton School Huntsman Hall. There is a choice of Chinese, Japanese, Indian, or Italian. Four dollars would give you a full meal. The nearest McDonald’s is located at 40^th Street beside Fresh Grocers where you can buy your groceries. When you have the time, you can go to Chinatown where you can find an assortment of cheap stuff as well.
3. You would need a good winter coat, gloves, caps, thermal wear, and boots in time for the heavy snow. GAP goes on sale for winter coats just before Christmas. The store is located at Walnut Street.
4. Take advantage of the online Library resource as well as the brick and mortar Library– there are three libraries at the University. You can even ask for help regarding references to consider for a particular paper topic from the reference librarian. You submit your topic and in a few days you can get your complete list of references related to your topic. Online is much faster of course.  Good references are a mark of a good paper.
5. After sitting with Benjamin Franklin and taking your historic photo, near the Chemistry building there is a secret place where you can sit and meditate. Here there is a pond with ducks, turtles, and a lone swan. Warning, please be careful going home after our night classes. Do not put yourself at risk while going home.  You can ask for security escort service while walking to your car or walking home if you live on campus. In any emergency, just lift the blue phones on the sidewalks and security will come.
6. You have free access to Morris Arboretum, the garden of the University. Although it is outside the University grounds, it is worth seeing the flowers and the trees, all 22,000 species of plants in times of fall and spring.
7. There are two Starbucks outlets in case of emergency. One in Chestnut street, and another in Walnut street. They are wifi ready for your mobile devices.
8. Souvenir for the family back at home is available at the Penn Bookstore. You will find Penn shirts and other items like diaries, sweatshirts, notebooks, etc. with the University logo. Items with the Organizational Dynamics logo are given exclusively by the department.
9. Choose your adviser/mentor as early as possible so you can take advantage of the learning opportunity. Have conversations with the faculty and your classmates while having dinner at the Inn at the Penn. Attend the special lectures open to OD students. That is what life at the University of Pennsylvania is all about. Send colleagues and teachers emails with your thoughts and ideas. Blog here. Believe me, the University of Pennsylvania is committed to ensuring your academic achievement.
10. Attend orientations, parties, brunches, Thanksgiving day, Passover, and other networking events.  You will never feel alone that way.

If you need anything, or are experiencing challenging situations with regards to academics or your stay at Penn, schedule a meeting or a phone call and the program director is always ready to help. Professor Larry Starr is the grand fromage.

Upcoming events

I would like everyone to know about two upcoming events this Fall in the Organizational Dynamics Program at Penn.

Oct 24^th, 12 -1:30p – “Disasters: An overview of preparedness and response management” by Christopher T.  Born, MD.  Dr Born writes and lectures extensively on disaster management both nationally and internationally.

Nov 13-14 – Celebration and Kick off for Organizational Dynamics’ new Sustainable Development concentration featuring our partners Dow Chemical Company and The Natural Step, an NGO founded in Sweden and one of the world’s foremost pioneers in taking a systems approach to sustainability. Friday evening keynote panel and Saturday workshop 9a-12p.

More details to come but please mark these events on your calendar.

Register Now

By Sarina Pasricha

Have you registered?

What courses are you planning to take for Fall 2009? Post a note and let us know.

As for me, I am a full time international student taking up Organizational Dynamics. I have been taking three courses a term and I am now on my fourth term. I really enjoy the intellectual learning and rigor of the program as well as the interactions with classmates and teachers.

During my first term, I took the Foundations Course taught by Professor Janet Greco and Professor Alan Barstow. I also took Organizational Consulting Proseminar taught by Professor Larry Starr, and the Art and Science of Organizational Coaching taught by Professor Bill Wilkinsky.

In the Foundations Course, I got introduced to the dynamics of the program. The professors gave what I consider a great starter account of what it would be like to be a student of the program. I learned about the expectations, the offerings, and I got to get a taste of the OD experience. My favorite lessons are on metaphors specifically on the organization as a social conversation. The professors were fantastic together, they had a brilliant partnership and they gave good inputs to the students… they also made the classroom highly interactive through lessons such as the Hermann Brain Dominance and other exercises.

In the Organizational Consulting Proseminar, we, the students got exposed to the many different styles and frameworks of consulting through interactions with guest speakers. We learned how change consultants are able to transform and create a lasting impact by hearing from their real world experiences. My favorite is the part when we were able to put forward questions about our organizational issues and get feedback from similar situations. I was initially reluctant and doubted the application of appreciative inquiry in the workplace but I got lured to its practicality and validity when I was able to use the framework to a particular issue I faced in a group setting. Needless to say, after working in an IT company for three years as manager and writer for corporate strategy, I loved the framework of virtualization when every change is monitored and managed in real time. Professor Larry Starr provided a free for all interaction with the different speakers and encouraged critical thinking from us.

Organizational Coaching is a highly popular course. During dinners at Inn at the Penn, students discuss how it is a great offering and how one should not miss the opportunity to register for it. Professor Bill Wilkinsky teaches with Linda Pennington and Deb Denis as teaching assistants. This Pas de Trois or dance for three is a unique and mind set changing experience. First, you get to be a coach or a client and have an actual coaching relationship. Second, you experience LIFO, a technique that helps one better understand how others think and act. And third, you get to read theories of coaching that you get to compare and contrast and more importantly apply.

This was my first year first term. In case you are still deciding, you might want to consider these three. As I remember the squirrels and the ducks and the falling autumn leaves of Fall 2008, I shall also remember the special way the first term was for me through these three courses.

I shall talk about Spring 2009 and the blossoming magnolias in the next blog.

The New Blog

I like this first blog entry particularly with the group photo of students, faculty, staff, and alumni, but I am disappointed about the lack of online engagement of others. I have been planning to write a “Director’s Blog” but if I should expect the response to be equally absent, why bother?

Let me pose some questions as a prompt: (1) How do you feel about the new registration page? Would you like a stronger international commmunity? What would you like to improve within the degree program? What are your organizational dynamics thoughts about the global financial crisis generally and our community in particular?

Don’t respond to me; express yourselves to each other. Hello? Hello? Is there anyone out there (other than Roger Waters)?

By Sarina Pasricha

Someone has to start the conversation, or the thread, in blogspeak, so I am raising my hands and volunteering my thoughts. I hope you will do the same, next time, for this space.

This is a blog dedicated to the natural rhythm of life in Organizational Dynamics at Penn. You know, a story of how we roll. Both inside the classroom and outside of it.

Recently, the OD community celebrated Canada Day. Canada Day celebrates the anniversary of the 1 July 1867 enactment of the British North America Act, which united Canada as a single country. What a beautiful reason to call for a picnic with faculty, staff, and students of Organizational Dynamics present! This certainly is a proof of how international and diverse the program has transformed itself into where the community comes together to share in the opportunity to bask under the summer sun and celadon sky.

It was on this occasion I learned that ribs are best eaten with hands, and so they are. They are best eaten in the company of good friends as well. We had ribs, salads, chicken, cookies, and my favorite Coca-cola. It was a great time to relax, unwind, and share stories and metaphors from the everyday kind to the scholarly. I realize that as students, we are lucky to have the kind of professors and department staff that we do. I see their concern for students, how they advocate for us, and prioritize our best interests. In the classroom, it is all about the reading or the lesson, but in a picnic, you see the authenticity in how a person behaves and shows positive regard for others.

I have been a student at the program for three terms now. I can say I have learned a lot from the experience. It is a unique one, something you cannot get outside Penn and outside the program, Organizational Dynamics. You not only learn from your professor, but also get a minefield from interactions with classmates who come from varying paradigms and bring their expertise to school.

Canada Day Is a snapshot of this.

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Organizational Dynamics at Penn, email cba@sas.upenn.edu and make “blog” the subject of the email.

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