What is this about?
Our well-practiced industrial age organizational structures and
processes often no longer seem to be serving us so well. Maybe today’s
organisations need to be more like live ecosystems comprising many
diverse living individuals and groups that must collaborate and
share limited resources to simultaneously manage threats and grow
opportunities for a well future amidst a complex environment of
apparent anarchy, chaos, uncertainty, ambiguity and interconnectedness.
So what would happen then if organisations,
projects teams and individuals were to look to nature (and in particular
its rainforests) for some lessons. Perhaps we would discover other
dimensions that would add balance and a new reverence for life in
the knowledge economy where interdependence, competition, rapid
change, information and environmental overload is a reality. Perhaps
a different world view would drive some powerful new self directed
and outcome seeking organisational behaviours.
This workshop will introduce
you to a very different New Zealand leadership model called the
Tipu Ake ki te Ora lifecycle (growing from within ever upward towards
wellbeing). On it we will practice some of the behaviours and tools
it offers to help grow living organisations. For an overview of
Tipu Ake
see http://www.tipuake.org.nz/stories/program_management.pdf
Objectives of Workshop:
In keeping with our organic theme, the program
will be fluid and like nature grow its own shape in each location
depending on the mix of people involved and the opportunities for
learning they contribute, but here is the outline:
We want to attract a very diverse group of
20-40 people of all ages from Education, Government, Community,
Business, Education, Health, Sustainability, Academic, Indigenous
groups etc, who are willing to courageously explore together outside
their comfort zones. In the morning we will use the behavioural
side of the Tipu Ake ..... leadership model to try to quickly help
them meld themselves into powerful teams that can exploit their
diversity to grow and deploy their collective wisdom. We will also
introduce a few simple team tools that can help groups gather in
and share information, then converge on collaborative solutions.
Later in the afternoon we will work on the "... ki te Ora"
part of Tipu Ake, splitting into groups and working on real examples
that people suggest; forming a collective vision for the future,
identifying the outcomes needed, how we would know when we were
getting near them, then working back from this to create a roadmap
of the multitude of project actions and coalitions needed to help
us all grow towards it. From time to time we will stop to allow
all to reflect on and share our experience and learnings.
The facilitator:
Peter Goldsbury BE(Elec), DMS, Dip in Teaching,
PMP, is an experienced engineer, project and business manager who
now works as an organizational development facilitator. In 2000
he returned with a group from the Auckland University of Technology
to his primary school deep in the Whirinaki Rainforest in New Zealand
to discover that they had made a revolutionary self-transformation.
That started an active research program involving a range of volunteers
that resulted in the documentation of the Tipu Ake Lifecycle. The
School and it’s Maori community (underemployed since rainforest
milling was stopped) shares this in the public domain on the web
at www.tipuake.org.nz for
the benefit of all the world’s future grandchildrens. Acknowledgement
is by koha – a Maori form of reciprocal gifting in trust based
on the value received.
Interested:
If so, then perhaps your koha may be to help
a volunteer group bring this Tipu Ake workshop to life in your location:
The arrangements are informal with no budget, so we need enthusiasts
with networks to coordinate invitations, record registrations, organise
venues etc. To participate please contact the local person listed
above.
The outcome we seek from this workshop is
that the experience of working together will inspire you to continue
to meet, share your experiences, learn and grow. There is no registration
fee, but a koha towards the costs would be appreciated. |
