Workshop: Strength Up The Middle

A variation of the Organization Workshop focusing on the dilemmas, challenges, system power possibilities and contributions of middle positions. The workshop offers Barry Oshry’s classic Top, Middle, Bottom, Customer interactive exercise, highlighting issues essential to successful Middle life:

• The Multiple Worlds Middles Interact With. Participants will explore the very different “worlds” Middles are called upon to interact with. They discover the pitfalls they need to avoid and the effective strategies they need to follow when interacting with Tops who are overwhelmed by complexity, Bottoms who are feeling oppressed by management, Customers who feel they are being inadequately attended to, and other equally harried Middles.
• The Multiple Roles Middles Play. Participants will also discover the stumbling blocks they face when negotiating the multiple roles they are called on to play: sometimes as Top (when they are responsible for some piece of the action), sometimes as Bottom (when they are on the receiving end of unwanted problems), sometimes as Customers (when they are not getting delivery on products or services they need), and sometimes as peers (when unproductive peer relationships are limiting organizational effectiveness).
• The Power of Middle Integration. Participants will also discover the power of middle integration: the personal benefits integrating with other Middles provides, the contribution it makes to those they lead, manage, supervise, or coach, as well as to their Tops. And the central role integration plays in organizational success. Participants will discover the systemic issues that regularly prevent Middle integration from developing and how to master them.

Experience, Conceptual Frameworks, and Applications. The workshop is an engaging mix of direct experience, personal and group reflection, solid practical theory you can act on, and on-the-job application.

To discuss bringing Strength in the Middle to your organization,