The Begats

Growing up in Brooklyn, we didn’t really have gangs, more like social clubs, teams really. And one of our favorite games was to see who had memorized the “begats.” In the Bible there is this passage about who begat whom, Abraham begat Issac… It sums up the lineage of the prophets up to and including Christ. Later while studying Aikido for many years, I was taught the lineage of how my current instructors could trace their teachers back to O”Sensei, the Master. When I studied the shakuhachi flute, same thing. We discovered we could trace our teachers back to the Fuke sect in ancient Japan.

And so, to me, lineage is important. Who you learned from and who they learned from has always been of interest to me. Here is what I know of how the Drexler Sibbet Model came into being.

Allen Drexler and David Sibbet met, and hit it off. Allen brought the fundamental ideas of how teams form and develop. His description was clear, concise, and based on years of building teams in his organizational development practice. Allen worked extensively with Marv Weisbord in those days. David brought an incredible understanding of process, combined with an amazing ability to represent his thoughts graphically.

The roots of Allen’s contribution come from the work of Jack Gibb, famous for his work with the concept of building trust in organizations. David’s mentor was Arthur Young, cosmologist, and famous for being the inventor of the Bell Helicopter. Integrating these theorists through rewarding conversations, David and Allen created the Drexler Sibbet Team Performance Model. Their work was collaborative from the start, and remains so to this day. Along the way they picked up another terrific consultant - Russ Forrester who happened to be a psychometrist besides an organization consultant. The addition of Russ brought the Team Performance Inventory into being. I have had the unique experience of having worked with, and been taught by each of these characters (including Marv). My clients know from my flip chart drawings that my skillset emphasizes the Allen / Russ connection more than the David connection :-)

Today you can capture the flavor of how their creation has become a force of its own in Organization Development. Check out how this concept has grown by visiting David’s Grove Consulting Organization. You won’t be disappointed.

Tomorrow I will go more deeply into the Model itself and how we use it in our practice.