A frequently rather neglected reason why it is so demanding to bring about changes in organisations lies in their internal connections. In organisations, one can seldom exchange ‘parts’. Parts are self-contained and can be replaced. However, if organisational elements are only understandable (and functional) if and because they are connected to other elements in the …
Being able to take part in decision-making – catchword democratisation – is generally considered desirable. The reasons why the participation of many people is seen as favourable, are numerous: one reckons with better decisions, with less ill-considered side effects, with more motivation in the participants, with more acceptance of the decision and with more determination …
What is reflection required for? If something is impossible, one neither needs to think about whether to or how to do it, nor does one need to communicate about it (“Shall we spread out our arms and float into town?”). The same applies when something is indispensable (“Should I open my mouth to eat today?”). …
The core of technology is repeatability. Equal input, equal output. The starter motor starts the engine, not the windscreen wiper. Large parts of organisational theory rest upon the fact that organisations allow themselves to be technologized. They are understood one-dimensionally as cause-effect chains. Now, it is undisputed that one can observe organisations in this way. …
It pays off for a team to invest in its own structure, adapted uniquely to its own needs, for the holding of meetings. However, this ostensibly practical subject intervenes massively in the efficiency of the guiding processes goal processing and team preservation. Therefore, you can look at a template here, which, from a metatheory viewpoint, …
Every team must create a structure and repeatedly analyse how one processes the set task as efficiently as possible. For this, the following questions are useful (selection!): • Are the methods, competences, access to resources etc. appropriate for completion of the team task? What do we have too little or too much of? • Is …
Choosing the basic goal is something completely different to choosing tasks and subordinate goals which depend upon it. If it is not (or no longer) clear and certain whether that which one is doing is the right thing, every team becomes stressed. This stress differentiates top teams and decision-making teams, who choose goals and define …
Jealousy and envy are emotions which are usually full of shame. Who likes feeling like that? Therefore, in teams, such psychological states tend to be cultivated in secrecy, amongst like-minded people, or else they are masked under ‘nicer’ accusation terms, such as unfairness, favouritism, manager’s misjudgements or nepotism. From a team’s perspective, this often leads …
In teams, as well as in organisations, a core task is to process value conflicts. This task is uncomfortable, because no system likes to do without, or neglect, something ‘good’. This is why value conflicts easily become relationship conflicts in teams and team conflicts in organisations. In teams then, some are for quality, the others …
The interaction patterns of teams are always characterised by the process in which trust is formed and tested. Trust is a means for reducing complexity. If one does not trust that the colleague can do something (maybe because he has a certificate), it becomes difficult…! You would never stop controlling. If one only ever trusts, …