newsletter- august 2009
TRANSCRIPT
RESET
THE QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER OF INTEGRÃLIS CONSULTING GROUPFOURTH EDITION - AUGUST 2009
Raúl Romero Havaux
General Manager
Integrãlis Consulting Group
EDITORIALEven though it is still not evident for everybody in the main-
stream business; I was surprised when the General Manager
of a major organization in Mexico - a client of ours- showed
real astonishment for the concept co-creation.
In a conventional stage of businesses (to which we must say
that this company belongs), the leadership comes from the
top and is pyramidal, which means that a selected group
within the organization generates the strategies and is typi-
cally supported by the feedback it receives across initiatives
- for example - of market research or sales reports to be co-
creating the company’s strategies.
This director continued to be astonished when we asked:
What would happen if we started ”working” with the clients,
suppliers and all the persons of the system that normally not
are taken into account - or whom we only consider from a
very limited perspective-, and if these persons would take
part of the team committed to design the company’s strate-
gies? His answer was: Incredible! We could get access to
privileged information that we in other ways could not get.
Here it is demonstrated that collaboration is the following
level of development - efficient in costs and time-, and in-
cluded in this paradigm, we can assume that an organiza-
tion can be co-created and co-designed not only by the
owners or the people who have the most interest and sys-
temic weight in the company, but also by many other people
or players within the system that traditionally are not inte-
grated.
The practice of collaboration is exactly where we -at Inte-
grãlis- place our confidence and in this newsletter we would
like to share some of these tools with you.
Only six months away from CO-CREATING the future of our
businesses
We are only six months away from the Systemic Business Congress, where busi-
nessmen, specialists and people who are interested in business development, will get
to know and experiment with different systemic tools, applied in the process of con-
sciously constructing the future of organizations; obtaining strategies and action
measures that they can implement in their own businesses.
We are very proud to present this forum in which it is not only important to liberate the
intelligence of the specialists, but to create an opportunity to release the collective
intelligence of both experts and businessmen.
We would also like to share that Juanita Brown and her team are integrated in strate-
gic planning process. Juanita is founder of the methodology “The World Café”, an
innovative approach to large group dialogues, applied in organizations, NGOs, gov-
ernments in various European countries, Latin America, Africa, the Orient and the
United States (Promise USA - National Network of Citizen Conversation, a project
that is part of the actual administration of President Obama), etc.
We invite you to participate in this event the 1st and 2nd of March, 2010, at the World
Trade Center in Mexico City. For more information, please visit the web page:
www.systemicbusinesscongress.com or contact us at [email protected]
Two days could mean the difference for the future of your organization.
EVENTOS
Systemic Business Congress
1st and 2nd of March 2010 at The
World Trade Center in Mexico City.
A forum where businessmen, specia-
lists and everyone interested in busi-
ness development can get to know
and experiment with different systemic
tools, applied in the process of cons-
tructing the future of organizations;
obtaining strategies and action mea-
sures that they can implement in their
own businesses.
Please visit the web site:
www.systemicbusinesscongress.com
Reflexive circles in Cultural Biology
30th of Septiembre to 2nd of October
2009 atThel World Trade Center in
Mexico City.
Reflexive circles are conversations
guided by Humberto Maturana, Ximena
Dávila and Ignacio Muñoz whose goal
is to show how biological constructions
are based on cultural origins.
For more information please see:
www.biologiacultural.com.mx
Business Innovation Conference
5th to 7th of Octubre 2009 in Wheaton,
Illinois, United States.
This event will gather innovators,
e n t r e p e n e u r s , i n g e n i e e r s a n d
execu t i ves to sha re me thods ,
challenges and knowledge that will help
understand innovation processes and
the tools needed to pass to “the next
level”.
Please go to following web page:
www.bnpevents.com
The specialists that will facilitate the forum come -among other countries- from The Netherlands, Switzerland, Mexico, The Uni-ted States, Germany, Italy, England, Austria.
* Henriette K. Lingg. Co-author of the book “Management Constellations: Managing complexity with systemic constellations”.
* Claude Rosselet. Professor at the Univer-sity of Economics of the College of Further Education Northwest Switzerland and founder of the consultancy office Inscena Systemische Beratung.
* Georg Senoner. Management consultant and specialized coach in organizational development and strategies.
* Gunthard Weber. President of the Interna-tional Society of Systemic Therapy.
* Michael Blumenstein. Creator of special family business processes, including the method with systemic configurations for families and organizations.
* Wim Jurg. Professor at the Open Univer-sity in the Netherlands, he has been a brand advisor for more than 20 years.
* Ingala Robl Greis. Has worked as an organizational consultant with systemic configurations in various countries and with organizations like SEDESOL, Bimbo Group, Secretary of Public Security, among others.
* Raúl Romero Havaux. During his expe-rience as a consultant in marketing, hu-man development and strategic planning, he has participated in the creation and development of brands like Compuserve, Mexis, Prodigy, Socio Águila, Medicall Home, among others. He has also worked with for example organizations like IBM, Gillette, Banco Mexicano, McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Black & Decker, Liverpool, Manpower, and Farmacias del Ahorro.
* Lorenz Wiest. Systemic Facilitator.
Epidauros: A model to strategic planningBy Georg Senoner*
Our business is not only based on rational considerations, because they in many ways are determined by our intuition, emotions
and tacit knowledge.
Systemic constellation work helps us explore the tacit knowledge that exists in relation to the social systems in which we live and
operate. It enables us to see the hidden dynamics that affect our decisions and it permits us in some extend to simulate the pos-
sible consequences of our actions.
This is why we have developed the Epidauros Process - a practical framework to guide consultants and management teams in
their effort to explore critical situations by the use of systemic constellations.
The situation is analyzed from six different perspectives – six drivers of change:
a)! The historical sequence of events that have lead to the current situation. We look for typical patterns, trends and radical
changes. Which are the sources and roots of the system?
b) ! The environment and the key players and stakeholders. How are the connections between them? Where is their atten-
tion directed to? Who is included and who is neglected or excluded?
c)! The vision and mission. What do we want to achieve? From where do we get our power and motivation?
d) ! The values and rules. Which are the basic guidelines for our decisions and actions? How do they comply with the culture
in which we are operating?
e)! Structure and processes. What are the essential processes to generate results in our company? Are our resources struc-
tured in an appropriate way to support the essential processes?
f) ! Goals and objectives. Which are the goals pursued by the various players in our organization? How consistent is the va-
riety of objectives which we have set.
Henriette K. Lingg and Georg Senoner* will present the Epidauros Process at the systemic Business Congress 2010. The participants of the workshop will experience the process and constellation work applied to a real situation of their business context. If you are interested in more information, please see www.systemicbusinesscongress.com or write us an email at [email protected]
A PROJECT WE WOULD LIKE TO SHAREIntroducing change for growthBy Margarita Cortés
To get the best ideas,
the participants also
practiced their abilities
of listening and
working in teams with
dynamics derived from
the improvisation te-
chnique used in theatre
where some of the
precepts are:
* To focus on the rele-
vant aspects and in-
formation.
* To be proactive all the
time.
* Share the thoughts
by integrating mind,
heart and hands.
*Connect ideas.
A company is an open social system and by
consequence a space of continuous changes.
A lot of times the people who work within the
organizations do not conceive this idea and
prefer to work with models, tools and technol-
ogy that they already know, because it is eas-
ier to continue with the familiar routines than to
learn something new.
Peter Senge says: “an organization transforms
into the teacher of change, adapting, only if it
is capable of converting into a learning organi-
zation.” This succeeds when its members can
perceive the organization as a system where
all elements impact the rest necessarily; con-
structing a shared vision where changes are
necessary for the evolution and working as a
team; recognizing the perspectives of each
member and the points that are valuable.
A couple of days ago we worked with the ex-
ecutive team of a Mexican pharmaceutical
company -that counts more that 12.000 em-
ployees- in a process of “overcoming” the
resistance to change. The organization is in-
troducing a managerial information system
(ERP – Enterprise Resource Planning), which
will be a support to the integration and opera-
tion of diverse intern administration operations.
A very important aspect when introducing the
ERP, is that the use of technology will allow
that the company continues to evolve and
grow; to do this, it needs to be accepted and
adopted by the members of the company.
The client contacted us because a big part of
the employees in charge of introducing the
information system showed resistance to-
wards this evolution. So during the two days
of intervention planning -together with the cli-
ent-, we observed that it was very important
not to try “selling” the ERP’s positive features
to the employees; but instead let them come
to the conclusion that using the technology
would affect the growth and development of
the company in a positive way.
Within the sessions we applied differ-
ent dynamics, where the assistants
became aware of some of the organ-
izational systemic rules, and their im-
portance to continue the evolution.
For example, a very powerful -and ex-
tremely evident- exercise to observe
the order in the organization was the
“time line”; by this, the employees were
acknowledged not by hierarchy but by
seniority. This dynamic allowed dem-
onstrating that there in the organization
is a hierarchy, which is not dictated by
the chart and which has an equal sys-
temic weight, or in occasions more
important.
Visually the result was shocking, as the
team observed how the organization
during years has grown and involved
more people, functions, areas, tools
and technology. It was inevitable: the
introduction of the ERP was necessary
to continue this growth.
When the team recognized that the
technology not only was an imposed
change, but a necessity to the devel-
opment of their organization, the assis-
tants got their imagination and creativ-
ity going in a co-creation exercise,
where they created a company vision
for the future that would include the
ERP, and which was relevant for all
members. As part of the exercise, we
used the technique: World Café with
the objective to create an experiential
network across the collaborative dia-
logue around transcending questions
about the situation of the organization.
The team was formed by directors and
managers from all areas within the
company; thanks to the fact that the
group had multiple perspectives, and
worked proactively during the ses-
sions; its people knew how to integrate
the different beliefs, they respected the
decisions and listened to the different
points of views. The result was a
shared future where technology can
live side by side with what’s already
established in the organization.
The organizations of the
future will increasingly
depend on the creativity of
their members to survive.
(...) In a truly creative
collaboration, which is
pleasure, and the only rules
and procedures re those
that advance the common
cause. -Warren Bennis.
Author and organizational
consultant. Founder and
President of the Leadership
Institute at The University of
Southern California.
Systems thinking and co-creation: From the perspective of a danish internBy Heidi Borum
HOW WE EXPERIENCE LIVING WITH SYSTEMS THINKING
Socrates was rightBy Georgina González
Systems Thinking, Co-creation and Col-
lective Intelligence are all more or less
new words for me. When I first arrived
here to Mexico and started at Integrãlis
Consulting Group I had only heard
about these concepts, but to be honest
I had no idea of how they were being
practiced within a company. Being a
Danish girl with a slightly conservative
attitude towards organizations, I could
not imagine how Systems Thinking and
Co-creation for real could be integrated
within the people and the entire organi-
zation, or how I could ever come to see
the organization as “a whole”.
Working in the area of International
Public Relations, meaning for example
writing e-mails, translating articles, pro-
moting the company and our congress
in March 2010, how could I ever come
to see the organization as “a whole”,
when we also have a finance depart-
ment, a research group and a design
group, which have absolutely nothing to
do with my work in the company – or so
I thought.
After 4 months as being part of the In-
tegrãlis Consulting Group, I must admit
that my focus has changed and my
perspective and conservative attitude
have come across some real chal-
lenges. I have been integrated in multi-
ple meetings about economical issues,
strategic planning, web design – in con-
sulting sessions with clients, in work-
shops and I could keep on – all of this
just to realize how big affect it has on
me as an individual, but also on the en-
tire organization. When being integrating
in a way, where everybody co-works
and the organization is seen as a
“whole” and not separated small parts,
you get an insight in what’s going on in
the entire company and not only in your
working area.
By co-creating and working together in
a system you get the best environment
for being innovative and creative. When
you see other people’s perspectives,
you become inspired, and this is exactly
when you release your own intelligence
and creativity.
Collective Intelligence is precisely what I
just have described: A shared intelli-
gence that emerges from the collabora-
tion and competition of many individu-
als.
And isn’t this what every organization
want: A bunch of intelligent, innovative
and creative employees instead of one
single person being so?
The answer is simple: Release the col-
lective intelligence of all individuals by
co-creating and working together as “a
whole”.
Coaching, without doubt, is something more than just fashion and a process that
compounds support techniques and tools for directives. It is a dialogue between the
coach and the directive across questions that serve to facilitate the knowledge that is
present about himself, generating a conscious decision that allows the individual to
become more efficient, to get more clarity of his reality and of all taking the best deci-
sions for his life and work.
The best way to become enlightened
is to answer intelligent questions.
Because, what happens at the directive levels is that we have sodden directors with
diverse problems, exhausted with the responsibility of taking fundamental decisions to
achieve success in their organization and with the belief that they have everything un-
der control.
The reality is that they need to get away from the habits and find a ‘mirror’ that ques-
tions them with some issues that the work rhythm does not allow them to see.
Coaching is an intervention tool that makes the directive take fast consciousness of
what they consider necessary for a change.
At Integrãlis Consulting Group we think that the road for the directives - who want
clarity in their decisions, is to work assertively with their human relations, clarify their
beliefs and revise their compromise towards their position and concerning the com-
pany - it is to set up a coaching process.
The companies that can
develop themselves
successfully in the future, are
the ones that prepare trainings
and constantly generate
contexts of learning…. The
ones that stop learning and,
innovating, are the ones that
are driving themselves into
failure.” -Peter Senge.
American scientist, author of
"The Fifth Discipline.”
INTEGRATE
The initial base that this is structured
around, is the “Systemic Change Pro-
gram” an intervention model that we
have applied with success. In the first
design stage, we were adjusting and
including new approaches before con-
verting it into the ICR. The original pro-
gram was structured in tree times or
stages; Stage one: What is happening?
This phase is basically research, Stage
two: What would you like to be differ-
ent? In here you design the strategies
to be implemented and Stage three:
How will you achieve this? This is the
implementation and evolution process.
The application of these three phases
results in the organizational change.
In essence a systemic model is enrich-
ing because it do not interfere with
other approaches; it is a diagram that
sums up and integrates different per-
spectives, by which, the inclusion of the
integral model (developed by the phi-
losopher Ken Wilber) to the Systemic
Change Program, was evident and
natural.
The first step of the ICR; Integrate, is
divided into three actions; Theme
(where the client tells us about his
needs), Reset (a process of stopping
up and reconsidering multiple possibili-
ties) and Integrate (where you consider
all elements). This process has an inte-
gral approach to observe the organiza-
tion from all points of views, taking into
account or including every single one of
the involved actors.
CO-CREATE
Integrating various perspectives implies
listening to with what each one can
contribute from the place they occupy
within the organization, and the follow-
ing step; Co-create, is also divided into
three steps: Explore, Connect, Mobi-
lize, composed of tools that allow team
creation.
Some of the tools that we have inte-
grated in this process are: The Theory
U by Otto Scharmer, focused on con-
necting the needs and developing the
future of the organization, The World
Café by Juanita Brown, a methodology
that has been used to achieve agree-
ments in the United Nations and in the
administration of President Obama,
Organizational Configurations created
by Bert Hellinger, developed by Gun-
thard Weber and later modified by spe-
cialists like Jan Jacob Stam, in the
same way we have integrated useful
tools from the Impro, a theatrical tech-
nique developed by Viola Spolin and
Keith Johnston which focuses in sum-
ming up ideas and to create teamwork.
The meaning of combining these tools
is to create communication spaces
where the integrants of an organization
can liberate their creativity, and together
find the necessary solutions to make
the shared vision of a common future
real.
RESOLVE
In the last step: Resolve, where the
strategies are put into practice to ob-
tain results, this step contains tools like
Executive Coaching, Group Coaching,
generation of prototypes (to test the
decisions in controlled spaces) and
evolution strategies of the designed
results measured to each organization.
The ICR model has been maintained in
constant evolution thanks to our Study
Group and our research processes. At
Integrãlis Consulting Group we are
convinced that “change equals evolu-
tion”, by which, and to be fitting our
posture, we maintain a constant atten-
tion to change and to the integration of
new models, tools and tendencies that
appear around the world.
INTEGRÃLIS STUDY GROUPICR; Our intervention modelBy Marco Navarro
Integrate, Co-create, Resolve; three simple steps that resume our inter-vention model in change processes for companies. The simplicity of this model has been the result of multiple studies as for example analysis, de-cantation and integration of other models.
Próspero C. Vega #34 Colonia Centro.
Querétaro, Qro. México. CP. 76000
Directorio
R E S E T is published by Integrãlis
Consulting Group, a Mexican sys-
temic consultancy.
General Manager
Raúl Romero Havaux
Editorial Director
Georgina González Lara, Opera-
tions Manager
Editor of Newsletter
Margarita Cortés, Public Relations
Translation of Newsletter
Heidi Borum, International Public
Relations
Editorial Design
Margarita Cortés and Heidi Borum
Please write an email to
[email protected] if you
have comments on this newsletter
or simply would like to get in touch
with us. We are always interested
in any kind of feedback.
Links:
For more information on Integrãlis
Consulting Group and Raúl Ro-
mero Havaux please visit
www.integraliscg.com and
www.raulromerohavaux.net
Integrãlis Consulting Group is a
member of the international
organization EURASYC:
www.eurasyc.eu
RESET Is the process of stopping
up and reconsidering multiple
perspectives.-