Healthy Systems

Ten Tools and Activities to Re-Design Your Work Culture

2006-04-01T20:31:00.000-08:00

TOOL ONE:
Study what the professionals and researchers say about culture. New information and insights can shift your thinking and inform your actions.
Copies of articles on culture will be circulated throughout the office. Reads and then transfer the articles according to the list of names at the top of each article. When you transfer the article, do so face-to-face and have a brief exchange about the article. The recipient asks the reader, "What was the most significant learning or insight taken from the article?" and the reader either answers that question or some other relevant bit of information about the article.. This might include telling the recipient what he/she did not understand, something he/she question, or some way in which the article applies to the Business Services group.
TOOL TWO:
Organisms (organizations and individuals in them) are self-organizing. They organize around identity.
Informally explore (and re-design in pairs and sub-groups your Identity. I encourage you to meet at least once with someone you do not know well. Then, come together as a whole with Shaun (and/or other leader/managers) facilitating that meeting and share your Identity insights. Underscore those that the group as a whole want to identify with.
Who are we?
What do we do?
How do we do it?
What are we proud of?
What are our standards?
TOOL THREE:
We create our own reality. By recounting stories we reinforce our identity and culture.
Observe yourself and others in the work place. When you see and experience a situation or outcome that describes the culture and working relationships within them that you want/like, recall that incident or situation as a story. At the end of the story clarify the reason why the story is significant and how it symbolizes something meaningful about your desired, workplace culture. As a group, you may want to gather stories and record them, creating a "book" or memoir of important stories. Review these and celebrate them periodically.
TOOL FOUR:
The symbols in our environment reinforce the culture. Symbols are not significant except in the meaning that they hold for us. As cultural re-designers, we can create new symbols and describe their meaning. It is important that the individual and group actions are consistent with the symbol or the symbol will take on a cynical meaning with mixed meaning.
Identify artifacts, rites and symbols in your environment that either hinder your desired culture (inconsistent with it) or that reinforce (are consistent with the desired culture). Make a list of those artifacts, rites and symbols, and record their meaning.
Build an outward and on-going exploration of your culture and its symbols as a group. We will discuss this in our session and perhaps start on it.
TOOL FIVE:
As a group works to re-design it culture, improve its working relationships or simply to clarify opinions or beliefs, each person within the group is working (consciously or unconsciously) from assumptions about life in general (beyond the walls of work) and about people, places and things within the work setting. Some of these are false or outdated assumptions but they persist nonetheless, in part because they are invisible and unconscious images and "truths" known to only one person. By becoming aware of and then either using, dropping, or shifting these assumptions and mental models, groups transform individual realities into group realities which we refer to as, “shared understanding" Shifting assumptions is a result of and results in learning and growth individually and culturally.
Surfacing assumptions can be a scary venture. It can also be a difficult one because we may not know we are assuming anything. Throughout your work with others, help them and yourself surface and clarify assumptions by asking questions such as,
"It sounds like you believe/assume _________. Is that right?"
"Would you say more about your reasoning behind/under that thought/statement?"
"I'd like to understand how you come to that conclusion. Would you dig a little deeper."
If you are in such a conversation, move carefully and respectfully. Be aware of your motives behind asking. If you are genuinely in a supportive and respectful mode and can stay calm and centered in your conversation, then proceed. If not, you are not ready for this level of conversation.
Practice surfacing assumptions on topics that are not "hot buttons" for you and for ones where you can take on the role of facilitator. You can gain skills that can be applied later in more challenging situations.
TOOL SIX: ASK QUESTIONS FOR CLARIFICATION (Notes excerpted from Meeting Management training manual)
Taking questions for clarification generally happens at the end of the Opening phase and serves as a checkpoint for understanding. From the facilitator’s point of view, you want to assure understanding of the topic by all members before you being to explore options or solutions. The action or process word is Clarify.

The facilitator may ask the question, “Does anyone have questions for clarification?” or “Is there anything that needs further explanation?” Or perhaps the facilitator might ask “Has the topic has been explored sufficiently?” or, “Are there questions before we move forward?”

One consideration. It is easy and natural for groups to combine two actions in the same conversation, namely, brainstorming and clarification. Gaining input or an idea and then clarifying that idea, before asking for any more input, is one possible way to proceed, but it has potential drawbacks. Clarifying each idea can be a slower process and it can “slide” very quickly into evaluating an idea that is definitely not a part of the opening phase. The safer approach is to gain input or brainstorm and then address questions for clarification as a separate step. For example, “Let’s look at this list. Are there questions about anything we have recorded or discussed?”
TOOL SEVEN: CREATE A GLOSSARY OF WORKING DEFINITIONS
(Notes excerpted from Meeting Management training manual)
Working Definitions are the basis of a shared language and thus communication. A Working Definition is a definition created by a group to describe what something is and how it is measured and used by the group – a customized definition. Working or operational definitions can be formed any time words or phrases arise within a group that are unclear or that are open to a range of interpretation. They enable members to collect meaningful data and information, and communicate and work together and with others more effectively.

A Working Definition has two key features. First, the definition is unique to the particular group or organization that has generated it. Second, the definition contains within it a method of measurement, in other words, a way to know when something actually fits the definition.

Example of a Working Definition:
A department requires that reports are turned in “on time.” What does this mean? An operational definition might define “on time” as within 15 minutes of the assigned time, based on the clock in the department office. This clearly defines the phrase “on time” as well as a consistent way to know whether or not something is on time.

Once definitions have been agreed upon, a glossary can be created and they can be posted or distributed. In addition, they can be excellent as reference or orientation materials.

Examples of kinds of words that might require an Operational Definition:
“satisfied” “productive” “fresh” “high quality” “health” “process” “successful” “inventory management” United States and Russian officials have recently been defining what it means to “disarm” nuclear weapons. Does disarm mean to disassemble or simply to place in storage.
TOOL EIGHT: SURFACING ASSUMPTIONS AND MENTAL MODELS
(Notes excerpted from Meeting Management training manual)
This tool will be mentioned here briefly. A body of work on Mental Models and Assumptions and the disciplines required to surface them can be found in the readings of Edgar Schein and Peter Senge, among others.

Two truths support the need for such disciplines and group skill building: 1) Based on our experience, we all make assumptions and these assumptions influence our behavior in ways we may not be conscious of; and 2) We form mental images of “how it is” and these holistic representations or pictures strongly influence our opinions and behavior. The pictures become our reality.

As groups work to come to shared understandings and reach agreements, the challenge is to make these invisible and sometimes unconscious images known to all. By becoming aware of and then either using, dropping, or shifting these assumptions and mental models, groups transform individual realities into group realities which we refer to as, “shared understanding” and “consensus agreements.”

The facilitator employs this tool/technique through active listening for the meaning that underlies the words that people use and emotions they display. Through probing questions, the facilitator asks the members to state their assumptions so that the group can explore them together explicitly rather than “fighting shadows.”
TOOL NINE: LADDER OF INFERENCE
(Notes excerpted from Meeting Management training manual)
The Ladder of Inference is a tool that helps team members understand the mental pathway or “ladder” which people follow in developing beliefs and selecting courses of action. Developed by Chris Argyris, it is defined as “a common mental pathway of increasing abstraction, often leading to misguided beliefs.”

The Ladder can help team-members better understand themselves and others, and how it is that each of us has unique and unusual ways of seeing, thinking and acting. It can help to unravel, or demystify our legitimate “differences” and also illuminate the sources of our erroneous thinking or misguided beliefs and actions.

For these reasons, the Ladder can be useful for teams. While it may not lead a team to immediate agreement, if it is used over time, and members gain genuine insights about themselves and each other in the process, the team will find it easier to reach understanding and agreements and work together effectively.

Uses
To slow people down and make them more conscious if they are actually moving quickly up the ladder, without realizing this is what they are doing.
To help team members better understand themselves and each other: the way they think, reason and make decisions.
To help individuals or a group be more aware of the process by which a conclusion has been reached.

Guidelines: Helpful Questions to Ask
What is the observable data? Does everyone agree on that data?
How did you get from that data to the conclusion that you drew?

To quote Peter Senge, “We live in a world of self-generated beliefs which remain largely untested.”(The Fifth Discipline) We adopt those beliefs because they are based on conclusions, which are inferred from what we observe, plus our past experience. Our ability to achieve results we truly desire is eroded by our feelings that:
• Our beliefs are the (only) truth.
• The truth is obvious.
• Our beliefs are based on real data.
• The data we select are the “real data.”

In other words, and in a real way, we create our own reality, and this is limiting to others and to ourselves. The Ladder of Inference helps us realize how we do this, and in so doing we become more effective team-members.

Acknowledgement: “The Ladder of Inference” is a tool developed by Chris Argyris and used extensively for team learning as taught by Peter Senge.

TOOL TEN: MODELS OF COMMUNICATION, LISTENING AND FEEDBACK
(Notes excerpted from Meeting Management training manual)
The models and tools presented here are not intended to thoroughly cover the fields of Communication, Listening and Feedback. Two frameworks are presented here for any group to reference and use to support better communication.

(visit the tools section of our website to access these models - click here)

Deconstructing Tension; Recreating Culture

2006-03-31T21:52:00.000-08:00

By Sara S. Grigsby and Dale Ballantyne
PROLOGUE
I like my job. I'm good at it. I've been serving (my client base) for 15 years. Now I have to become an expert in (another client population) as well. I retire in 5 years…They think we have it easier than they do…Our divisions were together years ago and they split us up because it was a bad idea (to be together) then. Well, it's a bad idea now too.
You've got a job and you're good at it. You're providing much needed services, working in a congenial atmosphere with people you like. There's sharing, support and humor at work every day. Your co-workers are also your trusted friends. Your team is cohesive and dedicated.
Now, suddenly, for reasons given as "organizational-wide restructuring," you're being asked to combine forces with another team, move to a new office and leave some of your team members behind. "What if they don't do things the way WE do?" becomes a pressing question. The vitality of your organization depends on everyone's ability to craft and create this cultural remake, thinking clearly, and participating, in a simple way, in the flow of change.
Organizational culture is defined as the shared history of a group and the ascribed meaning of that history to the individuals who comprise it. A business' culture expresses itself tangibly as company artifacts such as stories, features of a benefits package, or as an office’s layout. Culture is also expressed as tacit beliefs that are less obvious and yet more powerful and persistent. Organizational cultures develop, consciously or not, and then generally persist -- habits and norms develop and are reinforced; experiences turn into tales of heroes and "bad guys." What is out of the ordinary in a culture all too often gets rejected or is feared.
Against this structure, inevitably change happens, and with it cultures must shift. Headlines are filled with mergers and acquisitions. Within companies, reorganizations signal a rethinking and redirection. Multi-stakeholder projects and partnering agreements are less formal but no less of a challenge to merge different cultural viewpoints.
When diverse cultures come together, whether the cultures are companies or divisions within an organization, resistance generally results. Resistance takes many forms -- clinging to old work structures; fear of the unknown; assumptions about the other organization. The resistance dampens the potential and stifles the creativity inherent in change. Individuals lose enthusiasm and motivation. Tensions, fear and anxiety overwhelm them, and the potential for an elegant integration or recreation diminishes. The cultural shift is experienced more as a collision than as collaboration.
In working with this very natural and predictable response to culture change, the primary challenge is to design and establish the organizational conditions within which the cultures can successfully integrate. The secondary challenge is to support the individuals within the groups to let go of tension, turf and the personal fear surrounding the change. These two challenges are reciprocal and cannot be separated.
CASE STUDY
Healthy Systems recently worked with two divisions directed to become one in a public sector re-organization. Pressed by budget cuts, their mandate was to team up and function as one bureau. This case study presents our general framework for such a cultural merger, public or private sector, and tells the story of our intervention with this dedicated and energetic social-service organization. The bolded text lays out the framework, and the narratives that follow tell the specific story of this client.
Our intervention begins typically with a phone call -- about help with a merger, and the need for “learning about ourselves and how to deal with change – a chance to mix and mingle. Can we do it in a day?” The conversation continued with data about problems and mistrust; about new management and new mandates; and about complexities and constraints in time, dollar and people resources to make a smooth and healthy transition. “Oh yes, and can we make it fun without silly games?”
Healthy Systems looks for signs that tell us if this is a project where we can add value. Is management involved and willing? Is there a balance between the amount of time and dollars in the budget and the magnitude of the client request and need? Does the conversation express openness, wisdom and a respect of the people the change is happening to? Is the client’s intention and motivation in line with our values? Do we have the skills needed? Is this a creative and inspiring undertaking?
In this case, the answers were yes so we set up our first meeting. A Planning Team had already been formed, made up of both Divisions. The team was primarily charged with the physical transition, but had been thoughtful in their people-concerns and recognized that history and uncertainty were already limiting and undermining the merger. They had recently had a pizza party and one or two staff meetings but trust remained low and rumors and complaints were flying and persistent.
In our initial meetings, we get clear on the client's goals. Through listening, interviewing and conversation, theirs were derived,

To create One Office
To dispel fear and anxiety
To set the stage for the changes in client-customers, management structure, office support, business policy and physical space, all with no production downtime
To send a message to and involve the upper management
To take a day off and decompress
To work on personal readiness and responsibility
To get to know one another, Division to Division, in order to reduce the unknowns
To acknowledge that the change is a done deal and to get on with the change

We listen to the clients and trust that the deeper solution and design will emerge – it always does. We heard that this was not an issue of conflict resolution, process reengineering, leadership skill development, nor was it a lack of clear planning. The stories told by the Planning Team were fundamentally about culture and change, about habits and patterns that were being threatened and about the fears and anger associated with that threat. An exploration and experience in culture and personal change would provide the leverage that this client needed to successfully make the change that they must.
We create a draft design for the intervention, this time in the form of an agenda. We review it with the client to see if we've captured their need. Our underlying focus is always to facilitate and support health in individuals and organizations, because we believe that a flow of health will enable and support positive change regardless of the particular circumstances. We draw on several traditions and models as our tools. In this case, we used three primary models: a) Edgar Schein’s model of organizational culture, b) principles about tensions and patterns discussed in yoga practice, and c) rituals and ceremonies about burning up fear and non-productive ego, drawn from Tibetan traditions of healing. In short, we designed a retreat that would be a safe haven within which to lay the foundation for the two divisions to successfully come together, and encourage individuals to let go of their tensions, turf and fear of the change.
In order to transform the two cultures into one, we brought a combined group of sixty together on a tight schedule of learning and play that lasted all day. We planned a day that would include information about culture and tension. It would be full of reflecting and sharing. It would inter-relate the individual and the organization. It would include meaningful and creative ritual to signify, legitimize and immortalize the new, consciously-created history for the new One Office. We would respect their apprehensions and yet celebrate at the same time. We would work and relax. We would face the challenges and invite the two-to-one audience to join in and make the day their own.
We collect and use data. Before the retreat, we surveyed each team to find out how they were anticipating the upcoming merger. We asked them for a confidence rating with regard to the merger, conceptually and in practice, the other staff, and the upcoming retreat. The two groups reported similar data. They were concerned for the clients, who might “fall through the cracks, or lose the funding they needed. They were concerned that the scale of the new team and task were daunting; that too much time in meetings would be required just to get it set up; of too much new information to deal with; of new systems and schedules; and that the two cultures would clash. One big issue was "flex time." The team who included the option of “4-10’s” (a 4 days/wk @ 10 hrs/day schedule) was very concerned that they might lose that in the merger, and the other team wasn’t too sure it was a schedule they wanted to adopt.
We also asked them what they thought might be gained by combining the two offices. Again, they proved to be mostly of like minds. They thought it would be an opportunity to have a broader base of agency and colleague support, to learn from the other team, and to make new friends.
As facilitators, we are, in part, hosts. Our facilitators were two. Dale Ballantyne brought experience in co-counseling, yoga and the creative arts. Sara Grigsby has experience in organizational development, corporate wellness and facilitation. On the morning of the event, participant employees signed in and got a nametag, colored coded by Division. They were invited to sit at tables made up of four from each Division. We covered their tables with paper and gave them crayons and highlight markers and encouraged them to doodle. People learn, express and process in diverse ways -- effective events are not simply designed to "talk & listen" Movement, drawing, reflecting in silence and a using variety of group sizes broadened participation for this diverse audience. One participant visually worked through her thoughts about the merger, illustrating her impressions of a collaborative merger with icons of hearts, daggers and colorful circles on the paper tablecloth.
Education and learning are prerequisite to lasting change. We explained Edgar Schein’s model of organizational culture to further clarify the challenge facing the two groups. The model provides a framework and legitimacy that the two groups can share. Schein identifies the basic components of "organizational culture" and describes in those terms, the group dynamics of any organization. At the deepest level, cultures hold unconscious beliefs that drive the way people think and act. He categorizes these as “Basic Assumptions”. On a more conscious level, our “Values” reflect the stated and enacted beliefs of what should and should not be. Finally, the most immediate and tangible ways our culture is expressed are the “artifacts” (stories, symbols, heroes, etc.) in our environment. Artifacts are likely visible and identifiable, and therefore measurable and "designable," where as "values" and "basic assumptions" are functioning primarily as subtext and their design requires conscious surfacing and sharing.
We honor the integrity and meaning of collective history. The two divisions worked on their own and celebrated the characteristics of their culture – the icons, the values and the working assumptions. Using Schein’s model as the basic infrastructure, each team spent some time “filling in the blanks.” They put into words their shared values, their group’s humor, and their accomplishments as a team. Following this, the two Divisions reported back about the cultures in which they function and about their workplace – we are fun loving, overworked, process-driven, conscientious, dedicated to one another and to our clients.
They learned from each other's answers how other professionals were negotiating many of the same challenges as their own. It was interesting and surprising to all to see how much they had in common right away. Recognizing that the decision to merge was inevitable, each division then discussed what they had to offer to the other as their best traits to bring forward into the One Office. At each intersection of the agenda, time was given for voluntary sharing and group reflection.
We never forget that the experience of organizational change is really a personal one. We are sensitive to the very personal nature of the change. Acknowledgement was given that this was BIG, and not to be discounted. At the outset, we provided everyone with some basic understanding of the dynamics that are at play in our organizational lives – that systems resist change as a means to survive. This is natural.
Individual responsibility and contribution – what each person would keep and what would be sacrificed – was also honored. An “elementary school art project” format, with tables full of supplies -- play dough and pipe cleaners -- provided a focusing and processing medium to work quietly or socially, creating and offering up their decorative symbolism to enhance the new culture.
Less formally, they each had a chance to say hello to everyone on the other team. They traded 5-min massages; they laughed and made crafts together; they shared a delicious lunch. And just as they had requested in the pre-game research, they generally got to know each other better.
There were plenty of options for physical relaxation during the day. After the lunch break, we offered choices of a brisk walking tour of the grounds, a hatha yoga class, or the time and place to take a nap. Even the hatha class was adapted for the getting-to-know-each-other theme of the day. Working with partners we practiced the postures in tandem.
We set the stage. The final event of the day formalized their organization and individual transformation symbolically and ceremonially — in a manner that moved beyond language and became a celebration of the energy they had focused upon their situation in order to move on with the change. Off stage, the facilitators had created a blank slate -- tabula rasa -- a canvas upon which to place their offerings – a cardboard form on a table in the middle of a grand room with tables and chairs surrounding. This created a focal point around which to align. On-stage, the two Divisions came back together and envisioned their collective future, placing words and symbols on the cardboard form, forming the new, One Office.
Measurement keeps us honest. By the end of the day, they had created a new culture -- a new history with new meanings; each team bringing their strongest assets to the new culture and ceremonially releasing the rest as fuel for transformation. After the retreat another brief questionnaire was circulated and we found that the overall confidence level with regard to the merger had improved. They felt they knew each other better, and that the merger would be ‘do-able’ after all. They reported that although some of their concerns were still on the table, it would be “operations, not culture” that would prove most challenging. They, too, were pleasantly surprised at how much they had in common, that their “many similarities” would allow for a “blending of excellence and energy”. They looked forward to the “expansion of services to both customer groups.”
About the retreat itself, they expressed the same good-humored spirit we saw operating all day. They enjoyed sharing the food, the games, each other’s company, and the work of de-constructing their resistance to change. They had left with “insights and exploration Re: Cultural differences”(sic).
EPILOGUE
Four months later we checked in with the client. How is the merger progressing?
When we met the next time we were old friends -- we were a group…We still haven't moved into one office though. It's not a great situation. We don't know what's going on. We don't know when or where (we'll move). It's happening all over the country -- lots of changes that are keeping people up in the air. They worry about jobs that might be eliminated. It's stressful…We are at least communicating more, even if we are still in two offices. We have been trying to do little things together on a regular basis. They are nice people down there and we share a vision of how it can be.
The reality of change hits. No single event can fix a situation. There are always considerations and authority beyond the scope of any particular intervention or group. Decision-makers' prerogative, scarce resources, organizational lags and shifts in perspective conspire to wag managers and the front line. Even if conditions were perfect, Systems Theory and yoga both reminds us that lasting change takes time.
Does this mean there's no use in doing anything if it's ultimately beyond our collective control? Absolutely not -- Systems Theory also tells the story of the butterfly flapping it's wings and causing a cyclone half way 'round the world. Through a single Retreat, a stage was set for the group to come together -- a condition shifted. A bridge of language and understanding was built. Cohesion, born of new appreciation, formed -- an invisible force field. No doubt, there will be more fear and stress, but it will not be about differences in these two cultures that are now one. Organizational and interpersonal boundaries have shifted in the minds and hearts of 60 people.

How to Manage Change in a Manner That Builds Organizational Clarity, Purpose and Energy

2006-03-29T16:26:00.000-08:00

By Sara S. Grigsby
Dynamism and therefore change are a given and a gift. There is no such thing as an organization that is quiet, still and unchanging. A vital organization, like all living systems, is constantly adapting, learning and restructuring. If it weren’t, it would be dead or dying. We’ve seen organizations so controlled that their creativity is stifled and vitality suppressed. We wonder how they survive.
Life’s dynamism is largely beyond our control. As a result, it stretches us. Learning how to work with change to gain its benefit requires a core set of skills. No matter how hard we try, we cannot prevent change from occurring, nor can we manipulate it to our advantage in any realm of life. And this is a good thing, because interacting with and receiving feedback from circumstances beyond our realm of experience or control provides us with endless opportunities to learn and grow.
Unfortunately, our response to changes, big or small, is often negative. We close and contract, rather than open to absorb and expand to encompass it. Learning about life and its dynamic nature can’t happen in a rigid state. Unexpected dynamics don’t always feel like gifts. It’s easy to interpret the unknown and potential as a problem. When a situation is new, unexpected or beyond our control, we don’t always understand or appreciate the input that it is providing us. Instead, we close down and struggle. We get caught in our own or others’ emotions, fears and tensions. We lose sight of the big picture and get lost in details. This way of responding to change can negatively impact individuals as well as the organization as a whole. It can result in a culture of confusion, lost confidence, frustration, and - from the quality perspective – wasted time and people resources.
Managers have a unique role in “managing change.” First, their job is to control the uncontrollable. Second, given their positional power, their skill (or lack thereof) in working with the dynamics of people and process impacts the broader organization. Their control function and far-reaching influence make managers change agents or change bottlenecks. On a continual basis, they are faced with the challenge of managing and directing the dynamism within themselves and throughout their organization. They have authority and power – especially at the executive level. If they are not clear and purposeful, and if they don’t know how to align and integrate, then they send confusion, frustration and operational fuzziness out into the organization. By virtue of their status and skills, leaders broadcast clarity or confusion out to the broader organization. How they choose to use this power in the face of continual movement and shifting can strongly influence the trajectory of their own well-being, that of their employees and the organization as a whole. A healthy response facilitates clarity, orients the workforce and cultivates creative flow.
Is there a reliable approach to managing change? How can we relate to and navigate organizational dynamism in a manner that results in greater clarity, purpose and energy? What process and personal skills can shift the organization out of confusion and anxiety to a relevant focus and creative flow? How can we lead and manage through change so that the people we work with share an understanding of what is most important and sustain a motivated focus?
The healthy approach starts with a 4-step process that repeats itself endlessly and throughout any organization that is striving to maintain its vitality. We can use this process to tap into the creative potential inherent in change and lead our organizations to ever-greater expressions of health.
• 1. Hold a vision of a healthy system and commit your attention and actions to it. • 2. Take responsibility for your state through practice. • 3. Use every interaction as a building block for improvement. • 4. Connect and align the building blocks into an integrated whole – clear on its purpose and energized to fulfill it.

Step One: Hold a vision of a healthy system and commit your attention and actions to it.
The first step in this continual process of successfully navigating change is to hold a vision of a healthy system and commit our attention and actions to it. Without a vision of where we want to be, we essentially become victims of circumstance and change, and are unable to utilize the potential inherent in change either for our own or the organization’s growth.

The “circle-arrow-circle” diagram (Illustration 1) clarifies the importance of having a vision and its role in creating desired change in our lives. When faced with uncertainty, or change, if we ask “where do we want to be?” and “where are we now?” then we are able to choose a course of action to move us from here to there. This helps channel and intensify our focus and energy.
As the diagram suggests, it is not enough to simply have a vision. We must make efforts to align our lives and our work with that vision if we are ever to achieve it. In traveling towards our vision, we discern, differentiate, experiment and make choices. Holding to our vision will change us and our organizations. We must explore our values and apply them in our daily work. Organizations must pronounce what they believe in and then live it through management practices applied consistently. This activity is the on-going process of Identity and Direction Setting.
Tension – dissonance – arises when our values and vision (what motivates us at work) are not aligned with those of our workplace. Tension also arises when we see a pattern of inconsistent application of the values and vision of our workplace. “Is this a place I want to work? Can I commit to the vision? If the organization doesn’t walk its talk, can my own vision and value for a healthy workplace survive here?”
If we are not able to envision health for ourselves as individuals, then our ability to cultivate health in the organization is limited. Likewise, if we are not skilled at envisioning health for our organization, the resulting confusion and chaos of our work life will inevitably take its toll on our individual health. Ideally, our individual health and the health of the organization will reinforce one another and result in movement in a desired direction. When one aspect is well, the other benefits. So having this vision of health is a key to managing and leading through change.
Step Two: Take responsibility for your own state and practice.
Committing our energy to a vision of a health requires taking responsibility for our own state of health. Practice is an important part of taking responsibility. By “state” of health, we refer not simply to physical health, but also to inner balance, clarity and focus. And by “practice” we mean the categories of activities – or disciplines – that assist any leader in cultivating health within themselves and in their organization. In the last issue of Yoga of Leadership, we focused on five of these strategic leadership practices. In summary, they are:
Five Strategic Leadership Practices

Focus on health and know what it looks like for your organization.
(Re) design your organization for health – flow, integration, focus and clarity.
Stay open to change as an opportunity for growth and improvement.
Release tensions and blocks in the flow of health throughout the organization.
Respect and serve the larger system within which you operate.

Taking responsibility for our state of being is played out in our daily work activities but is initiated and sustained by our inner state. For example, we may have ten large projects underway, each having its own set of challenges and complexities. We’re coordinating and collaborating with project teams comprised of uniquely dynamic personalities. We’re planning and executing activities associated with our project responsibilities. Guided from the inside out, we approach our project activities and teammates through our own mental, physical and emotional inner landscape.
The more aware and conscious we are and the more we use the 5 strategic practices as we move through our daily project management activities, the more likely our project results and the processes we use to get there will align with our vision. Refer again to the circle-arrow-circle diagram in Illustration 1. We discussed this Illustration in the context of envisioning health. Looking at the model through a lens of responsibility-taking, we can start by asking, “What is in the space between where I am and where I want to be? (x The Arrow) Is it confusion and frustration and complexity, or is it clarity, enthusiasm and creativity?” At any moment, the answer to take question of self-awareness challenges us to take responsibility for our inner state and outer actions. Rising to this challenge, we adjust our approach to our outer activities accordingly – an attitude adjustment toward focus and ease -- and in harnessing our inner condition, we can better focus our energies towards our goals.
Step Three: Use every interaction as a building block for improvement.
In addition to holding a vision and practicing with discipline, a leader “managing change” needs a toolbox of workplace-specific KSAs (knowledge, skills and abilities). These KSAs fall into five groupings that reflect how we conduct our work.
They are represented visually in the following diagram (Illustration 2):

Leaders must be able to:

Establish identity and set direction
Create and maintain effective processes
Identify and manage discreet projects
Hold productive meetings
Develop healthy working relationships.

These 5 groupings or building blocks are not ends in themselves. Rather, they are component parts that, when combined, form a structure and framework across which change is understood and acted on. Leaders, regardless of discipline or functional area, need to be skilled in each of these building blocks. They are the means by which we can lead and manage others through change, and simultaneously cultivate clarity, purposefulness and enthusiasm.
Notice that four of the components are general management technologies: strategic planning; process improvement; project management; and meeting management. The fifth component, working relationships, may be the most important of the building blocks. Healthy and productive working relationships are the linking structures that connect the other blocks. They are the interstitial, connective tissue between and amongst and around every other kind of activity we engage in. Leadership can be defined, in this respect, as the ability to cultivate and sustain healthy relationships in the workplace – at all levels: top to bottom and side to side.
At full efficiency, every one of our actions would be in support of improvement – whether it be defining, understanding, exploring options, differentiating or coming to agreements. Assess your KSAs in the basic management building blocks for improvement.
Step Four: Connect and align the building blocks into an integrated whole – clear on its purpose and energized to fulfill it.
Leaders of change also need to know how the building blocks interact and use them in an orchestrated fashion to create healthy systems. As the diagram illustrates, the five business structures are nested and interconnected. This means that if one of the building blocks is misplaced or poorly designed, the overall structure will suffer. And if all are used effectively, the organization will have a steady and flexible structure to support its work. Leaders and managers who understand the interconnection of these structures are like architects or contractors designing and building a house. They know how the building blocks go together. They have a reliable process to follow. They know how the sub-contractors must coordinate. They have plans for and hold a vision of the final product.
To be an effective leader of change at any given moment, working on any of the five building blocks, you must be aware of (or seeking to know) how the present activity fits into the broader picture. For example, in a one-on-one conversation, keep the overall vision or direction of the company in mind, and let that awareness help shape the conversation. Be mindful of how other meetings, projects and processes might impact your conversation and vice-versa. And in meetings generally, whether between two people or twenty, be sure the attendees see the connection between the items on their agenda and other stakeholders, projects and work processes.
What skilled leaders of change are able to do -– and remember that a leader can be anyone in the organization – is integrate and get others to integrate all the various large and small activities. They align the vision, activities, people and resources, and they reintegrate or adapt as the goals and direction change, so that even through change there is integrity.

The ABCs of Change

2006-03-29T16:23:00.000-08:00

By Sara S. Grigsby
Healthy systems, both individuals and organizations, Act from a state of Balance in the face of Change.
Leaders conduct meetings and act on long-range planning within an ever-changing environment. Circumstances change day to day. It takes balance to navigate these changing waters and shifting tides.
Ultimately the locus of control to find balance and act from it lies within each of us and within every member of your organization. Attitude plays a part. Some people seem better at change than others. Discipline and practice also play a part. How do individuals and organizations cultivate and maintain this state?
In addition to the knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) in our specialties and workplace expertise, a few core leadership practices help us to act from a place of balance in the face of change.
Tips:
• PRACTICE #1: The discipline to hold a healthy focus and a desired direction takes skill and discipline. Do you know what you want and do you remind yourself of it every day. Strategic planning and values clarification start you on this path but focus must be integrated into daily work such as performance management systems and process design.
• PRACTICE #2: Cultivate KSAs for designing your various activities to accomplish desired goals and strategies. For example, can you design an effective meeting agenda? Do you know how to design a realistic project plan?
• PRACTICE #3: A mindset of respect and experience in serving the larger system within which you operate enables you to move beyond limited perceptions and short sightedness. Humility, collaborative relationships, consideration of others and gratitude balance pride, and competitive and survivalist natures.
• PRACTICE #4: An openness to change is based on a faith and experience that change can bring opportunity and potential. New input and data signals the need for adaptation or resolve.
• PRACTICE #5: The KSAs needed to release the bottlenecks and habits that restrict us are many and varied. Operationally, you may have process bottlenecks that require process improvements. Interpersonally you may experience impasses that require skills in negotiation. Individually we all have blinders and face dilemmas that require new mindsets and creativity.

How do I recognize and support health and productivity in my organization?

2006-03-29T16:20:00.000-08:00

By Sara S. Grigsby
Recognizing health and productivity in your organization.
First and always you cultivate an awareness of health (and lack of health) within yourself. You become familiar with how it feels, what it takes and what gets in the way of vitality for you personally. You experience and cultivate flow, movement, integration and steadiness in every dimension of yourself and your life.
Then you observe what that looks like in your environment. You observe the flow of conversation and creative ideas as healthy. You see the emergence of agreement out of the chaos of diverse viewpoints as healthy. You identify the flow of goods, services, problem solving as healthy. You see how certain policies and rules can provide needed stability to get the work done well. You see the organization producing more and better when it is properly aligned and connected.
You also make note of what causes a lack of health. Sometimes controls are imposed without any flow – rules without reasons or relevance. Other times our work environments express flow that has no support, context or direction. Like moving the deck chairs around on the Titanic, our efforts lose meaning and effectiveness and our organizational health is diminished.
Creating the conditions for health and productivity to arise naturally.
Your work as a leader is to remain clear and committed in your vision of health, know the organizational terrain as a system and the meaning of the signposts you come upon, navigate the way and assure that others are oriented and clear as well. Radiate a vision from wherever you are in the system. Continuously recognize, reinforce and release health as you re-orient and navigate throughout the system. Cultivate a broad perspective and build capacity to express health in yourself and others so that all recognize health when it presents itself. Put the right people together in new ways and provide opportunities to discover how healthy operations behave in your organization. Create “containers” and circumstances through which health and productivity can arise naturally. You support organizational health by design and implementing these conditions and circumstances.
Proper structures set the stage and path for growth. Structures at all levels – a working relationship, policies, meeting agendas, a communication message and project plans – that balance stability and flexibility create the conditions where focused and meaningful work can take place; work that frees our creative energy, supports us through uncertainty and is pointed toward our vision. Effective leaders design such structures or containers.
The structure of anything determines how it functions. Any structural design builds in success or failure. We know this. Organization charts and position descriptions dictate reporting and interaction. An organization’s structure that is mismatched with its customers and industry finds it hard to compete. Meetings without an agenda or focus have designed in frustration and have designed out productivity. A confidential and personal interaction is best designed in a circumstance that allows for privacy, time and face-to-face interaction.
There are two primary dynamics to balance in your structural designs in order to express health. One is control, predictability and stability. The other is flow, flexibility, uncertainty and potential. When you design any structure you are either designing in (or out) control or flow. When you create healthy conditions, you are establishing and maintaining stability while encouraging and directing creativity and potential. Control methods set tolerances, boundaries and parameters e.g. time or money. Flow facilitates vital force. When stability and flow are properly balanced, the control function of the structure is a force field that contains, intensifies, and channels change, and the flow function of the structure brings input into the system and unlocks creative energy that allows change to take place. We need both to create and sustain health in our organizations and the people that run them.
A tip sheet for recognizing and releasing health in your workplace:
1. Is there flow?
Examples:
• Are people talking?
• Is the process flowing?
• Is the data gathered?
2. If there is flow, is it giving or taking energy and vitality?
Examples:
• If people are talking, are they communicating or simply talking at one another?
• If the process is flowing, is it producing quality product on time and in the right quantities?
• If data is being gathered, is it also being stored in a manner that is accessible and understood?
3. Is there stability and control?
Examples:
• If the people are talking, are there ground rules and is topic clearly stated?
• If the process is flowing, are there quality specs identified, variance reports and monitors?
• If there is data gathered, stored and shared, are there security measures in place and are data experts to interpret the results for others?
4. Is the stability or control providing support for health or restricting it from occurring?
Examples:
• If people are talking and there are ground rules and a clearly stated topic, is the topic relevant and purposeful and are the ground rules allow for open and frank discussion?
• If the process is flowing and controls are in place, are the quality specs what the market is asking for and is monitoring data made available for future process improvements?
• If the data is gathered, stored, and accessible with security measures in place, do the right people have access and do the people who have access and interpret it diffuse their learning to the broader organization?
5. Should I contain the energy or release its flow?
Examples:
• For the people talking, interventions and tools might include new ground rules, clarification of the topic’s relevance, modeling communication, etc.
• For the process flow, interventions might include process mapping, sharing of process variance data, coaching of the monitor, clarification of customer needs, etc.
• For the data, interventions might include security clearance review, interviews with data experts or a knowledge management project.
6. Do I observe a purposeful flow and support for health as a result of my actions?
• The above questions start again.

Successful Meetings

2006-03-29T16:16:00.000-08:00

By Sara S. Grigsby
The role of a pure or classic Facilitator is a neutral one. A facilitator focuses on process (how the meeting is conducted), people (fairness, inclusion, candor, etc.) and results (the goals of the meeting). A true facilitator strives to remain neutral – releasing or suspending any bias for or against. A facilitator does not express opinion or preference for content, for example, options being discussed in a meeting. Neutrality ensures an unbiased approach to process, people and results. It minimizes manipulation of the team by the facilitator.
It is within your role to have an opinion on Process, People and whether the team will reach its desired Outcomes or Results. Conducting this role well is critical to the success of many meetings. If, for example, a group wants to stay on a particular agenda item longer than the time allotted, the Outcomes implication is that other items will not be covered or covered well. It is within the role of the facilitator to point this out. In addition, if, during a brainstorming session, the facilitator hears one or more members of the group making evaluative comments (criticisms or advocacy for) while the rest of the group remains in a brainstorming mode (non-evaluative), it is the role of the facilitator to keep all members on the same step in the process.
Tips:

Take the time to define your role during meeting Start ups. It can as little as 30 seconds. “As I facilitator, my job is to remain neutral on the content of your discussions and decision-making. This means, for example, that I will not advocate for one option over another. My role is to assist you in reaching your desired outcomes (Results), to insure the members of the group have an opportunity to participate (People), and to keep you on track (Process).

During Start ups, always review the agenda. The time you take at the beginning will pay off later in the meeting. Reviewing the agenda draws the members’ attention away from whatever activity they were involved in prior to the meeting and aligns the group’s attention toward commons goals. To prepare the group to stay “on track,” refer to the third column of the agenda, the Process column. This column tells the group what steps it will go through to reach its Desired Outcome. “We will move through these steps together.”