informal coalitions

From CoCoNuke to ReStCoNuke?

Whilst thumbing through some old papers recently, I came across the above mind map that I had drawn in the mid-1970s. At that time, I was a young engineer in what was then the UK’s publicly owned Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB). The ‘map’ summarises the company’s energy policy of the time, which was referred to as “CoCoNuke”; emphasising its three central elements of coal, conservation and nuclear.  I thought I'd share it here, with a few quick reflections on some of the shifts that have taken place in this area over the past 50 years or so.

Informal coalitions expressed as a de Bono “bonto poem”

On a couple of occasions, I have posted a poem to the blog. These were meant to provide some light relief from my more serious musings about informal coalitions and all things organizational. This post adds a third. It is based on Edward de Bono’s notion of a "bonto poem", which I came across a couple of days ago.

If you fancy a break from the usual ‘thinking’ diversions of crosswords, sudoku or whatever, the bonto offers a potential escape route. It challenges the writer to create a poem that ‘makes a point’ within a strict set of rules – and using just four lines of verse.

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.