Don´t we all want to change the world?

What kind of world would you like to leave for your children or grandchildren? One where they could be as creative, energetic and happy as they are when they were born? One that is safe and kind to all human beings? I think most people would agree that they really want their children to have a better world than we have today.

Changing the world is a huge undertaking and I am sure it can be done. Look at the world as one big organization, consisting of interdependent relationships between people and between many millions of organizations! You start to see all those different organizations such as United Kingdom, the USA, Sweden, the European Union or United Nations. You also start to see organizations such as Microsoft Corporations, General Motors, IKEA, Walmart, Volvo, and other business organizations as nodes in the big spiderweb of relationships that makes up our world. Within those organizations you find even more webs of relationships between people. All these webs are connected.

This huge multidimensional web of relationships makes it possible for each being within it, to have an impact. Think of what happens when you start rocking a thread in a spider web. The whole web is moving and sometimes it even breaks. So when you do something to the threads that you are holding on to in the world web, it could have an impact very far away from you.

A good way to start the world change is to change the organizations we are parts of. If we change one organization, that will influence others, some of them closer to us but also some that are far away. The organizations we have today are mostly outmoded because the world has changed since they were created in the early 1900. So instead of having organizations that are designed for a time when people are seen as machine parts, that could easily be exchanged, we need organizations that are designed for today when we see people as valuable assets. One reason for starting with changing organizations instead of starting with change in people is that the organizational culture is almost always stronger than the individual. When a person has changed and want to work in line with his change, the organizational culture might force him/her to retreat to the old fashion or leave the organization.

What would the organizations look like if we want them to change the world? It will certainly be an interesting discussion! Bring your thoughts to our next CollaborativeCircle on Sept 11. Register at www.collaborativeways.com.

Using meetings for change

Using meetings for change could have a big impact on the results of an organization and also make the change really quick if the meetings are well designed when it comes to methodology and timing. Many organizations contract a facilitator for their annual conference because they feel the need to set some time aside for participation from the staff. Sometimes they even use most of the time for collaboration and only have a few speakers, if any. That is great! Who would better know what is needed for the organization than the real experts, the employees. When the leaders are courageous and leave the space open for the staff to be really creative and work with what has heart and meaning for them, the results could be stunning. The leaders are very often surprised with the ideas and solutions that have come up and how quick and smooth the work was. They might also be surprised afterwards at how soon the decisions are implemented.

These annual conferences could be a door opener into a new way of working, where innovations and ideas are worked with on a daily basis. That is, if the conference is designed that way. The annual conference could have a lasting effect on how work is done in the organization. It could even change the culture or climate in the organization. Organizational change will get a quick start with a well done meeting that involves everyone in the organization and allows them to use their full potential. But it can not end there. These meetings need to continue for the whole year around and the meeting methods have to be brought into the organization and used over and over again.

All meeting methods are founded on values and assumptions so when you choose one that is founded on the values that people are a valuable asset and extremely important for the organization to thrive, the staff will know that and act accordingly. They will take responsibility, be creative, collaborate and try new paths. Sometimes they will fail and learn a lot. Most of the time they will be really successful and learn even more.

So are you thinking about the need for change in the organization? Start with a well-done meeting!

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.

 

Courage to change

Today is my youngest son´s and my grandson´s birthday. At one time there was a risk that none of them would be present in this world today. Luckily we live in a time when science has come forth with cures for many forms of cancer, including those that my son and grandson had. One time someone said to my grandson that it was so sad that he was ill. My grandson answered: I am not ill, it is only my blood that has something bad in it.


I think there are some similarities with many organizations. Most organizations were born with a great purpose and lots of energy but at one point they got something bad in their veins, some kind of blockages or illnesses, that impacted the health of the whole organization. This does not mean that the organization is ill but that there is something in it that needs to be cleansed.

When you do the diagnosis as in Organizational Health and Balance, one of the foundational workshops in the Genuine Contact program, you learn to use the words cleanse, balance and nourish. Cleanse what is no longer useful. Balance what is out of balance, what you have to live with and can do nothing about. Nourish the good things that are already done in the organization. Don´t throw the baby out with the water.

This is good start on the road to get back to health and balance. As with all paths to health and balance, there is always a possibility, or you might want to call it risk, that you as the leader of an organization will be put on your own change journey. We who work within the Genuine Contact program, work from invitation. We invite people to come together and use their wisdom for the benefit of their organization or community. There is also another invitation, which sometimes is not explicit. This is the invitation for you to start on your own learning and change journey. I think that sometimes this unspoken invitation might be what prevents people from saying yes to the journey.

It is not always easy to be in a phase of transformation. You release or cleanse those patterns, habits and thoughts that is stopping you from living your full potential. Sometimes this creates a change in your environment with old friends walking away and new coming in. It could also mean that you have to look at yourself in a new light. Quite often we also forget to take care of the valuable sides we have and nourish them. We only look on the dark sides and think they are all the way through us. It is interesting how often other people don´t acknowledge those sides but see the light within us, that we tend to forget. So again with the words of my grandson: We are not ill, it is only something that is blocking us from showing our light right now.

Time to unclutter ourselves. With the words of Birgitt Williams: Courageous living is what we are asked to embrace. So let us be courageous, just like those young people who fight their cancer and other illnesses.

While you are thinking, support the Swedish Cancer Society and Rosa Bandet for finding cures for breast cancer. Cancerfondens rosa band 2011, design Per Holknekt och Lena Philipsson. Foto Melker Dahlstrand.

Recipe for Change - a simple one

Some say changing an organization and its culture is a huge effort and is very difficult. Big organizations need the implementation of complex systems at a huge cost. Some say that you need to implement many different protocols so people know what to do and an overall control system so you know they follow the protocols. Some say it is necessary that consultants do the change work so that senior leaders can do their job as usual. Some even talk about change management.

I say that what you need is a recipe, a simple and easy to do-recipe that everyone could learn to use, a recipe that creates a different body language which tells people about a different approach and way of working. What you also need is the big commitment from the senior leaders to do the work and to hang in there when things get uncertain, which they always are when change comes. Which they in fact always are, because change can not be managed.

So you take this recipe and do just as you do with any recipe or manual you use when you want to learn something new. You follow it to the point when you make the cake for the very first time. Then you learn how it originally tastes and what are the features of that special cake. Then you start experimenting to make it your own cake, adapting the recipe to what you have at home or what kind of occasion you make it for. It becomes so easy for you to make the cake that you share the “easy cake” recipe with many others and it becomes a natural piece at your coffee tables.

My thesis about the recipe comes from many years of experience of facilitating meetings with a different body language, showing people that there are other ways of working that promotes a different approach. Those meetings are participatory, inclusive and invites people´s creativity and responsibility. They work from the values that people are valuable, wise and want to make a difference. Adults are fully capable of making well-grounded decisions and taking responsibility for them. Just reflect a second - what are underpinning values of the meetings you attend?

Changing the culture and approach in an organization requires a commitment from the senior leaders and a change of meeting methods so the organizational body language changes. It takes about 20 days to start the process and share the recipe with internal facilitators. After that it is a part of the daily ongoing work, naturally implementing itself while at the same time adapting the recipe so it fits the organization. At the same time the people nourish what is already working fine and cleanse what is no longer useful.

The recipe has a name – it is called the Genuine Contact© program. My dear friends Birgitt and Ward Williams are the originators of this recipe and I was lucky they shared it with me. 

Change

I am sure you have heard Mahatma Ghandi´s well known words: “You have to be the change you want to see in the world”. I relate those to the sentence “Walk your talk”. Sustainable changes in an organization requires that the leaders are part of the changes. As Birgitt Williams says in the Genuine Contact Way e-book, http://www.genuinecontactway.com/ : “A shift in consciousness of an organization is dependent on a shift in consciousness of the individuals who make up the organization.”

So if you as a leader are serious about shifting the organizational culture, you have to start with yourself. Angeles Arrien in her The Four-Fold Way, tells us about the principles of leadership. The first principle is to show up and be present. It means to be who you are without being disguised or playing a role. It means being a role model, leading the way. It is about being courageous. Again using the words from Birgitt Williams: “Courageous living is what we are asked to embrace.”

Actually we are all part of a change process – all the time. Change is the only thing we can be sure of. It is very interesting when people say it would have been better if Sweden never became part of the European Union, because we knew what we had but were not sure what we would get. I believe we can never be sure of what we will get, union or not. The clue is to be able to handle change, to know how to stay in balance in the middle of it and also to learn how to make the most of the opportunities it brings. Because it does!

The opportunities that come with change, can go by quickly so one challenge is to have an organizational culture that allows for self-organizing, for people to make their own decisions and grasp the opportunities without having to go back to the leaders every time. And this requires trust – a valuable asset that comes from the leaders trusting their people. Which might or might not require a shift in consciousness.