Mod att förändra

Igår besökte jag Johanna Wallin och Galleri Håfors och fick läsa artikeln i Bohusläningen om årets tema Work-Life-Play-Balance. Vi hade en bra diskussion om att de flesta platsannonser efterfrågar kreativitet och innovationsförmåga men så få organisationer skapar utrymme för detta. För att kunna vara kreativ och innovativ behövs ett utrymme där man får leka, reflektera och pröva nytt, där känslor har en lika given plats som intellekt. Det behövs som en balans till mera rutinmässig produktion. I produktionen lär man sig bli bättre genom att göra mer av samma sak och repetera. När det gäller kreativitet och innovation lär man sig bli bättre genom att göra mer av annorlunda saker, t ex måla, skapa, leka som tillåter hjärnan att följa nya vindlingar som leder till oanade resultat. En bra miljö för kreativitet kräver visst kaos och ett öppet och tillåtande klimat i organisationen.

 

Det krävs mod för att förändra – mod att våga stå i snålblåsten och vara sårbar. Men den som är sårbar är egentligen väldigt stark och har inget att frukta för den har inget att dölja. Det går inte åt någon energi för att upprätthålla ansiktet utåt eller försöka fundera ut vad andra tycker. Modet hos en sådan person innebär att även personer i dens närhet får möjlighet att vara genuina människor. En sådan kultur bidrar snabbt till att människor vågar pröva och misslyckas för att också i de flesta fall lyckas över förväntan.

För att slå in på den modiga och kreativa vägen skulle man kunna använda Systematiskt Arbetsmiljöarbete, SAM, tillsammans med mötesmetoder där man tar vara på hela personalens engagemang och kunskaper. De lösningar som kan bidra till ett öppet och innovativt klimat är ofta oanade och enkla och de finns hos medarbetarna, när man ger utrymme för lekfullhet och reflektion. Bra metoder för att åstadkomma detta är bland annat Open Space och Whole Person Process. De har en tydlig struktur med ordning och reda och en lagom portion av kaos. Egentligen så är de här metoderna ett effektivt sätt att ändra förhållningssätt i en organisation, en förändringsmekanism helt enkelt. Det som krävs är att man använder metoden kontinuerligt och ser till att medarbetarna lär sig grunderna så att de kan anpassa formen efter de egna behoven. Och mod!

 

Changing organizational values

“The most common and continuous means of communicating to people their worth and potential is: the organization”. Stephen F Covey in his book The 8^th Habit, from Effectiveness to Greatness.

Reflect on this quote for a while and then tell me how your organization communicates the worth and potential of the people working in it. Or maybe it does not!

Too many organizations have a structure that instead communicates that all they want is a body for the production. And then another quote from Covey: “When all you want is a person´s body and you don´t really want their mind, heart or spirit (all inhibitors to the free-flowing processes of the machine age), you have reduced a person to a thing”.

Organizations that believe people are things often build systems for the managing of things instead of leading people. They install control systems and regulations that make it difficult for people to do their job and take away the very space where people can breathe. When we don´t have breathing time and space, we are like the wood man who didn´t stop to sharpen his ax. We just go on swinging the dull ax at different trees at the same time. We might get some of them down, but if we just had taken time to stop and look at what we were doing, we might even have invented a double ax instead of just sharpening the one we had.

The way to have organizations communicate the worth and potential of its people, is to use methods and approaches that are based on that very same value.  When the way of leading meetings, working in teams and making decisions are changed to participative, engaging and creative methods, this communicates that the organization is changing its foundational values. It is never enough tell people that things have changed. If the organization still uses the same methods it did before, they won´t believe you.

There are never such things as quick fixes but a quick way to start the organizational change process is to change the way meetings are conducted. If the old-fashioned board meeting style with a list of speakers and a chairman is still used, then change it to a flexible and participative method, such as Open Space Technology or Whole Person Process. Those methods not only show people that they are valued but teach them another way of working together, that builds the foundation of the new organizational style and culture. Use another method for decision making, such as Five to Fold process where everyone shows to what degree they have energy for working for a topic to move it forward. This allows the group to create teams by self-organization built on passion and engagement. The change in meeting and decision making methods is a change in the organizational body language. It is just like being a parent, your children will not do as you say but as you do and they will always be able to distinguish the truth by watching and feeling, rather than by just listening.

 

Leadership vs Fellowship

This morning I came across a very interesting article on Leadership vs Fellowship by Bob Marshall at http://flowchainsensei.wordpress.com/2012/07/30/leadership-or-fellowship/. It said that our focus on leadership and leaders caused followers and increased the pattern that a few people were thinking for many.  

My perspective is that leadership is something that is within everyone. Every person can practise leadership, at least for themselves. Stephen F Covey said that leadership is about communicating to people their own worth and potential so clearly that they see it in themselves. Sometimes we need someone taking the lead, to support us to grow. Sometimes we need the mentor by our side showing us another perspective, another worldview or our own potential. If that is called leadership or fellowship, I don´t know. I just know that this ability is within everyone and it shifts between people depending on the situation.  

That is why I like Open Space Technology, Whole Person Process Facilitation and similar methods for collaboration, because they create a space where everyone can practice their leadership and choose to work for a topic that they see is important for their organization or community. Those methods are not just methods in that they can be used to achieve results in singular meetings. They also, as any meeting methodology, are based on values that creates an approach, a pattern, a way to be, in the organization. These meeting methods are based on values that each single person is important and brings with them much wisdom to the whole. They value collaboration, are open to new ideas and experimentation. They invite each participant to come with their whole self, take leadership and work together with joy and openness for learning and surprises.

 The methods used at work, such as meeting methods, work processes etc, are constantly communicating to us the values they are based on at an unconscious level. So when organizations are still using meeting methods from the industrial era and working in processes that were launched in the early 1900, we are still influenced to think according to the values of that century. Which means that one person is thinking for many. And that is a loss of great wisdom from all our fellow workers.   

Leading Online Collaboration

More and more often we work in the online environment, because those we work with are in distant locations. It might be easy to think that online is another tool, just as the telephone or cellphone. It could be when you want to connect and talk to someone, but if you want to really collaborate and work together in a creative and productive way, online becomes the new office or conference room in your business building.

Whenever you move into a new office space, there are things to be considered. What kind of furniture is needed and how should it be arranged so it supports your work in the best possible way? How will you lead that work so it is focused, efficient and successful? How can people find the ones they need to collaborate with and where can they store things? Where is the coffee-mashine and what about creativity?

These questions belong to the online environment as well. How can it be designed so people can be creative, efficient and use their whole knowledge to achieve the best solutions possible? How can you lead the work so everyone is inspired, stays focused and the results are successful? And what about coffee breaks?

Whatever solutions you choose for the online work, the office space online and in your usual office building have something in common. What does not work in your usual office does not work in the online office room. If you can´t get people energized and enthusiastic about certain topics in your usual conference room, the same goes for the online conference.

Leading online collaboration requires designing rooms and using methods that inspires people and give them the freedom to explore, experiment and play with different ideas and solutions in order to find the best one. Actually the same that is needed when you want to get the best out of people gathered in usual office spaces too.

Real online collaboration goes beyond webinars and other information meetings when one person presents something and the others are required to listen. It goes beyond the usual thinking that the leader or chairman should present the solution. Real collaboration in any room, taps into the wisdom of all the people gathered and allows them to work with joy and creativity and self-organize around the topics that are most important at that time.

As leaders of collaboration, online or in usual conference rooms, we use Open Space Technology or Whole Person Process Facilitation as the best methods for real collaboration. These methods give an appropriate structure for the meeting and maximum freedom and maximum choice for the participants to work in their own best way with all their wisdom and energy. We find these methods function in many different spaces, even when the conditions are somewhat problematic, as when participants are not used to online work, the meeting room lacks daylight or there is a traffic jam so people come in late. The structure of these methods makes it easy for people to jump in, to find their way to where their energy is and to create incredible results.

 

Want to learn more? Take a look at www.collaborativeways.com and register for our upcoming workshop on Open Space Technology.