These reflections were stimulated by Life at Work Weekly newsletter Thursday, February 22, 2024 Issue #257 from Dr. Claudia Gross available here.
When you as a leader in your organization are considering any big organizational change, how do you present the context of this change? What is the bigger picture for where this change is going? Is there a consciously held trajectory that the changes represent or are they just crisis management or pet foci of management leaders?
We at Enlivening Edge see the Reinventing Organizations (RO) framework and trajectory as having the most detailed and explicit framework and trajectory, among organizational development movements. That’s one reason Enlivening Edge tends to focus on RO and the trajectory involved in the concept of “Teal” organizations.
The question we invite you to inquire into is how you decide which changes make sense for your organization now and in the near future, and what next steps would make sense. Without that understanding to guide your decisions, you are wandering, not on a journey.
Choosing next steps within a trajectory journey characterized by stages of consciousness development for groups and individuals, steps which have been explored previously by others, offers you some choices that have been tried and proven, rather than guessing or doing what an expert says. That’s what Reinventing Organizations offers.
Examples
For example at Enlivening Edge, we felt the desire for a change to make our meetings more meaningful and powerful. In addition to using standard Teal meeting practices, we now begin with a statement from each person of what we’d like to feel at the end of the meeting, including asking for inspiration from the Spirit of Enlivening Edge. That step is toward the Turquoise stage of consciousness, in our developmental-stage journey.
Another example if your organization is reasonably comfortably in Teal functioning, could be these questions posed by Dr. Gross:
“When was the last time you had a conversation about consciousness at work and in business? Which books [or media] would you recommend in this regard?”
Another example inspired by her newsletter might be shifting the roles of your most influential people from managers to facilitators / innovators and if you’ve made that shift, making the next step from facilitators / innovators to leaders throughout the organization, with new kinds of leadership. She says that includes asking “Which leadership level [in Barrett Brown’s model] is most represented in your team and your organization? Which values guide your leader’s actions and behaviours?”
Caveats
These frameworks are only one simplified map of the complex territory of organizational life. Choose a map useful for you, as none are “correct.”
Don’t get hung up on classifying everyone and everything as to where you think they are on the trajectory. Life is more complex than that. But a trajectory can offer a selection of next steps, and whichever steps feel right to you, would indeed be the best. There is no ideal for everyone, and there is no moral value in being further along.
A challenge to inquire
How do you decide next steps in changing your organization? Are they designed to manage problems or challenges? Or to implement someone’s pet values or framework? Are next steps dictated by goals or objectives toward a bottom line “success” marker? Can you expand to include next steps into a more mature consciousness that is better-equipped to deal with all challenges and bring all success markers?
