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There SST be a shift In thinking – a shift In the narrative or conversation. Performance reviews are only about sovereignty (“l own you”) and not about learning. We have to decide where the cause of this resides. Change doesn’t happen from the top. Change starts In the middle. With the bottom. Employees create the bosses. The audience creates the performance. Kids raise their parents. Inversion Is where the cause resides. Organizational development Is community organizing. When we ask employees how they are, how the boss is treating them, we are colluding with them to keep them subordinate. We need to treat them as equals, as partners.
We need a new story. History Is social construction, but we can make a new narrative. Conversations will create a new meaning, The old perspective on DO is that life is a series of problems to be solved – requiring a needs analysis and identifying gaps An alternative is that there are possibilities – that real change Is possible. Solving problems makes tomorrow a little better but doesn’t change the basic cause. Usually about changing someone else. Real question – how are we doing about creating the world we want? What have we done to create the world we want? High control systems don’t allow ‘no’, only have loyalty and compliance.
An alternative system allows ‘no’, dissent, creates space to say ‘no’, ‘no’ is legitimate. “What’s in it for me? ” doesn’t take you anywhere. Organizations focus too much on deficiency. Working on deficiencies sustains them. The alternative is being gift minded. The role of leadership is to bring gifts from the margin into the centre. Naming gifts needs to be a normal part of work discourse. Transformation is brought by confronting you with your gifts. We need to help people engage in difficult conversations. Speed/scale/cost/outsourcing/outcomes will never change anything. Time or lack of it is a choice / fiction.
It is an excuse for lack of commitment. It is necessary to express doubts. This allows them to lose their power. Small groups (3 people) are units of transformation – when talking about doubt, dissent, possibility, questions and not answers. Accountability doesn’t come from being watched. Great questions are ambiguous, personal and anxiety provoking. Always get people to sit with strangers, not like-mindedness. Need the stranger in the conversation. People who know you are not useful to your transformation. Transformation is about creating hospitality, bringing hospitality into the world.
Facilitator’s instructions for mall groups: Don’t be helpful to each other Be curious Stop controlling each other Ask: “Why does that matter to you? ” Find someone you don’t know Don’t wait to be chosen Sit so that your knees are within 9 inches of each other ;Don’t leave people in small groups too long – they will get tribal ; Don’t report from small groups back to the large group – it’s boring. The question to ask large group is: “What struck you about the conversation? ” ; Don’t define terms (it’s parent/child); Just respond: “good point” Declaration of Intent (starting questions for small groups): ;What is shifting for you at
What is the crossroads you’re at, at this stage? What is the commitment that led you to show up today? Closure – talk about gifts – in small groups What was useful for me about us being together? ; Response: Thank you, I like hearing that ; Do not ask – what will we do the next time – that reinforces scarcity and patriarchy Workshop Process and Content 1. In workshop, where we had chairs in rows, Peter asked: “How would you design this room that best fits your intentions? ” The purpose of all redesign is to bring aliveness into the room. Having people redesign anything produces energy.
Peter: “l know that the sardine structure (seating in rows) won’t work – it consumes energy’. 2. Go back to new small groups (we need a stranger to be surprised) after rearranging chairs: ; “How did you manage the ambiguity of the assignment (to redesign the room)? ” “How did you manage the void? ” 3. Come back to large group: What struck you about the conversation? 4. New small groups: ; “How does your response relate to the rest of your life? ” 5. Back to large group – same as above. When 5 people speak for a group (whether 10 or 500 people) they cover 80% of what the group has to say. 6. New small groups:
What is the story you are telling yourself about why you were not saying anything in the large group? This question is powerful. You are trying to create a culture where people find their voice. 7. Closure to group experience: Gifts – new small groups What is the gift that you are, that you hold in exile? What have you not brought forward? Leaders need to use their power appropriately, not an absence of structure. Some sense of connection will make the learning stick. Participants are social architecture designers. Connection creates space for listening. We need to try to create citizenship in communities – create ownership in yester.
Ask people in large groups to stand up and say their names. This encourages ownership and citizenship in the community. Don’t ask group what their expectation for the event – it will be too small. Help them to think big. Engagement versus enrolment. Engagement is the means by which the future is created. Initial questions for small groups starting a session: ; How much risk do you intend to take for this experience to be of value? ; How do I have the courage to reconstruct the world around me? ; To what extend do you care about the whole? Facilitators manage rhythm back and forth between intimacy and context.
We produce the conditions in which intimacy is produced. Put context in afterwards. Talk after the experience. High Risk Questions: What is your contribution to the problem you’re complaining about? ; What is the “yes” you no longer mean? What is the forgiveness you’re unwilling to offer? What is the resentment you hold that no one knows about? ; What is the question that is animating your life right now? ;What is the question that has the most urgency in your life right now? Ask small groups to answer one or more, or have each person choose a question to answer. It doesn’t matter. The issue is to build connection.