Designing Yourself

The ValueWeb

Reflections of a DesignShop

In June of 2005, members of the MG Taylor ValueWeb came together, in Liechtenstein, to study the Method and to explore the ramifications of what a ValueWeb is. It was four days of hard work, fun-filled moments and many breakthroughs. This was the fourth time, in our history, that we employed the DesignShop to design aspects of what I call the “Big E” - that ENTERPRISE architecture which is greater than any part within it, including MG Taylor.

It is a difficult thing to do a DesignShop on yourself as the process can tend to get too introspective and self-reverential. Two things helped with this event. First, we had a number of people who where totally new to the process and had never experienced a DesignShop or 7 Domains. These were supplemented with several other participants, while familiar with the method, had never worked directly with MG Taylor before. This provided diversity among the participants and overcame the risk of too much familiarity among the facilitation/K:Worker support team and participants. Secondly, we focused on the Method, GroupGenius and on the concept of the ValueWeb concept not on any of the existing organizations associated with it. The event was sponsored by Architects of Group Genius, TomorrowMakers and MG Taylor. It was designed mostly by Gail Taylor and a team of knowledgeWorkers, some of whom subsequently supported the DesignShop, some who participated in it and Todd Johnston who did not come to the event as he was on his honeymoon. This diversity on the design side also helped defeat the folding-back-upon-oneself risk.

In the Taylor Method, all Designshops involve some education and all Workshops involve some apply-it-to-your-work aspect. In this four day event the split was 50-50. And, while the design was focused on the the ValueWeb, the Sponsor team was not looking for any out come in the specific. In fact, the Sponsors were more than willing for no out come at all to emerge. This was a truly open ended process. As it turned out, there was a result. A good one, if a fragile one. The next step in the ValueWeb is not an easy one. It will be a quantum leap. the participants struggled with these complexities and designed a path that makes all kinds of sense given all the circumstances. From my perspective, they landed right in the sweet spot between too concrete and too abstract, between too ambitious and too causal, between too forced and too laid back. The result as I see it, was not focused on the MG Taylor Valueweb, itself, so much as the making of a ValueWeb among the diverse group. The Fit with the MGT ValueWeb is a future design task. They both will be intertwined. Just how this works will emerge, organically. There was a 5th day to the event. After the four day event, the AoGG Team spent a day with themselves before disbursing to prepare for two upcoming events. Several participants of the DesignShop were part of the Bad Ragaz event that followed the next week.

Just what this new ValueWeb will become is a story to be told as it matures and emerges. It is not my story to tell. My comments, below, are about what I personally experienced and got out of the Liechtenstein Designshop and how it fits into this moment in the development of the Taylor System and Method and with MG Taylor as an enterprise.

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Matt Taylor
Liechtenstein
June 25, 2005

SolutionBox voice of this document:
VISION • STRATEGY • EVALUATE

posted: June 25, 2005

revised: July 2, 2005
• 20050625.576519.mt • 20050702.563309.mt •

(note: this document is about 5% finished)