Why There Are No Teams At The Top And How To Create Them
Presented by Barry Oshry

A BCODN SPECIAL CHRISTMAS EVENT

AN EVENING WITH BARRY & KAREN OSHRY PLUS, A CHRISTMAS WINE & CHEESE
SOCIAL

Date:  December 8, 2004

Time:  5:00 – 5:30 Registration & Networking
          5:30 – 7:25 Presentation
          7:25 – 7:30 Announcements
          7:30 – 8:00 Wine & Cheese

Location:  Room KO-155 in the Ambulatory Care Building on Children’s & Women’s
Hospital site, 4500 Oak Street.

(Please see the bottom of this notice for detailed instructions on locating
the room.)

Cost:  $20 for BCODN members, includes the wine & cheese
          $25 for non-members,
includes the wine & cheese

The Challenge:

By now everyone knows the importance of teams for front-line workers and their
value to the organization. Yet relatively little attention is paid to the critical
need for teamwork at the top. The lack of teamwork at that level can have devastating
effects on senior management and on the organization, including the formation
of silos or stovepipes, mixed messages cascading throughout the organization,
lack of cooperation across functions, and more.

The Presentation:

This two-hour interactive presentation clarifies the unique difficulties of
creating teamwork at the top. It examines how the special conditions that exist
at the top — immense complexity and responsibility for the whole system –
can lead to territorial issues among senior management, the breakdown of potentially
productive partnerships, and costly and divisive stove-piping throughout the
system. It then offers concrete strategies for creating teamwork at the top.

Barry Oshry

For over thirty years Barry Oshry has been on a single-minded quest to unlock
the mysteries of power and powerlessness in social system life. He began his
work in the 1960s at Boston University where he developed large-scale organizational
simulations for undergraduates in business. Throughout the 1960s, Oshry continued
his research at BU and at NTL Institute’s Management Work Conferences and Community
Laboratories. In 1970 he created the Power & Leadership Conference (Power
Lab) and since the mid-1970s he has developed and conducted organizational
simulations with Tops, Middles, Bottoms and Customers that have been used to
create “system sight” for organizations and institutions throughout the world.
Oshry is a recipient of the David L. Bradford Educator Award.

In 1975 Barry and his wife, Karen, founded Power & Systems, Inc. in Boston.

Considered a pioneer in the field of systems thinking, Barry has been invited
to address numerous national professional conferences. He has written extensively
on power and systems change and other social system phenomena. Among his writings
are THE POSSIBILITIES OF ORGANIZATION, IN THE MIDDLE, and SPACE WORK. His recent
book, SEEING SYSTEMS: UNLOCKING THE MYSTERIES OF ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE, has met
with critical acclaim. His newest book is LEADING SYSTEMS: LESSONS FROM THE
POWER LAB. Barry’s most recent writing project is the musical play, “WHAT A
WAY TO MAKE A LIVING”.

Children’s & Women’s Hospital Site

Directions to AMBULATORY CARE BUILDING teaching rooms

28th Avenue KO-155

• If you are driving on Oak Street toward Richmond from downtown Vancouver,
  please turn left at 28th Avenue at the large, yellow Children’s Emergency
  sign.
• If you are driving on Oak Street toward downtown Vancouver from Richmond,
  please turn right at 28th Avenue at the large, yellow Children’s Emergency
  sign.
• Enter grounds at parking booth on 28th Avenue. (Not at the entrance on
  Oak Street)
• Please note as you are entering the grounds that the Ambulatory Care Building
  is the 4 storey building right in front of you.
• Parking rates are: Hourly $1.75 per hour (or prepay to use the express
  exit)/ $2.00 per hour (pay on exit), Daily Maximum $9.00.
• Teaching rooms are located on the lower Level KO. Take the elevator down
  one floor, exit to your left, left again and the room is near the end of
  this hallway on your right hand side.

You may also access interior/exterior maps of the C&W site by clicking
on the following:

http://www.cw.bc.ca/maps/pdf/Site%20Map.pdf