SHORT COURSE REPORT

John N. Warfield
Dates: January 12 to 16, 1998


A one-week short course was held under the auspices of the George Mason University Institute of Public Policy (TIPP) during the period listed above. The course was offered for one academic credit hour, for graduate students in TIPP.

It was intended primarily to highlight policy design activities, carried out in various places, having in common the use of Interactive Management as a principal system of processes, and producing results highly-relevant to the various governments involved. Each non-GMU presenter discussed an application to a different governmental policy situation. The governments involved were: the U. S. government, the government of Liberia (Africa), and the Mexican State of Guanajuato.

ATTENDEES

These are the people who attended:

"Faculty":

John N. Warfield, Ph. D., course organizer and presenter, University Professor, George Mason University.

Henry Alberts, Ph. D., Presenter, Professor at the U. S. Defense Systems Management College, Fort Belvoir, VA

Carol Jeffrey, Presenter, staff of The Jeffrey Group, Woodbridge, VA (in the field or organizational development)

Amos Sawyer, Ph. D. (Northwestern University, political science, former President of Liberia)

Reynaldo Trevino, Presenter, Director of the Centro de Estudios Strategico, Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores (ITESM), Campus Leon, Leon, Gto, Mexico

"Students"

Helen Armstrong, Faculty, University of Saskatchewan College of Education, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, with interests in organizational development and education for the aboriginal population of the province (who make up 38% of the population)

Brian Benson, Ph. D. student, transportation policy, TIPP

Sinisa Dragic, Ph. D. student, TIPP

Richard Evans, Ph. D., Consultant and Training Contractor for IBM Corporation and NASA, Vienna VA

Duan Qu, Ph. D. student, TIPP, and Graduate Assistant, IASIS

Vigdor Schreibmann, publisher of an Internet news service, Washington, D. C.

Lynne Sullivan, Ph. D. student, TIPP, and Policy Analyst, Defense Information Systems Agency.

COURSE MATERIALS DISTRIBUTED

"Patterns and Behavior", a 150-page spiral book by J. Warfield, arranged to portray in sedquence key factors related to the quality of public policy design

"Groupthink, Clanthink, Spreadthink, and Linkthink", a 63-page report of case studies in public and corporate policy development, by J. N. Warfield and Carol Tiegen

"Seven Ways to Portray Complexity", by J. N. Warfield, a report presenting the seven ways that have been discovered to portray the complexity inherent in many issues in the various policy sectors, with examples of each taken from a variety of applications

Planning documents, scenarios, and strategic planning papers for the Mexican State of Guanajuato, distributed by Reynaldo Trevino, illustrating how the strategic plan for the State was developed, with participation from numerous local sectors, experts on Mexico, and international experts, providing inputs to plausible scenario development for the world and for Mexico in the year 2010; showing how the Mexican events may relate to the world events.

"Disarmament and Demobilization in Liberia", by Carol Jeffrey, describing how she carried out an Interactive Managment workshop in Liberia with key warriors (principals in the internal war in Liberia), to arrive at interpretive maps showing what was required to achieve reintegration of the armed factions into civilian life.

"Vision and Goals for the Water and Sewer Department of Liberia", developed with Carol Jeffrey as facilitator.

"A Model Plan for Carrying Out an Interactive Management Workshop", by Scott M. Staley and John N. Warfield, showing the seventh (and final) draft of a workshop plan for the first IM Workshop held at Ford Motor Company several years ago.

Videotape, showing excerpts from an IM Workshop carried out about 10 years ago under the leadership of Dr. Alexander Christakis and Dr. Benjamin Broome of GMU, relating to development of leadership in the Winnebago Tribe (Nebraska).

Videotapes, showing excerpts from the IM Workshop held with warriors in Liberia, including a closing speech by Charles Taylor (the current elected President of Liberia), in which he announced an appropriation of $10,000 to help carry out the plans developed by the warriors in the 4-day workshop conducted by Carol Jeffrey.

Videotapes with excerpts from corporate workshops, showing taped wrapup comments by Ford engineers.

WORKSHOP LEARNING SEQUENCE

Monday, January 12. Warfield gave presentations on Language, Structure, and Thought, illustrating parts of the Infrastructure of Science required to develop the IM system, and the historical evolution of the necessary computer-assisted structural modeling capability, which is the core of Interactive Management.

Tuesday, January 13. Alberts discussed the nature of public policy, possibilities for carrying it out, and described the work that he organized and conducted over a 5-year period to redesign the U. S. Defense Acquisition System, with insights into the organizational and cultural issues pertaining to this work.

Wednesday, January 14. Trevino described many details of the development of the strategic plan for the State of Guanajuato. He identified "The Boys of Leon" (a team of 5 people then affiliated with ITESM, so-named by Alexander Christakis), several of whom are now highly-positioned in the Office of the Governor.

Thursday, January 15. Warfield showed the Winnebago Video. Jeffrey described first what went on in her work with the Water and Sewer Corporation in Liberia, developing a vision and key set of values for them. Then she described her work with 20 warrior leaders, who developed a plan for reintegration of the combatants in a demobilized Liberia. This included the development of a "Problematique" in which the "Lack of Commitment" was seen to be the pivotal problem aggravating all other problems. The warriors then produced an action plan which met with the approval of the observers, including the President of Liberia.

Sawyer than made a highly articulate commentary of the work, adding to the political overview of Liberia, and gave a history of its evolutoin from the days when the upheavals began. Friday, January 16

Jeffrey showed a video of the closing session of the IM Workshop. The highest-level politicans in Liberia appeared on this video, and reinforced the value of the work, thanking the warrior participants. Other observers were from the UN and the European Community, which sponsored the work.

Warfield discussed the nature of IM Workshops, and answered questions about them. When asked to do so, he described the "St. Louis Workshop", which involved development of a comprehensive action plan to assure the future of adequate forestry products in the year 2015.

He also described the planning and conduct of the IM Workshop, which involved over 160 people. Warfield also discussed the Jeffrey work with the Water and Sewer Corporation, in response to various questions about the conduct of that work.

Warfield showed and discussed various video excerpts from IM Workshops at Ford Motor Company, with emphasis on various aspects of the process, to illustrate how to run a successful meeting involving substantial complexity.

Warfield gave a 30-minute demonstration of the old DOS_based ISM software, and mentioned that it can now be down-loaded free from the IASIS home page located at this URL:

www.gmu.edu/departments/t-iasis

PARTICIPANT CONTRIBUTORS

Several participants in the short course added greatly to its value by raising numerous pointed questions on a variety of issues, such as cultural matters in organizations, and the basis for many decisions involved in planning various processes.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Assistant Professor Tojo Joseph of the Program on Social and Organizational Learning at GMU kindly gave permission to use Room 311 in the Johnson Center to carry out this short course. His staff assisted in setting up the various equipment components used in the course.