John Shook wrote an article for lean.org titled In Honor of Dr. Edgar Schein: A Tribute to a Giant in Organizational Theory (February 2, 2023).
« Edgar Schein passed away last Thursday, January 26, 2023. Ed, the godfather of organizational development, was a spry 94 years young »
« I really got to know Ed when for seven years running, I had the privilege — one of the great honors of my career — of sharing the stage with Ed at the Stanford Lean Healthcare Academic Conference for an episode that came to be known fondly as the annual Shook ‘n Schein Show. »
« I think we shared 90% agreement on the matter, but you wouldn’t know it from the sparring and parsing. For example, we agreed that organizational systems are 50/50 social and technical. However, Ed was convinced that the technologist’s refusal to recognize the value of the social dimensions in organizations was a source of endless organizational ineffectiveness. »
« here are links to reports of our 2017 session at the Stanford Conference:
- Edgar Schein and John Shook On Coaching – complete transcript from Lean Healthcare Academic Conference at Stanford, September 2017
- A Humble Conversation
- Thoughts on Coaching from John Shook and Edgar Schein »
« Also, here are links to my 2010 Sloan Management Review article, “How to Change a Culture: Lessons from NUMMI” and my 2009 Lean Post article, “How NUMMI Changed Its Culture,” both of which lean on Ed’s model of organizational culture. »
Edgar Schein is the author of Helping, Humble Inquiry, Organizational Culture and Leadership and The Corporate Culture Survival Guide (2019).
Articles of Interest 