informal coalitions

London's secret river

I run an OD network which meets regularly in London.  Today's session was led by a former Director of Arts Council England, Dawn Langley. In it, she introduced some of the arts-based practices that she uses to engage people in organizations through words and pictures.  One of these involves translating matter-of-fact articles, reports and so on into what Dawn calls "found poems".

Inspired by the creativity that network members had shown in using this technique, I thought I would while away the time on the train journey home by giving it another go.  As source, I used a fascinating article written by Valentine Low in tonight's London Evening Standard, entitled "West End's secret river".

The resulting poem uses words solely from the article itself. And, apart from some minor changes for effect, the words appear in their original order.  These were self-imposed constraints.  Dawn is much more accommodating! Her approach allows as much 'poetic licence' as needed to 'find the poem within'.

As light relief from my more serious musings on informal coalitions and all things organizational dynamics, I thought I would add the poem to the blog.  So here goes!

If - Reflections on life as a self-managing learner!

The two years that I spent on Sheffield Business School's MSc in Managing Change played an important part in shaping my thinking about how change happens in organizations. Most importantly, it strengthened my convictions about the crucial role that the dynamics of informal coalitions play in the whole process.