ABOUT US... OUR STORY
In 1981, Jim Rough was a consultant within Simpson Timber
Company encouraging management to try a “Quality Circles
program” in a sawmill as a way to improve people’s
work-life, production levels and product quality. Union vs.
management battling was ugly at the time, so management
jumped at the prospect of having employees feel better
about their work. They didn’t want to be involved
themselves or to spend money on training, nor did they
expect major changes to result. They just wanted him to
make people feel better. This half-hearted endorsement
eventually made the Employee Involvement Program
exceedingly successful for employees, management, the
union, and the owners, plus the process lasted for many
years after he moved on.
Jim had been an ongoing student of creative thinking
through the Creative Problem-Solving
Institute and of dialogue through
the Guild for Psychological
Studies. He wanted to use these
tools to facilitate employees to identify and solve
their own issues creatively. So, when the mill workers
came into the room for their first meetings, rather than
work on issues that concerned management, he encouraged
them to choose issues important to them, no matter how
difficult. At first they chose issues like “We hate the
foreman. We want him fired.”
It seemed to Jim that even impossible issues like this
could be solved if people could think creatively. He tried
the various approaches of creative problem solving, but, in
this emotionally charged setting, they didn’t work. He
experimented with other processes, trusting people’s
energy, and eventually discovered an approach that did
work. He helped the group discover, for instance, that the
real problem wasn’t the foreman but the low-trust
environment. They all excitedly worked together to fix
that.
Although this new problem was bigger than the one the group
started with, the shift in perspective was empowering. Just
by working together in a creative way productivity and
quality shot up, and so did the level of trust throughout
the mill. The foreman started appreciating them and they
him. These workers changed their outlook and found they
were talking to their families and friends differently. It
was affecting their personal lives.
Jim assumed he was just “facilitating” but eventually
discovered that this approach was unique. We now call
it “Dynamic
Facilitation”. Interestingly he
discovered that the process engendered a particular form
of creative thinking that we now call “Choice-creating”, which resonated with
others in the mill who weren’t in the meetings. This
discovery later opened the door to the
“Wisdom Council”
as a new
strategy for whole-system change.
Since 1990 Jim has been teaching “Dynamic Facilitation”
in workshops as a consultant. The
practice continues to grow and impact lives,
organizations, and communities. In 2005, Jim Rough &
Associates, Inc. expanded to include a talented group
of associates who train, facilitate,
coach, and consult with the process of Dynamic
Facilitation.
