Chaos, dialogue and the dolphin’s strategy

Documents a complex responsive process of profound organizational change taking place in a Dutch capital‐equipment manufacturing firm over a two‐year period beginning in September 1999. The primary focus of the initiative was on the transformation and development of the firm’s organizational mind – its “orgmind”. Although the company had an extensive history of system renewal activities, an evaluation of a decade of organization development efforts revealed that the “exterior” aspects of the system, e.g. tasks, structures, processes, tools, technology, etc., had received the bulk of attention. In contrast, the firm’s “interior”, consisting of such imperceptible qualities as the thoughts, beliefs, feelings and images held in the “mind” of the system, had been virtually ignored.