For over 30 years Barry Oshry has been on a single-minded quest to unlock the mysteries of power and powerlessness in social system life. He began his work in the 1960s at Boston University where he developed large-scale organisational simulations for undergraduates in business. Throughout the 1960s he continued his research and program development at BU and at NTL Institute. In 1970 Barry Oshry created The Power Lab, and since the mid-1970's he has developed and conducted organisational simulations with Tops, Middles, Bottoms, and Customers. These programs have been providing "system sight" to organisations throughout the world.

What we offer

For 30 years Barry Oshry has been on a single-minded quest to unlock the mysteries of power and powerlessnessBath Consultancy Group is excited with the rising levels of interest and informed discussion that Barry's work is engendering in the UK. Our focus is using Oshry concepts in organisational development and change and we have a number of people currently certified as Organisation Workshop and Merging Cultures Workshop facilitators.

Apart from integrating Oshry ideas into our organisational and personal development work, we also want to support the broader community of Oshry practitioners, because of our belief in the importance of this work for UK multinational and global companies.

The Organisation Workshop gets to the heart of partnership in organisation life - why partnership is critical to organisational success, what gets in the way of it developing, and the role of leaders in making it happen. In this dynamic workshop, participants experience the deep, impersonal drivers of organisational behaviour, as we focus on the worlds of tops (executives), middles (middle management), bottoms (employees) and customers, during turbulent times.

The next Organisation Workshop programme will be led by Bath Consultancy Group Associate John Watters on 13 October 2011 in London.  For further information and booking details please contact This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

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The Merging Cultures Workshop

The Merging Cultures Workshop addresses the pitfall and payoffs when different organisational cultures meet. One organisation acquires another looking to strengthen itself in the marketplace. Two business units find they need to work together more effectively. A workplace is becoming increasingly diverse. In each of these scenarios different cultures come face to face. The challenge is to use the unique strengths of the parts to create a more powerful and effective whole.

The Merging Cultures Workshops are delivered in conjunction with Simon Allen of Lumina Consulting.

The results

"I was on a high for days after this workshop! It was great and I'm looking forward to hearing how people have applied the ideas. I loved the combination of stimulating ideas and the immediacy of learning about them through the activities. There is so much we can apply."
Carol Pickering - Carol Pickering Associates

"Great workshop, I thoroughly enjoyed it and learned so much."
Colette Gannon - Sandler Consulting 

"Just send a huge thanks to you and your colleagues for such a well coordinated and inspiring event."
Noel Nanton - Think-as-if.co.uk

  For more feedback see Workshop Comments.