Skip to main content

Barry Oshry
Transforming System-blindness into System-sight

Barry Oshry

Barry Oshry is a pioneer in the field of human systems thinking. His life’s work has been to empower individuals and organizations by transforming system-blindness into system-sight. The educational programs he has developed include The Power Lab,…

Spotlight

Tear the Whole System Down

I look at America today through the lens of the Power Lab. What I see, in part, is a revolution of the Bottoms in response to their oppression at the hands of the Tops. I have observed similar processes unfold in countless Power Labs over…

A Commitment to Life

Here is the story that might have been, but wasn't. New York Times, March 22, 2003. In referring to the possibility of war with Iraq, the President issued the following statement: "This is a complex case with serious issues, but in extraordinary…

A New Cleansing

At the end of World War II, as the details of the Holocaust were being made public-describing the systematic murder of millions of men, women, and children-people were saying Oh my God, I just didn’t know! Maybe they knew and maybe they didn’t. The…

Advice to Young People Seeking a Life of Crime

Advice to young people considering a life in crime: Stay in school, get an MBA, and work your way up to the executive suite; that's where the real possibilities lie. Every day. the business section of the newspaper looks more and more like the…

Amebocytes and slugs

"Amebocytes and slugs" is a metaphor I will be using regularly in this blog. The metaphor will shed light on an amazing range of phenomena including: the Cold War, gender issues, social security, and entrepreneurism. The metaphor is based on…

Amoebocytes and Slugs and Politics

My intention is to take a systemic look at the current conflict over Social Security using the amebocyte/slug metaphor. (Refer to my March 15 entry, "Amebocytes and Slugs: The Key to Just About Everything." All systems-from your family to your…

Ask me How I feel About Unions

I feel like it's an unfinished play about the powerful and the powerless. Act I: The powerful-French kings, Russian tsars, owners of garment factories, greedy mine owners, fascist governments-oppress the powerless with impunity. Act II: The…

At the end of World War II

At the end of World War II, as the details of the Holocaust were being made public-describing the systematic murder of millions of men, women, and children-people were saying Oh my God, I just didn’t know! Maybe they knew and maybe they didn’t. The…

Bankruptcy and Bottomness

In our organization work, we describe the "Bottom Space" as a space of vulnerability, a condition in which one is regularly on the receiving end of other people's actions; there is always some distant THEM who make decisions affecting your life in…

Birds on a Wire

They were standing there-a father and his two daughters-staring up at birds on a wire. Dozens clustered together, and a single bird off by itself. The three families had been spending a week's vacation together. From time to time there had been…