"If, through dialogue, everyone involved understands how the current situation came about, then the desired development will also be collaborative and successful."

Technical

Over twenty years ago, my plan was to set up SOCIUS Organisationsberatung gGmbH to provide consulting support primarily to non-profit organisations. And that is exactly what I have been doing ever since - still with enthusiasm. But it is obviously a natural course of development that these organisations have become larger and larger over time. Most recently, it was mostly associations (BUND, Paritätischer, Caritas, DRK) and their subdivisions. I am currently supporting a public corporation in a multi-year process of rapid growth in the polarity between digital innovation and authority-like security. I am not really guided by theories or special methods in these processes. After so many years and so many processes, I'm no longer very worried. On the contrary, I still enjoy composing something individual and usually unconventional in every process. But one premise remains constant: Everything essential is personal. Therefore, in my view, every endeavour has its beginning in our contact with each other. Or as the father of the "principle of hope", Ernst Bloch, put it succinctly back in 1923: I am. We are. That is enough. Now we must begin.*

Background

My professional activities are based on my extensive intercultural East-West experiences in the 1960s and 1970s – I was born in the wonderfully socialist corner of Upper Silesia (CSSR) and later grew up in Baden, which I found somewhat unusually friendly. On the other hand, I am also shaped by the experience that change is possible in groups: whether as a youth group leader or student representative, later in community service or in the peace service with Action Reconciliation in Poland. My studies in history and Slavic studies (as a scholarship holder of the Protestant Study Centre Villigst) were also marked by the search for causes and remedies for differences between groups. This has remained the case to this day: I am still motivated by the social visions of balanced justice and a caring community. In this respect, I feel particularly committed to the idea of the common good and enjoy working with people who want to live out their privilege as a responsibility in the world of work.

commitments

In 1992 I founded the association "German-Russian Exchange Association.", of which I was Managing Director until 1997 (and honorary Chairman of the Board until 2009). In 1998, we received the Theodor Heuss Medal for our commitment to civil society. Like the current SPD chairwoman, I was chairman of a school parents' association for several years and was also on the board of trustees of the Cooperation Foundation, most recently as chairman. In 1998, I founded SOCIUS Organisationsberatung gGmbH (together with Jo Töpfer) and was managing director and majority shareholder until 2013. Currently, together with my six colleagues, I am on the board of the SOCIUS cooperative we founded, in which we formally implement the equal and collegial management of SOCIUS.

Personally

I am in a second partnership, father of two grown-up daughters and am trying to get used to my grandchildren addressing me as "Grandad". My wife runs her own practice as a non-medical practitioner for psychotherapy. Practice for Gestalt and constellation work and we live in Berlin Charlottenburg - with a dog, cat and a flock of chickens in the garden. It's no coincidence that as I get older (I was born in 1960), the "search for meaning" and the ethical and moral aspects of my work become more important to me. Every now and then I allow myself time to reflect, often in the form of a hike lasting several months with a dog, tent and cooker, but without a smartphone. You can read about how this can affect my work here: Ethics and attitude in counselling.

Interview with Rudi Piwko: Enjoyable organisational development

*Quoted from the highly recommended book by fellow consultant Stefan Groß, Moderationskompetenz, Kommunikationsprozesse in Gruppen zielführend begleiten (Moderation skills: effectively facilitating communication processes in groups), Springer Gabler 2018, page 1.

As of 2020