The Trouble with Joining up the Dots.....
By Bernard Chanliau, Monday 12 April, 2010
It's not new news that we need transformation, but are we really up for it? from Lorna McDowell"...The focus on consequences will be the hallmark of value in the recovery consumer marketplace to come, guided by a "potent ambition of responsibility that will entail a greater emphasis on vigilance and resourcefulness."(Futures Company, Darwinian Gale 2009)
"Joined-up thinking" and social vigilance are shaping the recovery of the economy according to the above quoted research report. But what does this actually call from us at this time?
The corporate sleepwalker's response to this is to "do more for less" and tell heroic tales about coming through previous recessions with hatches battened down. The corporate activist shakes her head as she sips her grande latte whilst blogging on her LinkedIn "Change Action SIG". She has just spent another frustrating meeting with the corporate sleepwalkers talking and the same talk that has kept the company going around in circles and avoiding the real issues for years. "That's just no longer enough" she taps into her keyboard before asking "cyber- world" if anyone has any bright ideas or new blueprints? Material for her next coaching session, which incidentally she is paying for herself since her company think such things are superfluous to critical organisation needs at this time.
"How do we break the mould? How do we find new blueprints to follow? Who has succeeded that I can copy?" she asks.
A large number of people quietly know in principle what might be required for transformation, because they see, feel and are part of the many disconnections that have been resulting in "system failure" for years, but are unsure what to do next. System is a psychological term which infers the interdependencies of the parts of a whole organisation - families and companies to societies, the world and even the cosmos. It recognises that everything is connected.
Many people end up stuck, heads in sand, in the safety of their usual routines and occasionally push up a periscope to see what others are doing, hoping that someone will put out a magic bullet and make it safe to pass through the gate of change.
Others have been quietly working on transformation in their own way behind the scenes - personal growth is the fastest growing business of the last decade. However, walking one's talk, with deep integrity, within the context of an organisation and all its inter-dependencies, still remains a challenge in the face of peer pressure and corporate culture. The magic bullet, if there is one and we choose to see it, is right in front of our eyes.
Even if we see it, there's a good chance we won't act on it. This is due to the presence of extreme resilience and mental toughness within corporate long-lifers, developed over years of great stress tolerance. Although heralded as an essential for 21st century survival, emotional toughness is not the magic bullet for transformation.
It takes more than courage to fire the magic bullet of transformation, it takes awareness and wisdom. Awareness to aim and fire to point at the right target by changing the channel we're tuned to and wisdom to release and replace belief systems that have held us proud for years. Put this onto an organisation-wide scale and you have a complete human fibre optic network overhaul on your hands.
Transformation involves a leap. And this is the biggest leap yet for the organisation, to untangle, analyse and reorganise the webs of beliefs and inner channels of thought flow that control, block and flow the human workings of the organisation.
In LEAN, Six Sigma, JIT supply chain excellence and other business improvement "tools", an over- focus on numerical data gathering leads to a tendency to see the organisation as a large depersonalised machine where people are resources to be moved around like pieces on a chessboard, rather than a human network of ideas, thoughts, feelings, motivations, talents and contributions....many of which are invisible to the naked eye, though experienced through the inner world. As a result, true potential and maximum benefits of improvement projects are never realised as they could be, and many fail to make the finish line.
The fear of making this the leap is worse than the leap itself, and thus why so many organisations remain in stalemate and cultural gridlock, occasionally pushing up the periscope to show willing.
Let's take Ireland as an example. The Irish demonstrated huge (enforced) tolerance during the famine, but, by and large, those who survived and thrived were those who took their courage by the horns, walked and sailed to new ground and started over, many transforming their lives into something radically different to what they'd known. Those who just had resilience, still suffered poverty when they moved. Those who changed their thought patterns and behaviours and took a leap of trying something different went on to develop more abundance. But what drove the transformers to the leap? Quite simply, threat of death.
"Joining up the dots" is possibly the most challenging thing that organisations will address, but has the capacity to release extreme abundance at the end of the journey. It has been the last bastion of resistance to look inside the organisation and surface and work on human disconnections in performance. Now is the time if you want to stay alive.
Coming Soon to a Place Inside You
To call yourself accountable in the vigilant marketplace of the future, expect to engage in some inner spring-cleaning sometime soon. The magic bullet involves whole organisations and communities taking this leap, together without fear of losing their heads, hearts and lives and livelihoods. It can be done, and it can be best trip you've ever taken together, calling for and birthing enlightened leadership who can see beyond the balance sheet and conceive and pioneer new models.
Confront your tolerance for "systems failure" and think about "systems coaching". Stop waiting for others to test the water and tell you if it's safe. If you're in a ship that's stuck on the rocks, be the first to do something about it, walk the water, you might just reach new ground. If you don't, how accountable are you really?
Organisation analysis helps leaders to examine the "inner information" about what's happening in the business in a way that makes it accessible, necessary and useful for vigilant management decisions. Combined with systems coaching, it informs how transformation needs to happen in a way that will best serve the purpose of the system, and brings those involved through a personal and collective transformation.
Xenergie helps organisations to "join up these dots" - learn more in Xenergie's forthcoming workshops on Unlocking Cultural Gridlock and Inner Performance with Belbin Team Roles in our Workshop Section of the website.
