I’m taking advantage of these confined Thursdays to review content by adding narration to the text. Today I propose to revisit the meetup on complex organizations presented with Laurent Morisseau in 2019, which I was able to explore further at the Flowcon 2019 conference.

This is a memory aid, access to the articles and PDFs used during the meetups and workshops, the common thread of the meetup.

The video

Complex organizations?

Let me remind you of our “mojo”:

Today there exists a middle ground between a totally emergent approach where the contextual reigns supreme, and an approach with simplistic “recipe” methods. We don’t want complete emergence to avoid asking all the questions, but rather the right questions, to reduce the field of possibilities. We reject simplistic recipes: questions must be asked. ​

Our approach is intermediate, between the fully codified subway map where you simply check boxes without thinking, and the “terra incognita” map where everything seems to be rediscovered and reinvented. We place the astrolabe symbol: this instrument gives directions, distances, in topography allows measuring distances, helps with surveying, broadly speaking.

We were looking for an instrument that gives directions, but without completely defining the map or claiming to know the territory in advance.

Focus on archetypes

Focus on a reading grid, Bateson’s logical levels/Dilts pyramid

It’s often at the upper level that we resolve the dissonances of the level where the problem is situated. An example with benext 2019.

Putting it into practice, the workshop

It involves:

  • Perceiving the organization’s archetype?
  • What are the symptoms?
  • Is it functional or dysfunctional?
  • Is revitalization or reform needed?
  • Based on its archetype, what life cycle is proposed?
  • What are therefore the proposed actions to be taken?

Workshop guide

Focus on life cycle

Sources