Who Are We?
The Socio-technical Systems Roundtable is a global network of organization design practitioners, academics, students and organizational leaders. We come together to learn about and exchange the latest organization design research and practices in an open, active and collaborative way.
We span all sectors—for profit, non-profit, union, education and government.
The glue that holds us together is a strong sense of community among people who care about creating thriving organizations and networks that:
Enhance Human Dignity
and Human Values
Increase
Productivity
Provide Economic and Ecological Sustainability
Our success and strength as a relevant and viable contributor to the field of organization design relies on passionate, creative and energetic members who are excited to engage with each other and share their ideas, experiences and smarts.
We are Co-founders of the Global Network for SMART Organization Design
We’ve grown our reach and our network by co-founding the Global Network for SMART Organization Design.
Roundtable members from around the globe actively collaborate with, and support, one another on research, education and action learning projects of interest between annual community meetings.
The resource section of this website provides access to thought-provoking research, case studies and action research projects from members in our global network.
Read more about GNSOD HERE
Colleagues and sister entities within our community include: USI, GLO.WIN, etc. current links are HERE
What Do We Do?
We are an education and learning community focused on the theory and practice of designing thriving organizations that work for everyone.
We host a variety of online and in-person forums throughout the year which are open to the public and designed and facilitated by members of our global network.
Our keystone event is the North American bi-annual conference which also includes the annual members’ meeting.
Unlike typical conferences which rely on dozens of speakers, ours is unique and renowned for its high level of participant engagement. The topics are on the cutting edge of organization design challenges and inspiring solutions.
Attendees are exposed to renowned and respected experts, and then have the chance to discuss, deliberate and exchange ideas and experiences. Each conference includes case studies and at least one field trip.
People always talk about the depth of learning and engagement. Even more, they talk about the warm connections and fun social times that are hallmarks of these events.
Similar to the North American conference in terms of quality, cutting edge content and engagement, we also actively participate in the GNSOD conferences on the European continent in alternate years. We expect the global network will grow to other parts of the world in the near future and look forward to events in Asia and Australia in coming years.
How Do We Do It?
In 2019, we are engaging the STSRT community to reinvent the Smart Organization Design Framework (SODF).
We believe that the organization design principles around which the Sociotechnical Roundtable is built continue to be important and relevant in the digital age. However, we recognize that we need to update the framing language that describes our approach so that it is current and accessible in a digital, complex and dynamic world.
In the spirit of community learning and co-creation, we are engaging our members and colleagues to help us describe the SODF.
May to August 2019: SLACK crowdsourcing conversations to collect input and feedback [link to SLACK channel]
September 10-13, 2019: at Los Angeles meeting/conference we will use design sprints to apply the draft framework to case studies. Registration page – HERE
October to December 2019: craft the SODF according to all the community inputs and share it
View our Stewards and Active Volunteers – HERE
History and Background
1980s – STSRT founded based on action research in coal mines at Tavistock Institute, London led by Eric Trist and Fred Emery
1990s – STS RT holds annual conferences bringing together inside-the-organization practitioners, outside-the-organization practitioners, and academics from North America and from around the world representing numerous approaches to organization design.
2000s – Became a 501(c)3 not-for-profit focused on learning and education; began an open membership model (not by invitation only)
2010s – Moved toward deliberative engagement process in conferences; look at ecosystem and network level of analysis; reinvented Smart Organization Design Framework
