It is based on the concept of the open system itself and many interlocked concepts and principles which underlie its reliability. Its ability to elicit intrinsic motivation, ideals, energy and diffusion derives from its team-based structure which means that the participants accept the responsibility for the content of the work, the plan and its implementation. It answers the questions - 'where do we want to be / what do we want to be' - in year X?”

The SC involves ecological (system-in-environment) strategy development and encompasses all aspects of an open system – the environment, learning, planning, and the system itself.

It is a highly effective and reliable method for participative, active adaptive strategic planning. It has the power to produce learning, planning organizations and communities committed to making their own futures.

By partaking in a SC participants learn about the SC process itself so that they can continue to adaptively change.

As an intensive, participative event the SC:

• Provides a strategic framework within which other improvement strategies can be integrated and aligned with overall strategic objectives;
• Explores changing market and industry conditions so that the plan developed reflects, and is responsive to, the changing environment; and
• Allows participants to plan their future as a cooperative, motivated planning group

The key steps in this 'DNA' transformation process are:

1. Pre-organizational health survey
2. The Participative Design Workshop (PDW)
3. Post-organizational health survey
4. The implementation of a skills-based pay and career path program

The PDW is the most effective and efficient process known today for creating participative democratic organizational structures centred on the empowered self-managing team where team members have a shared responsibility for meeting agreed outcomes.

It is a coherent strategy whereby employees and managers within an organization are given the concepts and tools to redesign their workplace using democratic principles. By pooling employee knowledge and initiatives for change, they themselves can redesign their workplace.

The benefits of implementing design principle 2 structures are quickly translated to the bottom line as highlighted by some of our case studies. See the Testimonials page for some examples.

ICT projects have benefited from unique designs too. For example, Telstra used OST concepts and modifications to OST products to help it win the 1999 Qantas supplier of the year award.

Other examples that have benefited from unique OST designs include:

• Mergers and acquisitions
• Difficult change management projects
• Risk mitigation planning

OST-based market research produces this understanding as well as in which circumstances, and how particular products and services are used. It is vital to understand the relations between these phenomena for a sustainable future

A key outcome of this research is detailed knowledge of the underlying segmentation of user markets. This information can be used as a guide to implement Search Conference action plans to meet certain strategic intentions.

Predicting individual personality has many benefits for organizations. For instance, the OSPT has ready application in all forms of market research and has been used to help organizations:

• Build reliable personality profiles of their customer base;
• Better understand their market segments;
• Maximise their advertising effectiveness by knowing what type of advertisement appeals to a particular identified target audience; and
• Develop campaign slogans that are more attractive to a broader range of the population.

The OSPT has other applications too. It has been reliably used to identify personality profiles for major occupational groupings as well as to differentiate those who passively resist change versus those who actively fight for reform.

Depending on the need, the OSPT can readily identify personality profiles in a range of situations, from reactions to specific technologies and slogans to determining attitudes and behaviour toward change.

One global trend report recently released by Professor Merrelyn Emery has profound implications for all of humanity. It centres on the growth in maladaptive behaviour across the globe and is the basis of her new book titled From Tunisia to Occupy and beyond: the new wave of social change, past, present and future. Emery M (in press) Nova Publications'

A summary of this book can be found in a blog written by Peter Aughton on the website www.dnasoc.com. It's called 'Reducing the growth in maladaptive behaviour for a sustainable future'.

The OST global trend reports provide valuable insights:

• For strategic planners, policy makers, risk managers and marketing managers
• To inform change management initiatives
• About new avenues to differentiate; and
• About embryonic social changes that may evolve into opportunities or threats

The Simulation has been used effectively in manufacturing and service sector organizations in Australia, New Zealand and North America. Participants experience profound insights into better ways of organizing work and gain a thorough understanding of the change process involved.

This research as well as OHI intervention projects conducted by OHI founding member, Peter Aughton, shows that many managers are unaware of these 'DNA' factors and their affect on employee wellbeing. We've found that management, in their efforts to improve productivity, have actually put their employees at risk of having outcomes such as feeling depressed, frustrated, anxious, stressed and tired, which are associated with mental health problems.

These outcomes are now showing up in the dramatic increase in the cost of mental injuries. For instance:

• The biggest single cause of workplace related disability in Canada is associated with mental health conditions (Trends in mental health in the workplace, Mental Health Commission of Canada, June 2010)
• Workplace mental health issues have overtaken physical injury as the cause of the longest absences from work. (ABS report, Australian Social Trends, June 2011)

To turn this situation around we initiated a unique and targeted 'mental health in the workplace' OHI program that not only includes powerful diagnostics for measuring mental health in the workplace and its affect on employee and business performance, but also incorporates a customized intervention strategy to transform a low performing organization into a healthy, vibrant and productive workplace.

The OHI program that helps leaders simultaneously increase organizational innovation and productivity and reduce the incidence of mental health problems at work revolves around the following products and services.

At the conclusion of this practical and experiential workshop participants will:

• Have a working knowledge of the key external and internal factors that are putting employees at increasing risk of mental injury
• Know how to measure the basic human needs of work or the intrinsic motivators
• Be introduced to the organizational DNA that is essential for reducing the incidence of workplace mental injuries and improving organizational health
• Learn about misguided attempts to improve employee wellbeing and organizational performance, which are in fact making the situation worse for both employees and businesses.
• Be provided with an overview of the OHI empirical data that clearly identifies the root cause of not only what is creating mental health risks for employees, but also leading to a myriad of other organizational problems and performance issues.

By 2007 this diagnostic was a key component in a joint Canadian and Australian 'Mental Health in the Workplace' action research project initiated by Professors Don de Guerre and Merrelyn Emery from the Faculty of Applied Human Sciences, Concordia University, in Montreal, Canada.

Results from this project confirmed that certain human emotions or affects are powerful proxies for mental health status. The results also showed that the genotypical organizational design principles, or organizational DNA, are a key determinant of the affects and mental health at work.

Since our original research the incidence of mental illness in workplaces has increased. This increase has shown up as reduced productivity, lost time and increasing health costs for the wider community.

Consequently we recognised the critical need for a rapid assessment tool; one that can quickly establish an organization's likelihood of damaging employee mental health.

This assessment tool, which takes less than 5 minutes to complete, is a combination of self report and our identified affects list that we know to be a sensitive indicator of a distressed workforce. It quickly estimates the probability that a particular organization many be putting its employees at risk of mental health problems.

In today's litigious OH&S environment this information is vitally important. Directors and senior managers must be aware of any risks their organization may pose for the health of its employees and take corrective action to reduce it.

The OHI diagnostic is systemic and very wide-ranging. It measures over 80 variables including measures of responsibility for control and coordination, nature of team work, location of accountability, quality of relationships, cooperation or competition on the job, trust, mental demand, learning, creativity/innovation, sense of achievement, the psychological requirements for productive work (intrinsic motivators) as well as hygiene factors (external motivators) such as pay and working conditions.

Mental health is measured by self report and the emotional affects experienced at work. All factors identified in our previous research studies are included.

The OHI diagnostic also measures individual and organizational outcomes. The individual outcomes consist of motivation, mental health and days off sick. The organizational outcomes consist of innovation and productivity. In addition, there are measures of transfer effects to family and community life expressed as activities.

Finally, the OHI diagnostic provides management with measures of employee wellbeing and how it is affected by organizational factors, which are under management control, that produce low levels of employee engagement and commitment to improving business outcomes.

Each OHI diagnostic report features the following:

• All results include full statistical reporting, which allows independent evaluation;
• Full discussion of results is provided with management on how to address any identified problems; and
• All reports include recommendations for action.

Well over 60% of our sample score above the mean range for feeling powerless, frustrated and 'stressed'. Over 50% of our sample scored above the mean range for feeling afraid and lonely, not affects one would expect from a normal day's work. Over 50% scored below the mean range for feeling energetic and joyful. Similarly, nearly 30% scored above the mean range for feeling tired.

This deterioration in workplace mental health over the last few years as measured by our analysis and also supported by a current literature survey is unsustainable. It is not only costing $billions in lost productivity but is now putting directors at risk of being sued for causing psychological injury to employees.

As such an OHI program has been developed that is dedicated to helping leaders simultaneously increase organizational innovation and productivity and reduce the incidence of mental health problems at work.

It is an OST-based change management process for changing the workplace conditions that are the breeding grounds for mental illness. It offers the following validated online diagnostic tools and training:

• A low cost rapid assessment and benchmarking tool to identify whether organizations are putting their employees at risk of mental illness
• A comprehensive 'Organizational Health and Innovation' diagnostic and customized intervention program that will transform a low performing organization into a healthy, innovative and productive workplace
• A systems-based change management course that will enable participants to design and manage these transformations

Further information about Organizational Health and Innovation (OHI) products and program can be found at www.orghealthinnovation.com.

The OHP survey contains questions about workplace conditions that affect employee emotions such as feeling energetic and creative. These outcomes are used to measure organizational energy levels and motivation, which in turn not only affect people's wellbeing, but also their ability to be productive and innovative.

Contact us for an interim case study report on the organizational factors affecting employee engagement and energy levels.

The planning process must also be able to deal with numerous variables and different vested interests, as well as being able to generate widespread commitment and motivate people with vastly different beliefs about the reality of climate change.

Our action research has discovered that many leaders do not have the skill and knowledge to successfully complete this task. As such, and via our online company DNAsoc, we have initiated the Sustainable Future Planning (SFP) development program.

The program revolves around a one-day training workshop. It enables people from all walks of life to collectively make a difference now to take action on climate change.

The Adaptive Communities website (www.adaptivecommunities.com) provides more details about this program and the socio-ecological theory that underpins it, as well as the climate science that informs it.

The survey not only provides an understanding of how people see climate change, but also identifies the determinants of engagement and motivation that are operating within a specific organization or community. Without motivation, coping capabilities will be weakened and the best plans will fail.

The Adaptive Communities website (www.adaptivecommunities.com) has further information about the climate change resilience survey.

The (www.leanstartup2scaleup.com) program is the quintessential OD program. From a potential business or social idea a minimum viable product/service (MVP) is produced using Lean Startup analysis and hypothesis testing. Having developed a MVP that customers want and are willing to pay for (or a social/community initiative with high social capital) OST concepts and methodologies are applied to scale and sustain a new startup venture. In other words, the Lean StartUp 2 ScaleUp program is designed to develop a vibrant prosperous organization from a nascent business or social idea.