The method for thinking about how we order pizza – or how we work together – in two different ways is called the Walnut Model or the Content and Process Model . It comes from the Swedish Defence University .
Content / Process Model
The model is an interesting tool to understand what happens when people work together, like when ordering pizza. For example, I want a pizza with salami, while you want a pizza with tuna. You want this pizza to be the best pizza you’ve ever had, while all I want to do is satisfy my hunger and I don’t care how the pizza tastes. And besides, I call the pizzeria by myself and decide which pizza we’re going to have!
What happens if we focus only on the content and not on the process? One of us will not eat the pizza that is desired.
Organizational problems
Organizations and teams are networks of korean phone number whatsapp people working together to achieve a common goal, like ordering pizza. In 1969, MIT professor emeritus of organizational culture big fish Edgar Schein wrote, “All organizational problems are fundamentally problems involving human interactions and processes. No matter how technical or financial the problem, people are always involved in its design and implementation.”
Organizational problemsAll organizational problems are therefore interpersonal problems. The better we understand and identify these problems (processes), the better we can solve them. The chance that the solutions will be accepted and implemented by the entire team or the entire organization, also increases.
Read more about the book and Edgar Schein and his vision on processes on this (outdated) website. The book from 1969 is recommended if you want to know more about it!
All organizational problems are interpersonal problems.
What a process designer does
Process designers provide insight into the process and the interpersonal issues. This is about what happens around you and between you and others. Remember when you and I had completely different expectations of the pizza we wanted to order? A process designer makes us aware of this and offers tools to align our expectations.