Förändring är enkelt? Change is simple?

Please, scroll down for English.

Vem sa att förändring måste vara svårt? Det finns enkla metoder när organisationer behöver ändras. För det behöver de! Varje organisation har en höjdpunkt när den fungerar som bäst och sedan bär det utför, tyvärr. Då gäller det att hitta nästa kurva som bär uppåt och hoppa på den. Både för att hitta den nya vägen och för att få med sig alla, behövs hela personalens kunskap. Det är inte längre gångbart att några få bestämmer för de många. Då missar man viktig kunskap och stort engagemang.

Men man behöver inte leta svåra och krångliga metoder, som bara kan ledas av några få specialister. Man behöver enkla metoder som alla kan snabbt kan ta till sig. Genuine Contact™ programmet skapar ett bra förändringsklimat och ett annat arbetssätt genom att helt enkelt kombinera två mötesmetodiker, som alla kan lära sig, Open Space-metoden och Whole Person Process. Kontinuerlig användning av de här metoderna bygger in ett nytt ”operativsystem” i organisationen. Detta operativsystem gör att alla blir delaktiga, bidrar med hela sin kunskap och tar ansvar för helheten. Det är ungefär som att lära sig baka, först följer man receptet och när man kan grunderna så kan man också ta ut svängarna och skapa sin egen kaka, genom att tillföra sådant man redan har tillsammans med de nya ingredienserna.  

De här två mötesmetoderna kombineras, tillsammans med ett par enkla verktyg, på det sätt som passar organisationen just då, vare sig man behöver göra en analys, utveckla en idé, skapa en strategisk plan eller bygga nya lokaler. Personalen lär sig metoder och verktyg på några dagar och sedan har organisationen alltid tillgång till det nya arbetssättet.

Så hur börjar man? Ett enkelt sätt är att göra en diagnos av organisationen inklusive ett möte där hela personalen deltar. Redan där lär man sig verktyg och metoder samtidigt som man jobbar med det som är viktigt för förändringprocessen. Man kan också välja att använda metodiken på nästa konferens och utvärdera resultatet av den. Kontakta oss för ett samtal om vad som passar bäst i din organisation eller delta i någon av våra kurser. Du hittar mer information på www.gatewayc.com

 

English

Who said change need to be hard? There are simple methods available when organizations need to change. And they need to change! Every organization has a peak and then it unfortunately only descends. You then need to find the next rising curve and jump to it. The staffs whole knowledge is needed to both find the new path and to get everyone onboard. It is no longer viable to have a few people making decisions for many, because you will lose important knowledge and dedication.

But you don´t need to search for difficult and complicated methods, that can only be conducted by a few specialists. What you need are simple methods that everyone quickly can learn. The Genuine Contact™ program creates a good climate for change and a different work approach simply by combining two meeting methodologies that everyone can learn, Open Space Technology and Whole Person Process. Continuous use of these methods will implement a new ”operative system” in the organization. This operative system will invite everyone to participate, share their full knowledge and take responsibility for the whole. It is as when you learn to make bread,  first you have to follow the recipe and when you know the basics you can expand and generate your own cake by adding what you already have together with the new ingredients.

The two meeting methodologies are combined, together with a few simple tools, in a way that suits the organization in that very moment, whether it needs to do an analysis, develop an idea, create a strategic plan or build new premises. The staff will learn the methods and tools in a few days and the organization will then always have access to its new work approach.

Where do you start? One easy way is to do a diagnosis of the organization including a meeting with the whole staff. Already in this work you will learn tools and methods when at the same time working with what is important for the change process. Or you could choose to use the methodology for your next conference and evaluate the results. Feel free to contact us for a dialogue about what is best for your organization or attend one of our public workshops. You will find the needed information at www.gatewayc.com

 

What will organizations look like in the future?

And what about collaboration in the organizations, how will that happen?

Have you thought about that? Many of the organizations we have today are organized and structured from a model, created in the early 1900. Not much has changed since then. Now, you might say that I am wrong and that much has changed. We are working more and more online. We are spreading our organization all over the world. Today we are so much more intelligent and creative and civilized, or are we?

Look at who is leading your organization. In my experience, most organizations are still lead by a group of managers, a CEO or a board or similar. Those people make decisions for the whole organization, structure the work and set the tone and climate for how to work in the organization.

Look at the control systems that are in place. Most often there is a financial control system and when times get tough the system increases the control and you have to deliver financial reports more often, as if that was a good way to get more money.

Look at the approach and protocols for how to work in the organization. Still most organizations have regulations for the way work should be done and those regulations are decided by the board or the CEO or group of managers. In many places people are still expected to do as they are told without using their own creativity and inventiveness. Sometimes people are actually supposed to leave their emotions, spirit and creativity at home, because it seems to cause chaos at work. And in most cases people are still expected to work in an office even when they could have worked from anywhere in the world. Some say that is needed in order to collaborate as if collaboration could not happen online too.

Have you ever thought of these things? Come meet with us and discuss how the organization of tomorrow can be structured? How can we better use the full capacity of the people we hire? How can we use all the technology in a more efficient way to support thriving organizations? How can organizations be changed to fit the world of tomorrow?

Join us in a Collaborative Circle on Sept 7. Register right away so you can participate in this mind challenging discussion together with people from all over the world.

 

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.