| The
Masthead for this transition is made up of five images
that illustrate some of the many factors, personal
and corporate, that are involved in an organizational
transformation. In the right hand lower corner is
the MG Taylor house mark
which
has been our banner since 1982. In
the upper left hand corner is our basic diagram/logo
of the ValueWeb which is what we seek to become as
we shift our operational capacity from the organizational
level to a greater network capability. In the upper
right hand corner is our Stages of an
Enterprise
Model - on this model, we are in turn-around having
passed the Entrepreneurial Button to the next stage
of our enterprise - forward on the path we are on
leads to death. Not death of our work. Death of the
specific organizational structure that we employ
to support our mission. Getting back into and through
the entrepreneurial window allows us to transform
our
present structure
to one that supports our future. The left hand lower
corner is the 3 Cat Model. This illustrates the dynamic
between the existing reality, a concept and the task
of making something new that is the synthesis of
both. Ghosted over these four images is a picture
of the Palo Alto knOwhere Store Skylight-Atrium reflected
on the first level of that environment. This facility
was the high water mark of our fifth iteration work,
our greatest asset during that time, and our greatest
liability after the .bubble and 9/11 events. These
images frame the story below which I will tell from
my personal perspective. |
|
The
iterations of MG Taylor |
| iteration1 was
before there was a notion of MG Taylor as a corporation.
Gail and I were living in Kansas City. I was heading
up the Renascence Project [link] and
Gail the Learning
Exchange [link].
This was our incubation period. This was an interesting,
exciting and relatively peaceful period for us.
I was designing a great deal of theoretical architecture
[link],
teaching my ReBuilding the Future course [link] and
thinking about future options. Gail and I were teaching
courses on creativity at various universities. We
also did a course for inner-city school children.
Gail, ultimately decided she wanted to move having
lived
all her life in Kansas City. Some of the city leadership
asked what would it take for us to stay. This forced
us to think about what work we thought would be useful.
We made a proposal for a radical program but one
requiring modest financial support. This was the
seed of MG Taylor. We were politely told that we
were crazy,
that “no one would want this nor would they
support it.” We subsequently agreed with Barbara
Hubbard, Robert Fuller [link],
Justine and Michael Toms and some others, to create
a “secular monastery” in California at the base of
Yosemite Park. We spent the spent the summer in Washington
DC with Barbara Hubbard [link] planning
for the move to Mariposa in the Fall and I designed
our first (Nav)Center - we called them Management
Centers then - for her garage at her Washington DC
mansion. The concept did not take hold and, in late
summer, the idea of the California venture was shattered
by everybody’s life, except for Gail’s and mine,
taking a radical turn. Here we were in Washington
DC all dressed up with two versions of an idea and
no party to go to. To us, it seemed like the next
logical
step
to create
a
collaborative
workplace where ideas could be taken to fruition.
We ended up moving to
Boulder Colorado because Leif Smith knew of three
projects he thought were compatible with our concept.
These three projects
that did not pan out either. We know three people
in the entire state including Leif who was one of
the early fathers of network theory [link].
So, we started the venture on our own and with no
money
or clients. We were totally crazy. Boulder, it turned
out, was a perfect place to incubate a totally crazy
idea. |
 |
This
is Gail and me at the Leaning exchange just
after we meet. One day we were strangers
and the next day were were working together
and cooking
up ways to transform the world. The
second picture is EcoSphere [link] at the
Kansas City Art Institute. Below,
my Notebook page outlining the 7 iterations of our work.
|
|
 |
click
on the Notebook page to get full page view |
|
| I
think that new enterprises are always launched
in a moment of temporary insanity when all the
reasons why something can not happen are swept
away by the flash of a vision that blinds you to
what is commonly called called practical reality.
We had no prospects when we started MG Taylor -
we just did it. I worked as
a landscape
carpenter
while Gail explored what was going on in the City
of Boulder. One dialog lead to the next and soon
we had a project - it was the Boulder Affordable
Housing Project [link]. |
| The
Boulder project required the bringing together
of a large diverse group of citizens, government
people and corporations. We built or first work
environment to have the space to do this, the Anticipatory
Management Center,
and conducted our first DesignShop. Over
a three year period we never had any money and
never knew where the next project or meal was coming
from. We invented the Modeling Language [link],
AndMap, the DesignShop [link],
the RDS [link] and
the NavCenter [link].
One client brought another and within two years
we had clients from the East
coast including the US Army, about $375,000 in
debt and had outgrown our organizational
structure, our
Board of Directors and Boulder which simply did
not have enough work
to sustain us. We were purchased, in late 1983,
by one of our clients, the Acacia Group [link] and
moved to Washington DC in early 1984. This marked
the end of iteration2 [1980-82]. |
 |
We
never knew what the next project would
require. We had
the necessary
method - or we invented it. We had the
capability - or we built it.
The
top picture was our first environment -
we designed the furniture and the work
walls and built it in two weeks. The second
is of me in the office detached from our
mountain cabin
above
boulder.
The computer at the edge of the picture
was our first - an Apple II with 96k of
RAM! We
called our home INSTEAD and
designed a Bedroom addition for it which
was never finished - it fell
victim to double digit inflation which
chased away the mortgage and froze the
construction loan.
The
Mentor project was our first client NavCenter
and our last Boulder project. |
|
 |
 |
 |
click
on pictures and Notebook page for more |
|
| This
page [above] from
by Boulder era Notebook was made at the time after
our purchase by Acacia was negotiated
but before we moved. It is one of several pages of
notes I made documenting the first RDS [link] which
was deployed for the FAA. Fielding our first RDS
was our last innovation before moving to Washington
DC. In this brief three year period, almost everything
that makes up the MGT tool kit, today, was prototyped.
We left behind a group in Boulder to build the environments.
This was the seed of what is AI [link], today. |
|
| The
Acacia years were now and then frustrating and often
fun - they were, in the end, were extremely educational.
They provided us two years of stability, experiences
we
would not have gathered in any other way - such as
being corporate officers - and they ended abruptly,
in 1985, in disaster just on the threshold of us
accomplishing a network of NavCenters. In retrospect,
I am very grateful for the time. I can see, however,
that the way this period ended set our course for
years to come. Without warning we were fired one
day and
we found ourselves on the street without facilities,
associates and clients. We also were without debt
and we had a clean slate and the ability to choose
our future free of economic duress. This lead to
a ten year period that was, compared to all the
rest, one of relative ease, low fixed overhead, clients
carefully chosen and significant successes. |
| Every
place and every era of your life has a distinct quality
that is never to be repeated. You respond to this
essence in a variety of ways and also hold
the feeling of it in memory [link].
Art [link] is
a medium that helps us tap
into these feelings and remember [link].
In Washington DC, we worked across the street from
the Capital
and
lived about 7 blocks away from it not far from the
Library of Congress. There was an open market not
far from where we lived and we found there, one Sunday,
a kitten - Sunshine - who was to be our companion
for many years [link].
Gail and I used to walk the Mall almost every day
- this is how we debriefed our
experiences and co-designed as we continued the process
of inventing our Method. I took to visiting an old
favorate place of mine, the Natioanl Art Gallery [link] which
had been, in the early 50s, a seminal influence in
my early inpuse to architecture [link]. [more
to come] |
| Acacia
acquired us because they wanted our full attention
for their own corporate transformation. This was
our first project where the transformation of the
entire organization was the stated objective. It
was an outstanding success until a catastrophic incident
at the end. From this experience we were to learn
may key lessons about
this complex
process and about the practical art of being a Transition
Manager [link].
In this case, about what happens when the Transition
Manager becomes caught up in the process itself [link]. An seemingly insignificant clause in our acquisition agreement lead to a sudden unexpected crises. [more
to come] |
| The end
can quickly and unexpectedly one day and in a way
that was to mark several people for a long time. [more
to come] |
| Acacia,
at the time, was the largest financial institution
in Washington DC. After a year there we decided
to buy a house and Acacia co-signed a 20 thousand
dollar loan for us so that we could make the down
payment. This note lead to an interesting incident
that was my first inside view of how power, influence
and money works in our society. |
|
| This
was a low-key decade, organizationally, that had buried within it a
not-too-apparent revolution. It is, to date, also the least
documented period of the MG Taylor story. It is the
least active in terms of number of clients. We had only a few very good ones with interesting demanding challenges which took years to work through. It remains,
to this day, the most successful period in terms
of organizational transformation [link] and in exercising our
ability to successfully deal with large scale, global
systemic problems. Without the work of this decade,
we would not know, today, that we are ready to pursue
our mission, globally. |
| It
was also in this period, in 1988, that CAMELOT came
into our life. This is of greater consequence than
it may first appear. |
|
| This was a period of great growth, some major defeats and, ultimately, a changing of the guard at MG Taylor. |
|
| On
the map, there is a big arrow pointing to this
spot saying “you are here!” Around this spot on
the map is a landscape of opportunities. All of
these opportunties can be accessed by a single
road. This road is the infrastructure we have to
(re)build at MG Taylor that will enable us to embrace
the opportunities we now have [link].
a |
demonstration_of_mission_complete |
|
| iteration7 will be a period of scaling to global ubiquity
and the creation of legitimate profit. This will
mark the accomplishment of both aspects of our MISSION [link].
This is likely to be a to 15 year period. Certainly,
by 2020, the Taylor Method will be a significant
player in many major global tranformation projects [link]. |
 |
| Xanadu
is our current THERE vision
of the kind of environment-function as
major hub in a global network of Centers.
Construction will indicate maturity
of iteration7. |
|
| To
me, personally, I will know that the work is done
when I see XANADU coming to life. The
network necessary to justify this work will be
demonstration of the
efficacy of the Method and the reality of the ubiquity of its use.
That a work of this scope and architectural character
is undertaken will be demonstration of a large
scale movement toward the kind of world
we envisioned when we started
this enterprise [link].
As a Transition Manager [link],
I do not seek to make these outcomes in the specific.
In this context,
they are TEMPLATES in the 4 four Step
Model [link].
As a designer an entrepreneur - as a player in
the game - Xanadu, and the world it would exist
in, are my present best effort solutions to a specific
set
of challenges.
We built
MG Taylor
because we saw a social need. My personal motive
has been to create a tool [link] with
which I could bring into reality, in a non coercive
manner,
the kind of world I want to LIVE in. The accomplishment
of iteration6 opens
the door for me to transition from a creater of
MGT to a user of it during the
iteration7 period. |
|
|
|
| Return
to: iteration6 on MGT site |
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| GoTo:
Organizational Transformation |
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|
Matt
Taylor
Elsewhere
December 26, 2004
|
SolutionBox
voice of this document:
VISION • STRATEGY • DESIGN DEVELOPMENT
|
posted
December 26, 2004
revised
July 3, 2005
• 20041226.181980.mt • 20050630.123409.mt •
• 20050701.211234.mt • 20050702.654181.mt •
• 20050703.343497.mt •
note:
this document is about 20% finished
me@matttaylor.com
Copyright© Matt
Taylor 2004, 2005
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