Suchergebnisse

AbstractThis paper was delivered as the Presidential address for the 47th International Society for the Systems Sciences Annual Conference in Crete, Greece. It builds and elaborates on the theme of the conference, which was 'Conscious Evolution of Humanity: Using Systems Thinking to Construct Agoras of the Global Village'. The role of true dialogue in the context of the trends towards globalization, and the predicament of indigenous people to sustain democracy and cultural dignity and autonomy, are discussed. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

AbstractA National Forum for Nonindustrial Private Forest Landowners was convened by Secretary John B. Crowell, Jr. of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in St. Louis, Missouri from 31 October to 3 November 1983. Using the Interactive Management approach, an Agenda was designed, whereby the Forum would be conducted with the specific intent to achieve consensus on a wide variety of issues, and to ensure ample opportunity for the Participants to make their views heard. In view of the fact that there were 160 Participants, of whom about 20 were designated as Active Participants, the achievements of this Forum, reported in this paper, were remarkable. The Active Participants were engaged directly in the identification, structuring, and resolution of public policy issues confronting the Forestry Community, while the Supportive Participants were able to observe the facilitated discourse by means of TV monitors dispersed throughout the conference room. Numerous caucuses were held, whereby Supportive Participants gave their views to the Active Participants. One of the most positive and productive outcomes of the Forum was the engagement, for the first time, of the various segments of the Forestry Community in collecting ideas on problems and opportunities, developing options for realizing those opportunities, and deciding who should act on those opportunities.

AbstractForty Indigenous leaders from the Americas and New Zealand and several non‐Indigenous participants sitting in the traditional Comanche Tribe circle began the forum by sharing their 'medicine'—inner strength or personal power. They evoked in various ways a common deep spirituality based on a respect for the earth, ancestors, family, and peaceful coexistence. The purpose of the forum was to create, through true dialogue, a shared understanding of the barriers that will need to be addressed in the enhancement of liberating transnational interactions among emerging Indigenous leaders in the context of globalization. Finding patterns of effective interactions was the primary task of the forum participants. The fact that the participants are searching for 'patterns of meaning' implies that what they strive for is to integrate the intangible of traditional core cultural values into a contemporary reality. In the forum, the group identified effective, practical means that embody Indigeneity. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

AbstractThe paper identifies the critical role dialogue must play in constructing and sustaining the 21st‐century agoras in the context of the Global Village. Recognizing that the trends towards globalization are irreversible, it describes a boundary‐spanning dialogue approach (BDA) as the necessary, but not sufficient, foundation for enabling human beings to conceptualize and materialize the idealization of 'conscious evolution of humanity'. The approach to BDA described in the paper is based on over 30 years of research, development and testing in the social systems design arena. Many stories from the design arena are available and documented. A major challenge for the agoras of the 21st century will be their capacity to engage multilingual, multicultural and geographically dispersed stakeholders in a boundary‐spanning dialogue among civilizations in the context of the Global Village. Two stories from past applications of BDA in the social systems design arena are presented in this paper. The first story discusses a project in Washington, DC involving Native American leaders and Federal Government executives, in the late 1980s. The second story focuses on a peace‐building workshop between Israelis and Palestinians that was facilitated by members of the bi‐communal Cypriot community. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

AbstractTo prepare for post‐industrial leadership in the twenty‐first century, we must transcend the circular journey of leadership studies of the twentieth century which is rooted in the industrial paradigm of organizations. The post‐industrial era of knowledge workers requires a group‐based, interactive framework of leadership. Based on the works of Burns (1978) and Rost (1991), the authors propose a definition of transforming leadership discovered through their systems design work. Three principles of transforming leadership are identified through the application of the CogniScope System. From 200 applications of the CogniScope System in various organizations, the phenomenon of transforming leadership has emerged as an important possibility. Observations from multiple applications of the CogniScope System have led to the codification of three principles that fit the context, content, and process of systems design work. The three principles are illustrated through excerpts of a case study. Using the case study, the authors identify specific events or group products to validate the claim that transforming leadership did occur. The authors identify a need for research by other emancipatory systems thinking methodologies to further our understanding of transforming leadership. The authors speculate on the emergence of transforming leaders/managers in new organizational structures that will support transforming leadership. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.