Our companies

The structure of the enterprise:

A&L AB (Inc.)

A Swedish company founded and incorporated in 1991.

The reason for starting this enterprise was that it would form a hub to which development work was attached, connecting work-places, researchers and organization development consultants. Another strong and outspoken idea was to become a springboard for younger consultants trying to find their way into the business of consulting and organizational change support.

1993 was the year when collaboration started with Claes Janssen, Swedish researcher at University of Stockholm and OD consultant, around his theory The Four Rooms of Change and the very practical assessments that are connected to it. This was also the year when business idea was mature enough to be condensed into the phrase »Efficiency and Common Humanity«.

During the years of 1995 and 1996 much brain-work and experiments were invested in the process of dealing with the company's future and its possibilities to be successful on a market and in an over-all climate in society and working life, that was the effect of several years of recession. The recession was the deepest experienced in Sweden since the thirties. Authoritarian leadership suddenly became 'commes ils fault' again and the polarization between democratic and fascistic power structures became visible to everyone wanting to see, in a way it hadn't been around for decades.

1995 was the year when A&L AB joined the Swedish Academy of Democracy, a voluntary and pretty loose association of member organizations devoted to the task of reinforcing the democratic »theory-in-use« with value and content.

In 1997, Robert A. Dahl's book Democracy and its critics was translated into Swedish. It was originally published in 1989 at Yale University Press and was in a way completing and summarizing a lifetime of research on democracy. It led to Robert A. Dahl receiving the equivalent to the Nobel Prize for professionals in the academic field of Political Science, the Skyttean Prize, of Uppsala University, Sweden. The award was given...

»...for his penetrating analysis of democratic theory, characterized by deep learning and breadth of mind, combined with epochal empirical studies of the actual functioning of representative government«.

Leif Ericsson, at the time General Manager of Ordfront Publishing House, summarized this ground-breaking book in what has become known as The ABC's of Democracy. It has become an important set of tools for scrutinizing the premises of building work-places for increased efficiency and common humanity, an assessment to help move from fake participation towards real collaborative and democratic organizations on all levels and areas of society.

Up until 1997 A&L AB had built a fairly extensive network of colleagues and customers. The business had developed for example through a number of unique service concepts such as management support systems, that is how to find, develop, keep and phase-out managers and management functions. Other examples are a value-based consulting model and a concept for Life- and career-planning. Expanding the business to be able to achieve more ripple effects became almost necessary. Dialogues with a number of colleagues were initiated in order to better understand the premises and precautions necessary for extending and increasing collaboration in more organized forms.

Ideas and value-base was starting to merge with actual business and concrete consulting to a meaningful and purposeful whole.

A&L AB annual report can be read here.

A&L Partners AB (Inc.)

A&L Partners AB (Inc.) was formed in 1998.

The basic idea of the enterprise A&L Partners is expressed in the company's clause of purpose which you can read here:

The meaning of the enterprise is to support efficiency and common humanity in work life and society. A&L offers a broad variety of consulting services, each and every one of them congruent with the value base and with the idea to support systems to move from help to self-help. All activities of the company rests on a solid and stable value base grounded in democracy and human rights. The company's wish is to be influential in affecting the consulting business. The company's aim is being reached by nation wide as well as international consultation and networking. Other means of reaching the company's goals are product and service development, production and marketing of tools and methods as well as management of real estate and economic management. Institutional collaborations with research and community development business are also core business strategies.

In short it is to open up for expansion of the business and to make it easier for senior and junior colleagues to join or connect.

In the spring of 1998 »the flower« was created, a way of visualizing how the foundation of the company is connected to, and congruent with, the different services and concepts as well as with the code of ethics in use, which had begun to surface and become more and more visible.

The entity A&L Partners AB was resting, legally speaking, during 1999 and 2000. Common business was performed and kept control over through A&L AB book-keeping system. The business of A&L Partners AB is now working and expanding.

All that you see on this website is to be considered to be within the framework of A&L Partners.

Fyrarummaren AB (Inc.)

The Four Rooms of Change AB (Inc.) was founded in 1995 by Claes Janssen and A&L AB.

Forming this company is an expression for the mutual dedication to professionally and efficiently spread the Four Rooms of Change theory and its connected assessments to as many people and social entities as possible, all over the world.

As from the legal aspect this entity has also been resting over the years, but from a market point of view the enterprise is running as a number of projects within the framework of A&L AB and it is successful. It is also managed with a strong business agreement between the collaborators.

A&L Partners

Since 1999 A&L has created co-operations, business assignments and agreements with customers and colleagues in North America. Over the recent years there has been a great interest in the Four Rooms of Change and its tools but the interest has also pointed in the direction of the conceptualized value based consulting that A&L AB and Partners stands for, A&L AB is has a branch office in New York and will during winter/spring 2001-2002 establish a legal entity in the United States part-owned by the Swedish company and part-owned by two American consultants. To all involved this feels more like the start of a new adventure than something accomplished. A&L Partners Inc. is also meant to be fairly easy for more people to connect to when the time is right.

For several years now, we are having a strong collaborative relationship with Marvin Weisbord and Sandra Janoff from Philadelphia, originators to the Six-box-model and the Future Search Conference methodology. A&L Partners is also on the front edge of introducing Future Search as a large group strategic planning, concept-in-use in Scandinavia and the Nordic countries. So far we have trained hundreds of Future Search facilitators in collaboration with Marvin Weisbord, Sandra Janoff and Future Search Network.

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