Upstairs–Downstairs: a dialogic approach to intergroup teambuilding

Gervase R. Bushe

Chapter 16 in Cases in Organization Development and Change, 2026, pp 152-161 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Major Focus of the Case: The case describes how the author responded to a request to facilitate a day-and-a-half teambuilding workshop for a department with a history of division between two parts: an upstairs of professionals who purchased new vehicles and a downstairs who maintained and repaired them. The case describes the use of a dialogic OD mindset. Instead of collecting data and feeding it back to facilitate problem-solving, the consultant identified a common issue they could collaborate on and a process for generating new ideas they would want to act on. The case describes the synergenesis technique for producing more generative conversations.

Keywords: Dialogic organization development; Inter-group teambuilding; Synergenesis; Generativity; Generative change; Building high performance teams (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035340965
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