Like a kid in a sweet shop
 Over the past few years I've had the privilege of working with
Heston Blumenthal, whose restaurant, The Fat Duck, was named the
best restaurant in the world by The Restaurant magazine in 2005. Heston has given
me his permission to touch on that part of our work that has used
Symbolic Modelling in a generative frame. "All theories of organisation and management are based on implicit images or metaphors that persuade us to see, understand, and imagine situations in partial ways." Gareth Morgan
This is a two-part article: Part 1 draws on the ideas of Gareth Morgan, a pioneer in the use of metaphor to read, analyse and facilitate organisations to change. Part 2 shows how Symbolic Modelling uses client-generated metaphors to facilitate individuals to understand and change themselves and their organisations.
Metaphors of Organisation part 2
This is the second part of a two-part article:
Part 1 explained that underlying every theory of management or
organisation is a metaphor. It described eight commonly used metaphors
and Gareth Morgan's method for analysing and facilitating organisations
to change.
Part 2 shows how Symbolic Modelling uses client-generated metaphors to
facilitate individuals to understand and change themselves and their
organisations.
Using Modelling, Metaphor and a Clean Approach in Business
We interviewed James Lawley to find out how he has successfully used modelling, metaphor and a clean approach in business and organisations. James is one of the most experienced facilitators and sponsors of this approach which, combined with his 30 years experience as a manager and consultant, made him an ideal 'model'.
How to create a 'clean' company
 I ran a workshop at the 10th International Anti-Corruption Conference held in Prague in October 2001: "How to create a 'clean' company" i.e. one run in such a way that the risk of corruption is prevented. The workshop was designed for the strongly multi-cultural setting, and the metaphors generated were sometimes much richer than those one might meet in a workshop with UK nationals. This paper was written in preparation for the facilitation by the Clean Team* of a Large Group Metaphor Process at The Findhorn Community during 13-16 January, 2003. The paper's aim was to raise the Team's awareness of: - the key features of self-organising systems
- how these might manifest in a community setting
- how this knowledge can inform the way we facilitate.
* James Lawley, Penny Tompkins, Steve Callaghan, Wendy Sullivan, Phil Swallow, Caitlin Walker and Marian Way. "What is NLP modelling?" This
article contains a brief overview of the five stages of a
modelling project. It includes a 'checklist' of items and
questions to consider when you decide to embark on a modelling project in an organisation,
as well as an annotated reading list.
Leadership is oft talked about in the business world today. Is this because it is one of the more difficult concepts to specify? This articles combines NLP with other approaches to explore the nominalisations we label leadership and management.
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