ORCA FACILITATION™

Organizational Root-Cause Analysis

And What-If Modeling

(c) 2023 by Denis Sunny and Ralph Jocham
Courses
Materials
WHAT IS ORCA FACILITATION™?
ORCA stands for Organizational Root-Cause Analysis

Ralph and Denis developed a unique approach based on traditional often disconnected methods used in Systems Thinking and Organizational Design including such well-known concepts as:

  • The Star Model by Jay Galbraith
  • The Iceberg Model of Systems Thinking - has been widely used but has no specific attributed author
  • Causal Loop Diagramming (CLD) - for visualizing the dynamics within systems

Their innovation led to the creation of ORCA Canvases, a comprehensive tool designed specifically for Organizational Systems Thinking. They believe that the true power of the ORCA Canvases unfolds when they are used alongside the skillful application of system diagraming techniques (e.g. CLD). This combination, reinforced by Systems Thinking and effective facilitation techniques, is what is called ORCA Facilitation™.

ORCA Facilitation™ is a system of tools, techniques, and knowledge - a carefully crafted combination designed to empower an unprecedented level of effectiveness and efficiency in:

  • Organizational root-cause analysis of noticeable patterns and trends within organizational culture, outputs, or outcomes;
  • Modeling the systemic consequences of potential changes within an organization.
BENEFITS
By studying and practicing ORCA Facilitation, depending on your organizational role, you will get equipped with a structured and guided approach to individually or collectively achieve the following.
Top / Senior Management

Insightful Analysis: Gain a clear understanding of factors within your control that influence organizational culture and outcomes.

Strategic Changes: Identify actionable changes to drive the desired shifts in culture and business results.

Impact Modeling: Assess the potential effects and unintended consequences of proposed changes on organizational dynamics.

Immediate Benefits: Start experiencing the advantages of ORCA Facilitation without the prerequisite of mastering Systems Thinking and Causal Loop Diagrams (CLD).

Change Agents (Managers, SM, AC)

Enhanced Reasoning: Strengthen your argumentation for organizational changes with clear visualizations of their impacts on the aspects of primary interests for your opponents - e.g. business outcomes.

Root-Cause Identification: Unearth the underlying causes of disagreements to focus efforts on the most impactful areas.

Common Ground Discovery: Find areas of agreement with adversaries to explore alternative strategies for promoting change.

Facilitators
(SM, Agile Coach)

Workshop Facilitation: Conduct effective and efficient workshops on Root-Cause-Analysis and What-If-Modelling involving decision-makers and using provided tailor-made tools.

Decision-Maker Engagement: Clearly illustrate how proposed changes will affect crucial organizational outcomes to guide decision-making.

Conflict Resolution: Identify areas of disagreement among participants and explore their hidden drivers (e.g. beliefs and assumptions) to formulate actionable plans for resolution.

Adaptive Tools: Select the most suitable facilitation tool based on participant skill levels, learning willingness, and time constraints, with the flexibility to advance to more sophisticated tools as needed.

WHAT IS INCLUDED
There are six modules, with each subsequent one building upon the knowledge gained from the previous ones.
1
MODULE 1
Systems Thinking - Basics
  • Understand Systems Thinking with its main Rules and Principles.
  • Be able to use system diagraming, including CLD effectively in individual and group work.
2
MODULE 2
Organizational Design
  • Understand the elements of organizational design based on the Goal-Centric Model, their relationships, and an approach to designing them.
  • Be able to evaluate the consistency among the elements of organizational design.
3
MODULE 3
Systems Thinking - Advanced
  • Understand the most common archetypes of systems thinking.
  • Be able to spot them in your own systems and come up with respective strategies for dealing with them.
4
MODULE 4
Organizational Systems Thinking
  • Understand and be able to differentiate between different kinds of systems.
  • Understand human systems based on the Iceberg Model.
  • Understand organizational systems based on the Submarine Model.
  • Be able to guide root-cause analysis for systemic problems in the organizational systems.
5
MODULE 5
ORCA Canvas - Basics
  • Understand the structure and logic behind the ORCA Canvas.
  • Be able to use the ORCA Canvas to pinpoint what within the organization is causing issues observed in business outcomes, outputs, and culture.
  • Be able to apply different techniques of working with the ORCA Canvas to facilitate individual and group work.
  • Be able to build strong reasoning for the proposed org. changes.
  • Be able to effectively address disagreements.
6
MODULE 6
ORCA Canvas - Advanced
  • Understand the structure and logic behind the ORCA XL Canvas.
  • Be able to use the ORCA Canvas and ORCA XL Canvas to anticipate the outcomes of considered changes within the organization.
ORCA CANVASES
ORCA Canvas and ORCA XL Canvas
OTHER TOOLS
LEARNING AND PRACTICE MATERIALS
So far FREE of charge!
Just leave your feedback below :)

ORCA FACILITATION™ PRIMER

Everything is in one document. For more - check out our courses.

PLUG&PLAY MIRO

Templates and fully editable real-life examples.

PLUG&PLAY MURAL

Coming Soon
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