Power Camp

The man behind the madness is Barry Oshry, founder of Power & Systems Inc. He's a 60-ish Boston native who, with his white hair, beard, and ebullience, looks less corporate than academic, which is exactly what he is. In the early 1960s, he started running large-scale organizational simulations as part of an undergraduate business course he taught at Boston University. In 1969, he cooked up a two-tier, have and have-not society for The Race Institute in Baltimore. (He turned haves into have-nots by taking away their car keys, money, and belongings.)

The next year Oshry created the Power & Leadership Laboratory, now the Power & Leadership Conference, to take a stark look at personal behavior in the systems world we all inhabit. Ten days before the conference begins, participants complete the Self-In-System Sensitizer -- a 30-page study of organizational strengths and shortcomings. At camp coaches approach participants daily, pushing them to recognize self-limiting behaviors, urging them to try on new roles. Meanwhile anthropologists -- Power & Systems employees -- note all New Hope dialogue verbatim. At the end of camp, they provide a detailed analysis, a virtual film of the week's dynamics. There's also a learning session every day: from 5 PM to 6:15 PM That's when New Hope freezes for a TOOT, a Time Out Of Time -- 75 minutes for Oshry's disciples to conduct more formal seminars, and a chance for clients to compare their experiences to previous New Hope labs.

Act Two: Awakenings

"let me first apologize for the weather." Caitlin is addressing the immigrants shortly after they enter the creepy, unheated, cement-floored tabernacle, home to New Hope's court, newspaper, pub, and store.

The immigrants sit on benches in a triangle, facing inward, and the elites -- all in suits, pressed shirts, and leather shoes -- are standing behind them.

"My name is Ms. Gamble and I like it very much here. This is Mr. Oakley, Mr. Winslow, and Mr. Smith. You will all need to work for at least an hour before dinner to pay for your meal and then again for an hour after supper to rent a bed for the night. But we do understand that you have come to us with very spartan belongings, so we would like to extend to each of you this gift -- a raincoat."

None of this is lost on the immigrants: the raincoat is a plastic orange poncho, the elites insist on using formal names, the work is picking cobwebs off old church pews, the bed rental does not include linens or blankets, which must be rented at extra cost from the New Hope store. Within five minutes these things transform New Hope from a silly role play into a personal power drama where egos get bruised and wills compete.

At dinner -- served by Hans, a portly immigrant with a skirted apron and a very important job back in the Netherlands -- the castes eat at separate tables. The elites enjoy wine, linens, and a three-course meal, while the immigrants endure macaroni and cheese on paper plates. Afterward, middle Doug, the employment manager, scurries about attempting to secure labor for tomorrow's bench scraping while a few immigrants, in an act of civil disobedience, sneak off to steal blankets from the Inn.

"I want to be your link to getting what you need out of New Hope," Doug pleads to the immigrants, who have pledged secretly not to accept labor contracts until they've had a chance to meet. "I'm being pushed by the elite, and what the elite need is for New Hope to be a hopeful, productive place."

It's around 11:30 PM and the immigrants are sprawled out on the dingy shag rug of their living room, discussing their collective fate, when Doug returns -- this time with his three co-middles in tow. "I'm sorry, Doug," Lou scowls, "you said the reason you brought everybody was. . .?"

Soon talk turns to the gridlocked state of affairs at New Hope. The immigrants won't work without their luggage. The middles, pressured to produce, won't accept a strike. Nobody has any idea where the luggage is or how to get it. So the four middles plus Kaye, an immigrant, walk half a mile up the road in the drenching rain to bang on the elites' door at 12:40 AM

TOOT II
Barry Oshry's organizational theories are built around psychological spaces -- topness, middleness, and bottomness. His goal is to help people see -- and, perhaps, to avoid -- typical reactions to predictable roles. "There's nothing miraculous about it," he says. "Certain consistent patterns happen at the top, at the bottom, and in the middle, independent of who the players are. When people experience personality conflicts they generally think, 'It's your character, my character, we're not getting along.' But a lot of the stuff that seems personal is actually systemic."

Some Oshry definitions: