Whole-Scale Change musings

• Welcome to a Dialogue on Whole-Scale™ Change with Kathleen Dannemiller by John Grohol, 11/14/97
  • Whole-scale change dialogue by Kathleen Dannemiller, 11/14/97
    
    

This is Kathie Dannemiller, currently in Watertown, Mass. I have a genetic problem that has emerged (!) in the past few year, called Charcot;Marie-Tooth Disorder, causing Neuropathy and therefore slowing my ability to walk and climb stairs. Western medicine tells me there is no "cure"/treatment but that I won't lose my legs or die of it. So I have found a wonderful Japanese acupuncturist here in Watertown, called M. Kuahara..he does "non-invasive" treatment. I am living in Watertown for the month of January in order to have a treatment every day. I am staying with an old friend and colleague, Brian McDonald. He gave me a newsletter today that I thought might interest someone out there. It's a special issue of At Work: Stories of tomorrow's workplace...a special issue from July/August, 1995. The subject of the first article by Joan Saries is "System Thinking in Action" and I quote: "My son's headaches were so severe even demurral was ineffective at fending off papin. The neurologist tried everything and came up with nothing. We decided to try acupuncture. During the first visit, the acupuncturist checked my son's tongue and asked questions about his birth daily food, and exercise. No questions about his head. For me, this was a disorienting and unfamiliar medical practice. Fortunately, it works whether you understand it or not. My son's headaches disssipated.

"Chinese medicine is systems thinking in action. {NOTE FROM KATHIE; SUBSTITUTE JAPANESE MEDICINE FOR MY PERSONAL STORY -- same truth} It applies a holistic approach to healing and health; disease is viewed as inseparable from the patient. Diagnosis uncovers patterns of disharmony in the whole system rather than a single problem. Doctors search for cause and effect, but cause is defined in terms of relationship, underlying patterns, and themes of imbalance in the system. By contrast, Western doctors describe specific illnesses and look for direct causes.

"The work of doctors and organizational consultants is similar. In the Western model, the clients often has an expectation that the consultant will "fix" the problem so business can resume as usual. The problem is seen as a single effect looking for a single cause. Systems thinking offers an alternative, a way to see things in relationship by attending to all of the parts and how they integrate into a whole. A whole systems consultant {NOTE; DANNEMILLER TYSON's WHOLE-SCALE CHANGE PROCESSES} will work with patterns in the system in much the same way that Chinese medicine uses patterns of harmony and disharmony in diagnosing a patient."

Joan Saries continues the article by focussing on future search, open space and the processes we at Dannemiller Tyson used to call "Real Time Strategic Change" and have now named it "Whole-Scale Change", as a more accurate phrase to describe working with a microcosm of a whole system to enable the system (at whatever scale) to bring about its own healing.

Any reactions to these thoughts? It is clear to me, when the Axelrod's, Marv Weisbord and Sandra Janoff, Harrison Owen and others get together at the yearly OD Net Large Scale Conference in Dallas that all of us grew up in NTL in the 60s and simply all see organizations as total systems, not "broken" parts of a system. Each of us has developed our own means of "doing acupuncture-type healing" in organizations.

Responses? experiences? Kathie

• Hello out there..what will it take to get you to talk? by Kathie Dannemiller, 1/24/98
  • Scorecard by Gil Levin, 1/29/98
    • Greetings Yoda by Lori Rolek - Loews Theatres, 2/11/98
      • Greetings, Yoda by Kathie Dannemiller, 2/19/98
    • Wanting to know about mental health by BOL Editor, 2/17/98
      • Mental Health Info by J. Larkin, 4/4/98
  • Mesa, AZ here by Karen Pundt, 2/7/98
    • Mesa There by Kathie Dannemiller, 2/19/98
    • Systems means interconnectedness by Phil Mastin, 5/15/98
      • sorry about the e-mail address by Phil Mastin, 5/15/98
  • Real Time System Change - Success by Ken Guarino, 2/25/98
    • Real Tiome System Change - Success (Ken) by Kathie Dannemiller, 2/28/98
• Oriental Medicine, OD and whole systems change by Lilith Ren, 2/23/98
  • Oriental Medicine and OD - Response by Kathie Dannemiller, 2/28/98
    • Response to response--from one uppity old broad to another by Lilith Ren, 3/12/98
      • Old Broad Conversation by Kathie Dannemiller, 3/29/98
• Acupuncture by Nancee Byington, 8/17/98