Reasonable Leaps of Faith; Learning about Demonstrating Impact from the Nonprofit Sector

I am excited to share an article my colleague, Linshuang Lu and I wrote for the OD Practitioner about how we, as organization development practitioners, can measure the impact of our work. We borrowed models and lessons learned from our work with the nonprofit sector.

Enjoy!

The Power of Underlying Contradictions

Two recent strategic planning projects with clients reminded me of how powerful guiding a group to explore what might be blocking them can be. I often use the Technology of Participation's® (ToP) Participatory Strategic Planning process with clients wanting to have a highly participatory and engaging strategic planning process with widespread ownership for its creation and implementation. In addition to whatever environmental scanning is appropriate, the ToP process has four workshops; Practical Vision, Underlying Contradictions, Strategic Directions, and Implementation.

The Underlying Contradictions Workshop follows an expansive visioning workshop. Instead of moving directly from the Practical Vision into tactical planning, the ToP® process asks participants to consider what might be blocking them. As a result, organizations are able to do a thoughtful analysis of what internal patterns of thinking or behaving, structures, cultural norms or mindsets that perhaps once served the organization well, but now limit its ability to realize its vision. An example of a contradiction may be how the organization has stated teamwork and collaboration as goals, but only rewards individual accomplishments.

It can be an incredibly powerful group exercise to move away from irritants and blaming patterns when referring to reoccurring frustrations and collectively engage in a deeper analysis on how the participants themselves may be contributing and supporting persistent roadblocks. Like the iceberg, the majority of root causes of these blocks are likely under the surface and seldom named, let alone discussed or addressed. Naming, owning, and strategizing around these underlying contradictions allows for systems to intentionally disrupt these often entrenched patterns. It also sets them up well for strategic directions, which focus on substantial actions to address the named contradictions and move towards the vision. 

Feeling energized by my work with groups who are excited and relieved to finally get "unstuck" and move away from the reoccurring patterns that limit their success. Is it time for your organization to do strategic planning? Don't forget to take the time to think about what might be blocking you from your successes. 

Leadership in Times of Complexity...from Hero to Host

Recently, Eva Jensen, Certified Technology of Participation Facilitator (CTF), Anne Gomez, current Mastery of ToP®  (MToP) participant, and I (Laura Johansson, CTF) partnered with the City of St. Paul’s Department of Safety and Inspections (DSI) to design and implement a participatory, all-department planning event. Approximately, 130 DSI participants celebrated 2014 accomplishments and worked together to generate improvement projects for 2015, in the name of moving DSI towards excellence for those who work there and the citizens of St. Paul.

The great work of the DSI leadership team, Director Ricardo Cervantes and Deputy Directors Greg Schroeder and Dan Niziolek, brought to mind Meg Wheatley and Debbie Frieze’s 2010 article titled, “Leadership in the Age of Complexity: From Hero to Host”. Wheatley and Frieze write, “For too long, too many of us have been entranced by heroes. Perhaps it’s our desire to be saved, to not have to do the hard work, to rely on someone else to figure things out. Constantly, we are barraged by politicians presenting themselves as heroes, the ones who will fix everything, and make our problems go away. It’s a seductive image, an enticing promise…Well, it is time for all the heroes to go home, as the poet William Stafford wrote.”

The authors write that the causes of today’s challenges are complex and interconnected. They argue that there are no simple answers, nor could any one individual have the control or knowledge to bring adequate solutions. Our inability to recognize the complex realities leads us to simply fire leaders when he or she fails to resolve the crisis, and we begin searching for the next “more perfect” one, without questioning our expectations of leaders or our desire for heroes.

Wheatley and Frieze suggest “We need to abandon our reliance on the leader-as-hero and invite in the leader as host. We need to support those leaders who know that problems are complex, who know that in order to understand the full complexity of any issue, all parts of the system need to be invited in to participate and contribute. We, as followers, need to give our leaders time, patience, forgiveness; and we need to be willing to step up and contribute.”

Having everyone step up and contribute does not just happen by itself. One of the reasons I rely on ToP® methodologies in my practice is they can equip our leaders to be “hosts” or facilitative leaders. ToP® tools foster participation and engagement needed to address today’s challenges and make our workplaces meaningful. Just as in the example of the large group event for the City of St. Paul, we were able to use ToP® methods to build ownership and support for change ideas because people were involved in creating improvement plans rather than asked to implement plans developed by others. It was energizing to hear the buzz of 130 people engaged in strategic conversations that will directly impact their work. The DSI leadership invested in gathering everyone together and made a commitment to really listen to themes and priorities that emerged from the whole department.

DSI’s leadership is a great example of leaders-as-hosts and their example serves to highlight a shifting expectation of leaders to one of a more facilitative approach in today’s workplace. Wheatley and Frieze write, “Hosting Leaders create substantive change by relying on everyone’s creativity, commitment and generosity. They learn from firsthand experience that these qualities are present in just about everyone and in every organization. They extend sincere invitations, ask good questions, and have the courage to support risk-taking and experimentation.” My congratulations to the whole DSI department and their leadership team, and a big thanks to the great work of my ToP® colleagues, Eva Jensen and Anne Gomez.

Creating a Change Platform

As I watched my kids compete in the First Lego League tournament this weekend, I was struck by the skilled efforts of their coaches, who created an environment where all the kids could contribute ideas, design programs to complete missions, and innovate. Their successes, failures, and learning are all fully owned by the participating kids. The adult coaches offer encouragement and serve as guides. If only more of our change efforts did such a great job at involving and giving agency to those most impacted by change.

This article by Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini, published in Insights and Publications of McKinsey & Company (October, 2014), points to many concepts I wholeheartedly agree with regarding change work and gives us suggestions for how to improve the efficacy of change efforts.

They write,

“When change is imposed from above, with both ends and means prescribed, it’s rarely embraced. Traditional change programs fail to harness the discretionary creativity and energy of employees and often generate cynicism and resistance. Senior executives talk about the need to get buy-in, but genuine buy-in is the product of involvement, not slick packaging and communication. To be embraced, a change effort must be socially constructed in a process that gives everyone the right to set priorities, diagnose barriers, and generate options. Despite assertions to the contrary, people aren’t against change—they are against royal edicts.”

They then describe what it takes to build a change platform versus a change program. They conclude by writing,

“Guiding a process of socially constructed change is neither quick nor easy—but it is possible and effective. The biggest obstacles to creating robust change platforms aren’t technical. The challenge lies in shifting the role of the executive from change agent in chief to change enabler in chief. This means devoting leadership attention to the creation of an environment where deep, proactive change can happen anywhere—and at any time—and inspiring the entire organization to swarm the most pressing issues.”

Much of my OD and facilitation work is about helping clients design processes which will allow their stakeholders to make meaningful and significant contributions to change and planning efforts.  I would love to help your organization to think about how to do this as well. Enjoy the rest of the article.

Engage

Meaningful and effective engagement is fundamental to meeting today’s and tomorrow’s challenges. Gone are the days in which it is sufficient to have leaders carry the weight of organizational change.

In Dick Axelrod’s great book “Terms of Engagement”, he suggests that change management is an oxymoron, explaining his belief that “you offend people when you think you can manage them into changing.” He goes on to explain that old change management is based on beliefs like, “the few decide for the many; solutions first, people second; fear builds urgency”, while the new change management requires us to “widen the circle of involvement, connect people to each other, create communities for action, and promote fairness”. 

Beyond Axelrod’s excellent work, I see evidence everywhere of folks wanting to work differently, question traditional organizational structures and decision-making, dispose of hierarchies and command and control systems, and move to new paradigms for building the future.

Whatever the myriad ways in which new forms of organizing work and communities emerge, I know that engagement and widespread participation will be key. I spent two days this week training folks with MN Technology of Participation™ (MnToP) in facilitation methodologies. ToP™ facilitation tools are some of the most effective ways I have experienced for effectively engaging groups, allowing them to creatively leverage their wisdom and build ownership for shared action. People leave the trainings energized and hopeful. One woman said, “I am 45 years old and I can honestly say that is the best training I have ever attended.”  People are hungry for change, eager to contribute in new and meaningful ways. And I love helping organizations figure how to do this well. Let me know if you are interested in connecting to the ToP™ training or looking at ways to increase your employee engagement.

On the Shoulders of Giants

Last week I traveled to the National Organization Development Network (ODN) 2014 Conference, held in Philadelphia. The ODN is celebrating 50 years this year. As I sat in sessions and engaged in discussions with folks like Barbara Bunker, Warner Burke, Judith Katz, Fred Miller, David Sibbet, Dave Jamieson, Dick Axlerod, John Vogelsand, and Matt Minahan, I was reminded of the article “On the Shoulders of Giants” by Alban and Scherer (2005). They wrote, “In our work as OD practitioners, whose shoulders are we standing on? Whose ‘conceptual DNA’ runs in our veins? What are our operating assumptions and where did they come from?”

These folks have been some of the thought leaders in the organization development (OD) field for decades, they studied and worked with the founders of OD. I have read many of their articles and books. I was especially fortunate to attend Marv Weisbord and Sandra Janoff’s pre-conference session on “Lead More, Control Less,” (pictured above). They are the founders of the Future Search methodology and very wise indeed. It was a privilege to spend time with all these OD leaders as a colleague and life-long learner!

Embracing Change

In his book, Managing Transitions, William Bridges (2009, 3rd Ed.), writes about honoring endings, going through a neutral zone, and eventually embracing new beginnings. I often share this author’s work with clients who are going through transitions. Bridges explains that change is situational, a new move, a reorganization, a retirement; while transitions are psychological, or how we internalize and come to terms with changes in our lives. He writes, “When change happens without people going through a transition, it is just a rearrangement of the chairs,” (p.3). Change is ubiquitous, but how we manage the transitions reflects our ability to deal with it.  

I find myself navigating such a transition. I finished my Master’s of Science in Organization Development from American University this summer. It was a fantastic program, in which I was able to study the theory behind systems change, after having been a change agent for more than two decades. It was a great time for reflection, new learning, and growth for me. I had always approached change work intuitively, whether as a Peace Corps volunteer, a community organizer or an Executive Director. American’s MSOD program gave me the theoretical frameworks from the behavioral sciences to deepen my understanding of how people and systems develop and transform successfully. I also personally grew as we explored how we can be our most effective self in service to our clients.

And so, I am embracing change and aware of my own movement through Bridge’s transition phases. While I still feel like celebrating the completion of my studies, I am honoring an ending, recognizing the loss, and allowing for letting go. This has involved saying goodbye to my cohort and professors and leaving that special space of graduate studies. The neutral zone is an in between time, when the old way is gone and the new isn’t in place yet. It’s an important time to psychologically realign and rethink things. It can also be a time for new, creative ways of being in the world. I am considering where and how I would like to make an impact going forward. Finally, I am also entering the new beginnings phase (the phases often are overlapping), in which one emerges from a time of exploration with a new identity, new energy and sense of purpose and begins work. 

Part of my new beginnings was taking a trip this summer with my family to the Black Hills, home of Mt. Rushmore, without all my graduate school books! We are all relishing my newly-recovered availability. And while I have been consulting since 2011, I am now excited to launch my website and continue to support clients to successfully navigate their transitions in creative and effective ways! Let me know how I can help support your organization to embrace change.