Program Information

• Creative Process
• Meditation
• Coaching
• Schedule
• Accommodations and Travel
• Scholarships
• Testimonials

Program Faculty

• Dorian Baroni
• Barbara Bash
• Mille Bojer
• Barbara Cecil
• Michael Chender
• Steve Clorfeine
• Glenda Eoyang
• James Gimian
• Jerry Granelli
• LeAnne Grillo
• Lanny Harrison
• Arawana Hayashi
• Yolanda Hegngi
• Adam Kahane
• Art Kleiner
• Marcelo Michelsohn
• Toke Moeller
• Wendy Morris
• Barry Oshry
• Karen Oshry
• Wendy Palmer
• David Sable
• Otto Scharmer
• Mary Stacey
• Bill Torbert
• Meg Wheatley
• Bob Wing

Collaborating Up, Down and Across: Harnessing Power in Systems

with Barry Oshry & Karen Oshry

Pre-Program: June 3-4, 2010

Collaboration is critical to an organization's success. Effective teamwork, client relations and cross-sector cooperation rest on a healthy and robust view of partnership. What systemic frameworks get in the way of partnership, and what is our role in facilitating partnership within and beyond the organization?

This workshop will use a systemic lens to enable us to see human systems and relationships more clearly, provide us the leverage to create and sustain satisfying, productive partnerships and be more effective members in all the systems of our lives.

Participants will gain a whole systems view of the organization, enabling them to

• help their managers and leaders better understand their impact on others
• improve cross-organization interaction
• appreciate the value of organizational cultures different from their own
• develop partnership and entrepreneurship throughout their organization
• add system-level understanding to their personal and team leadership models
• strengthen partnerships between their organization and their clients/customers

This workshop involves interactive exercises, individual and group reflection, and solid knowledge about system life. In the first exercise, we'll be exploring how we move in and out of top, middle, bottom and customer relationships, primarily (although not exclusively) in the organization. In the second we'll examine issues of dominance and others in systems. In both we'll look at the reflex responses when we don't see or understand the whole systems of which we are a part, the all-too-familiar dysfunctional consequences that result, and the alternatives available to us and our systems.

Barry Oshry has been on a single-minded quest for nearly 40 years to unlock the mysteries of system life. He is the author of the highly acclaimed Seeing Systems, Leading Systems and In The Middle. Barry is the developer of The Organization Workshop, The Power Lab, and The Merging Cultures Workshop. He has conducted workshops for clients across the globe in the high tech, health care, government, manufacturing, and education fields. Barry has also written the 3-act musical, "What A Way To Make A Living" that has been staged in the U.S. and England.

Karen Oshry is President of Power+Systems, Inc. and has been a close collaborator with Barry Oshry in the development of The Organization, The Power Lab, and The Merging Cultures Workshop. She is the organization's link to current and potential clients, as well as to Power+Systems' international network of trainers.

Registration Fees

$950 before March 2
$1100 after March 2
Includes lunch both days. There is a $100 discount offered to participants who register for a Core Program module.
Register here

“The week I spent at the Shambhala Summer Institute was extremely enriching and profound. My ability to look at the world with new eyes, to look for possibilities in the challenges and to share with other like-minded learners has allowed me to return to my workplace with energy and conviction. How could my renewal not have a profound positive impact in my workplace?”

—Ann Flynn, Manager Organizational Development, City of Fredericton, NB
2006, 2007 program participant