„If, during dialogue, all participants understand 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 provide consulting services primarily to non-profit organisations by founding SOCIUS Organisationsberatung gGmbH. That is exactly what I have been doing ever since – and I am still enthusiastic about it. But it is obviously a natural course of development that these organisations have grown larger and larger over time. Most recently, these have been associations (BUND, Paritätischer, Caritas, DRK) and their subdivisions. I am currently accompanying 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 specific methods in these processes. After many years and numerous processes, I no longer worry about this. On the contrary, I still enjoy composing something individual and usually unconventional in each process. However, one premise remains constant: Everything essential is personal. Therefore, in my view, every endeavour begins with our contact with one another. Or, as Ernst Bloch, the father of the „principle of hope“, succinctly put it 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 civic engagement. Similar to the current SPD chairwoman, I was chairman of a school parents“ association for several years and also served 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 my second relationship, father of two adult daughters, and trying to get used to my grandchildren calling me „Grandad“. My wife runs her own practice as a naturopathic practitioner for psychotherapy. Practice for Gestalt and constellation work We live in Berlin Charlottenburg – with a dog, cat and a flock of chickens in the garden. It is no coincidence that, as I get older (born in 1960), the „search for meaning“ and the ethical and moral aspects of my work are becoming more important to me. Every now and then, I treat myself to some time for reflection, often in the form of a hike lasting several months with my dog, tent and stove, but without my 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