Barry Oshry of Power + Systems

Yesterday evening Barry Oshry of Power + Systems treated us to quite a show. Funny thing is that we were the ones performing, in our roles as tops, middles, bottoms, and customers. I would say our performance was unrehearsed, but actually one of Barry's main points was that our real-life organizational behavior is all too rehearsed. We act out the same stories again and again. "I'm responsible here, so I better suck it up"; or "I'm oppressed by my bosses, so screw them"; etc.

Most people I know (including me) got very wrapped up in their roles for the evening. Then after our last 10-minute "workday" was done, we collected ourselves and posed some questions for further thought:

• How do we empower others in our organizations to take responsibility? What benefits can we sell, and how can we minimize fear, even while our colleagues are being battered?
• Is there a "tipping point" where an organization collectively lets go of victim story and chooses responsibility?
• Does this kind of exercise work in cultures with different attitudes about independent thought? How much of our victim reaction is learned culturally?
• How can we create good organizational simulations? Especially simulations like this one where participants really own their reactions?
• When we do this exercise for a real-life organization, who is the client: just tops? Or tops, middles, bottoms?

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