The Flawless Consulting Fieldbook & Companion, 2nd Edition

Chapter 21Unleashing the Magic in Organizations

Paul Tolchinsky, Kathie Dannemiller, and Sylvia James

Paul, along with his partners Kathie and Sylvia, are among the founders of large group methodologies. In this article they describe the planning and change process they invented that brings large groups of people together to create a new future. In this planning and commitment-building process are the ingredients of the “one brain–one heart” spirit that Kathie, with her Dannemiller Tyson Associates partners, just about copyrighted. This process captures some of the emotional impact and unleashes the positive energy that truly democratic processes can have on our world.

It was the evening of day two in a three-day meeting, which involved all two hundred fifty employees of a plastics manufacturing company in upstate New York. At the end of that day, the ten-member planning team for the meeting, together with the plant leadership and the consultants, read the two hundred fifty evaluations from the participants to understand what were the most significant learnings from the day and advice for tomorrow. We discussed the key themes we heard and tweaked the agenda based on the purpose that the planning team had created.

We went to dinner with Ivor, who was coordinating the logistics for the meeting. When asked, “How do you think it’s going?” Ivor responded, “It’s not going anywhere; it’s still the same old stuff. As I move around the room putting papers on the tables, I keep hearing ...