Synectics Alumni

I took part in a Conference call of about 15 people last week, a new (and enjoyable) experience for me. It was set up by my old company, Synectics, who have decided (belatedly) that they have a lost a lot of experience and knowledge by failing to keep in touch with former employees. Many have left in a an atmosphere of mutual hostility, with the company concerned to limit the damage to the business from new competitors who may take clents with them.

In the conference, there seemed to be enough positive intent between the company and the alumni to build something worthwhile together. So many people have benefited from Synectics, including clients and users as well as company staff, that it needs to be viewed not just as a business but as a valuable body of knowledge that can contribute a great deal to society as a whole (hence my commitment over the last 20 years to Synectics Education Initiative, a Registered Charity that seeks to introduce the methods into the formal education system).

I would like to see this community take shape in the form of some kind of Synectics Association, separate from but supported by the company. It would be a club or professional association rather than a business, with members sharing their knowledge and experience and working together on an ad hoc basis as opportunities arose. The binding element would be enthusiasm for the methods and what they could achieve and the desire to make them more widely known and applied, rather than narrow self-interest.

There may be some models we could follow, like the Society of Alexander Teachers or the NLP community, except that accreditation would be by experience in the company rather than by training courses. It will take some ingenuity to ensure win-win outcomes for both the members and the company (especially as the company is now a subsidiary of a larger group, the French consulting company Altran).

I would love to see the project produce a collective book in time for the company's 50th anniversary in 2010 - it could be called "50 years of Synectics". The existing Synectics literature does not do justice to the value of tht body of knowledge - it is too dated and scattered. I would be happy to co-ordinate and edit such a book.