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THE META MODEL AND THE ENNEAGRAM CONSULTING MODELSNote to accompany Systems and the enneagram methodologyRobin MatthewsIntroductionThe meta model and the enneagram model are two models that I worked on with a number of colleagues and a form the basis of our consulting models and some of the theoretical models which we have used in published papers. The term meta is used because each of the models embraces many sub models some of which you may be familiar with and some not. The meta model consists of four categories used to describe the system state of an organisation. It partitions organizations into; 3. inner dynamics,6. outer dynamics, 9. payoffs (to stakeholders) and grammar. The enneagram model is a way of describing a strategy: either linearly as a roadmap, one step following another that begins and ends as follows;1. organisational vision and 2. values, 4. envisioning future scenarios (priorities, impact and likelihood), 5. deciding upon strategy (strategies), 7. implementation and 8. monitoring and control of organisational performance. What is an organisation?What is an organisation? It is a system that is organized for a purpose (or purposes). In what follows organization may refer to small or large businesses, institutions such as governments, universities, religious institutions, governments and international institutions, the United Nations, the World Bank, the IMF, OECD, NATO. Alternatively, organization refers to subsets of all of the above; functional areas (marketing, finance, operations, resources), business units and departments within businesses, projects and project teams. Organizations are hierarchical systemsAny organization is made up of subsets of itself. They are hierarchical systems. Large corporations for example are organized regionally, and each region may be organized into national entities, and national entities into business units and business units organized into functions, projects and within them teams of individuals. Such is the formal organization; systems within systems within systems; systems each consisting of connected subsystems. Large corporations are connected to others via alliances, partnerships, off-shoring, outsourcing, or be connected by mergers and acquisitions. They are also connected to governments and international institutions. Complex systemsThus organizations are complex systems. What is a complex system? A complex system is made up of a large number of connected entities that evolve in unpredictable ways. Entities correspond to nodes (vertices) in a network. Connections correspond to the edges (linkages) between nodes. The meta model partitions organizations into; inner dynamics, outer dynamics, payoffs (to stakeholders) and grammar. The enneagram model is a way of describing a strategy roadmap that includes; organisational vision and values, envisioning future scenarios (priorities, impact and likelihood), deciding upon strategy (strategies), implementation and monitoring and control of organisational performance. The meta modelThe meta model is a way of describing the current state of an organization. The current state never lasts for long. It is always subject to change. Hence the following categories are identified in the meta anization cannot happen without formal and informal rules including; laws, traditions, regulations, systems and structures, cultural and historical influences (including religions), and the mindsets and ways of thinking and doing common to individuals and groups in an era, nation, region, society and family. The examples in the previous sentence are organizing principles. They make organizations work. And all these organizing principles are represented artefacts; architecture, the layout of cities, works of art, the creative arts (music, literature, cinema, theatre, sculpture, new media), consumer goods and services and the technology of an era; generally what we see and experience around us, that changes like all things over time. I refer these organizing principles as organizational grammar, for short grammar. Grammar summarizes the coplex organizational principles that underlie outer and inner dynamics and payoffs. Outer dynamics; outside forces, for example, competition, new and often disruptive technologies, political, economic, ecological and so on. Organizations live in a global capitalist environment (described sometimes as neo-liberalism), which evolves and changes. They also live in a global postmodern grammar (see the previous paragraph) of which culture is a part. Grammar, and all the informal and formal rules, including culture, referred to in the previous paragraph, is to some extent homogeneous (global similarity), spread by information networks, media, advertising, the internet, social networks that are created by science, technology and the arts. And grammar also varies between regions, nations, ethnic and religious groups. And like fashion it varies from era to era. Grammar in the form environmental damage, animal and human rights issues increasingly impacts upon organizations.Inner dynamics; include tangible and intangible assets, the organization’s dynamic capabilities (competences). Tangible assets include; physical capital, human beings and nature’s resources, access to finance (debt and equity), access to information and data, tacit and explicit knowledge contained in an organization. Intangible assets include; brand, reputation, and corporate image. Included in intangible assets are the elements of corporate culture; mind sets, ways of thinking and doing by individuals and groups in an organization and their assumptions and traditions. So grammar operates within organizations too; it’s the ORGANIZING principle.Payoffs to stakeholders include financial returns, measured by profit, EBIT, CAGR, sales, market share and many financial ratios. Capitalism focuses on returns to shareholders; market capitalization, returns to equity, debt liabilities for example and teachers often parrot the importance of shareholder value. You might say that capitalism is part of the grammar of the current era. There are many versions of capitalism ranging from the state socialism of China and Russia, to relatively liberal versions in Scandinavia and less so in the UK, to the laissez faire versions in the USA. But no organization is an island. Hence an organization has many stakeholders; employees, customers, governments and future generations, who to some extent have payoffs that conflict with one another. All production has effects upon the environment, the biosphere (global warming and pollution); effects that are governed by grammar in the form of scientific laws, discovered or undiscovered; and grammar in the form of moral imperatives such as human and animal rights. Figure 2The enneagram modelThe snake metaphor in figure 3 captures the idea of strategy made up of concepts that are turned into actions once choices are made and implemented and adapted as circumstances change. What we should notice is that any organization, many decisions are taking place at the same time. So we have parallel decision making in organizations.Figure 3Figure 4 looks at strategy as a roadmap; dividing strategic processes into search, making choices, implementing those choices and adapting them as circumstances change. Risk and uncertainty emerges as concepts turn into action.Figure 4Figure 5 sets out the full enneagram picture, relating system states and processes. The system state is made up of outer dynamics, inner dynamics and payoffs. Processes are a succession of states; vision and intentions, values, choosing among alternatives or scenarios, committing to a choice attempting to implement it choice, evaluating the outcome and adapting continuously.Figure 5. Figure 6 deconstructs the strategy process into the concept formation, implementation and adaptation.Figure 6I have set the strategy into the enneagram framework focusing on concepts, figure 17; action figure 18, and adaptation figure 19. Figure 7a. Figure 7b. Figure 7c.Process includes attention to three main elements; perhaps modification, abandonment or substitution of them. Conceptual; analysis, perhaps alluding to the vision and values of the company. Both are part of the grammar of the company. Try to identify feasible alternatives open at the moment; feasible is a strong consideration Action; choosing and implementing a set of actions and deciding the criteria against which these actions are going to be evaluated. Adaptation; a process has to be set up of evaluating the conceptual and action stages against one another. Do outcomes or payoffs from implementation correspond to the original intention and vision; or are they on track to do so? Do they correspond to the values of the company The enneagram as a mandalaMandalas are symbols, used in Hinduism and Buddhism to focus attention, an aspect of mindfulness and to develop creative or active imagination. Geometrically, enneagrams are a class of nine point figures. The strategic enneagram referred to here, is made up of an inner triangle and an irregular hexagon, a six point figure. It originates in Sufi psychological and mystical teaching, the Pythagorean number system and traditional religions. In the twentieth century the enneagram was developed by Gurdjieff, Ouspensky and more recently by John Bennett. The Strategic Enneagram is symmetric. It is based on recurring decimals; 1/3 (0.3333…) expressed in the inner triangle and hexagram based on 1/7 (0.1428571428571….), 2/7 (0.285714285714… and so on.As a mandala, the Strategic Enneagram, illustrated in figure 1, is used to focus attention, which links it to mindfulness and to developing creative or active imagination. Mindfulness has been recently imported into management thinking, from Buddhism, as a technique for reflection and managing stress. Active imagination was developed by the psychologist Carl Jung as a technique understanding that comes from intuition and imagination rather than purely logical processes. The philosopher Bertrand Russell illustrates the idea; the greatest scientists, he says, use a combination of imagination and logic. They are able to bridge science and mysticism and visualise problems through the active imagination and see solutions that would not be otherwise apparent. Nothing is perceived directly, but everything is perceived indirectly via a grammar. Approximately, grammar describes ways of looking at things, organizing things, or making sense of things. Creative imagination is to see things from the perspective of a different grammar, to understand differently and perhaps as a result to begin to organize and structure things differently. Mindfulness is very similar. It is a set of techniques for simply observing habitual often unconscious behaviour not judgementally; that is observing them from the perspective of a different grammar. The Enneagram methodology is framework for analysing strategic problems and designing creative strategies, combining intellect (analysis and logic) and imagination (creativity and intuition). Application of the Enneagram mandala, to management to business and strategy reflects the proposition that spiritual and mystical aspects of life are not separate from material and practical aspects. Probably creativity cannot be taught. But it can be encouraged. The Strategic Enneagram as a mandala is a way of evoking creativity in individuals and groups. It incorporates, strategy, mindfulness and creativity. The phrase strategic process is a series of states of a system over time. So we begin by considering the process which we think of as being to some extent deliberate and second the state itself, represented by the inner triangle in figure 1. In figure 1 both the process and system state are embedded in grammar. Process is traced out by the hexagram 1, 4, 2, 8, 5, …… It has a cognitive aspect (1,4,2), an implementation aspect (8,5,7) and since the situation is dynamic, and adaptive or learning process (7,1) relating what is implemented to what is intended and what values were intended and what was achieved (2,8). The enneagram is symmetric around risk which arises when the purely cognitive is implemented. Purely cognitively, anything is possible. In space and time only some things are. REFERENCES TO FOLLOW ................
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