The Corporate Observatorium: Sustaining Management Communication and Continuity in an Age of Complexity

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Drawing on the planetarium analogy first used by Harold Lasswell, Warfield promotes his own concept of the "Corporate Observatorium" as a piece of real estate whose building interior can be loosely compared with that of the Louvre, in that it contains a variety of rooms, and facilitates rapid familiarization with their contents by the persons who walk through that property. Further analogy comes from the recognition of the importance of wall displays (with electronic adjuncts), large enough to preclude any necessity to truncate communications and tailored to help eradicate or minimize complexity in understanding, both broadly and in depth, of the nature of the large organization, its problems, its vision, and its ongoing efforts to resolve its difficulties. Comparison with a planetarium for envisaging a broad swatch of the sky is self-evident .See also The Corporate Observatorium (Abstract).

Presented at 2nd World Conf. Integrated Design & Process Technology, Marriott Hotel, Austin, Texas, 1-4 December 1996. Warfield uses Harold Lasswell's proposal of an "urban planetarium" and expands it to suggest that the public can learn any sort of complex idea if it is properly illustrated visually, and that Interactive Management's structural models are the best tool for such illustrations. He wants buildings similar to modern art galleries, with wall displays of ideas rather than pictures.

Abstract excerpt: "Seven critical forms of representation of complexity will be described briefly. Their significance in sustaining communication and organizational continuity via the corporate observation will be indicated. Potential application in higher education will also be briefly described."

LIST OF TRANSPARENCIES USED IN THE TALK:

  • The Corporate Observatorium (Title page)
  • Is it Possible
  • Can People Learn in Depth?
  • The Alberts Pattern
  • Systems Education Version of the Alberts Pattern
  • Data from Henry Alberts work on Redesigning…
  • Our Traditional Patterns/The Lasswell Triad
  • The Situation Room
  • The Prelegislature
  • The Observatorium
  • Graphical Communication
  • Seven Ways to Portray Complexity

Additional Info

  • Category: Applications, Complexity, Education, Interactive Management (IM), Solutions or Improvements for Complex Situations
  • Size: 47 minutes
  • Description: Spiral bound manuscript with cover.
Read 304 times Last modified on Tuesday, 22 October 2019 07:24
More in this category: « The Work Program of Complexity (unfinished manuscript 2008) The Problematique: Evolution of an Idea (1999) »

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