Seeing Systems : Unlocking the Mysteries of Organizational Life

by Oshry, Barry

• ISBN13: 9781576754559
• ISBN10: 1576754553
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-08-12
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers

Summary

Seeing Systems is the most accessible, penetrating book available on the dynamics of systems. In it, Barry Oshry explains why so many efforts at creating more satisfying and productive systems end in disappointment, and proposes an entirely new framework for dealing with human behaviour. Oshry shows us how teams of top executives regularly fall into turf battles with one another; why organizational improvement efforts inevitably create tensions between the "good" cooperative workers and the "bad" resistant ones; how marriages seemingly "made in heaven" disintegrate. Oshry demonstrates how these breakdowns in organizations result from our blindness to the human systems of which we are a part.

Author Biography

Barry Oshry is the founder of Power + Systems, Inc., developer of the Power Lab and the Organization Workshop on Creating Partnership, and the author of Leading Systems.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Second Edition	p. xi
Prologue: Overcoming System Blindness	p. xii
Seeing the Big Picture	p. 1
When We Don't See the Big Picture	p. 2
Pinball	p. 2
The Manager of the Heart	p. 4
The Mystery of the Swim	p. 7
Seeing the Local Picture	p. 9
"Stuff" Happens	p. 10
From Spatial Blindness to Spatial Sight	p. 14
Seeing Context	p. 15
The "Truth" About Jack	p. 20
Charlotte Is a Problem	p. 22
Center Ring or Side Show?	p. 25
Times Out of Time: Seeing the Whole	p. 27
The TOOT Dilemma	p. 31
From Temporal Blindness to Temporal Sight	p. 33
The Invisible Histories of the Swims We Are In	p. 34
History's Burst of Illumination	p. 36
Bart and Barb: A System Evolves...Perfectly	p. 38
"Anthropology" or Mick Gets Wiped Out	p. 46
Applied Anthropology: Unraveling System History	p. 58
Summary	p. 59
Seeing Patterns of Relationship	p. 61
Relational Blindness	p. 63
What About All the Drama?	p. 63
The Dance of Blind Reflex	p. 64
From Relational Blindness to Relational Sight	p. 69
Three Patterns of Relationship	p. 69
One Wakes, the Other Sleeps	p. 71
The Top/Bottom Dance of Blind Reflex	p. 72
It Takes Two to Tango...or Does It?	p. 80
Let's Declare Bankruptcy: Transforming the Top/Bottom Dance	p. 83
The Universal Civics Course	p. 86
The End/Middle/End Dance of Blind Reflex	p. 89
Daniel: Mutant in the Middle Space	p. 97
Organizations in the Middle	p. 100
The Provider/Customer Dance of Blind Reflex	p. 101
Overcontrol or Transformation: The Mutant Customer	p. 106
The Unfairly Judged Professor (and the Righteously Done-to Students)	p. 108
Abused and Misused in the Space of Service	p. 112
The Web of Relationships	p. 117
How to Clean Sidewalks: It's a Matter of Being	p. 120
Resistance or The Sound of the Old Dance Shaking	p. 121
How We Can See the Dance	p. 123
Summary	p. 127
Seeing Patterns of Process	p. 129
Process Blindness	p. 131
Are You Sure You Have It All?	p. 131
Turf Warfare, Alienation, and GroupThink: The Dance of Blind Reflex Continued	p. 132
Relationship Breakdowns in a Nutshell	p. 138
From Process Blindness to Process Sight	p. 139
Territorial Tops: Stuck on Differentiation	p. 139
The Success of a Business, the Failure of Its Partners	p. 142
Learning from Experience: A Good Second Marriage	p. 145
Help! No Recovering Top Groups Sighted	p. 147
Advice for the Top Team	p. 148
Alienated Middles: Stuck on Individuation	p. 152
Alienation Among the Middles	p. 153
Can Alienated Middles Become a Powerful System?	p. 156
Mutant Middle Groups	p. 158
How to Create Powerful Middle Teams	p. 164
Bottom GroupThink: Stuck on Integration	p. 166
Immigrant Martha Has a Breakdown	p. 169
Where Is Everyone? A Mutant Bottom Group	p. 176
Power Is Managing Differentiation	p. 178
Creating Powerful Bottom Groups	p. 181
The Politics of System Processes	p. 183
Huddlers and Humanists...Enough With Consensus!	p. 184
Amebocytes and Slugs: The Politics of Individuation and Integration	p. 187
The Politics of Gender	p. 189
Or Would You Rather Be an Earthworm? Societal Implications of Differentiation and Homogenization	p. 192
Differentiation: Inquiry or Warfare?	p. 193
An Ode to Homogenization	p. 197
The Challenge of Robust Systems	p. 198
The Dominants and the Others	p. 199
Robust System Processes	p. 205
The Dance of the Robust System: Ballet Notes	p. 209
A Remarkable, If Somewhat Premature Epiphany	p. 213
Summary	p. 215
Seeing Uncertainty	p. 217
The Emergence of Organizational Positions	p. 219
Individuals in Uncertainty	p. 220
Individuals Facing and Escaping from Organizational Uncertainty	p. 220
A Mutant Moment in the Middle	p. 225
Dancing in and out of the Tunnel of Limited Options	p. 229
His Magic Consultant Card #2	p. 235
Groups in Uncertainty	p. 239
Groups Facing and Escaping from Uncertainty	p. 239
How to Transform Oppositional Struggles into Multifaceted Flexible Teams	p. 245
Facing and Escaping the Uncertainties of Existence	p. 251
Not All Possibilities Are Possible	p. 251
Coping with Uncertainty Through Mythos and Logos	p. 253
Summary	p. 257
The Next Act-Seeing More	p. 259
Epilogue: A Continuing Revolution	p. 261
Notes	p. 267
About the Author	p. 271
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