Week #2 LW_From a culture of fear to a culture of Love and Joy
I’m going to start by sharing with you the result of this week’s team work. Because it’s awesome!
We had to create our Social Contract, a document in any form to represent how we work together, what’s important for us, how we want to be with each other. We were asked to be creative. And we did our best, in the form of a video.
We also wanted to test it, really test it out in the real world. For that, we thought that we could use it to see to what extent these new ways of working attract people. We published the video, created a landing page website and We are asking people to get in touch if they resonate. Do you? Say hi!
Watch our Video
Visit our Website
At the end of the session in which the team presented (thanks Guita and Yves for representing while I was somewhere between passport controls and scanners in the Delhi Airport), Yves reflected on the ease with which we have developed and delivered this project and it got me thinking too.
How is it that completing this assignment has been so easy, relatively low time-consuming and with such a good result? And how is it that trying to do something similar in our respective organisations would take weeks if not months? What are the elements that make a difference? I believe the following are needed:
Commitment, we are all obviously committed to fully participating in this course.
Shared responsibility, all team members felt responsible to deliver, there wasn’t one person more in charge than another, and there was no command or control. On the contrary, there was support and freedom to choose what each of us wanted to focus on.
Trust, we trust each other, with delays, internet problems, and all, we trusted that if someone said they’re going to do something, they will. And we all have.
These elements are needed, right? Like me, you may have worked in teams with those elements and you know that it can still take you weeks to complete your projects. What is the differential element?
I’m not sure and would love to hear your ideas, but my feeling is that it has to do with Joy and Creativity
The fact that it’s a bit like a game (even though it’s as serious as having a published website and a youtube video), make the process easier. We were not conditioned by perfectionism, and that allowed us to work more freely and push our creativity. Both joy and creativity keep our energy up, increase our individual and collective frequency and, somehow, allow things to flow.
Now, how to integrate these two elements in an organisation is a different story. Because sometimes they are seen as unproductive, because I have been told many times, in my old corporate days, that I laugh TOO much, because the word play and work don’t go together that often. Unfortunately.
I’m currently working onsite with Yash Papers Ltd in India in their transition into self-management. Our vision is to create a culture of freedom and love, with a strong focus on personal development. I’ve been here for about three months now and people are very interested in growing and learning, which is a great driver for the project. However, I’m facing a very deeply rooted culture of fear. It’s partly cultural and I’m not sure if we’ll be able to shift it (at least in the short or medium term).
I know I can’t fight fear and the issue is probably so complex for me to even understand. So, I’m using a different approach to alleviate fear: Love.
Instead of trying to implement big changes, with big announcements and a policy-like approach, I’m experimenting with small, easy practices, with the intention to simply initiate them and see how they expand organically. For example, I’ve started using appreciation cards, leaving appreciation notes on someone’s desk, just appreciating them for something specific, with no signature or name or reference to myself. So far they know it’s me because my notes are in English but I’ve started writing in Hindi :)
Would you share any other elements that you consider necessary for these new ways of working to actually work?
Would you add any tools, practices or ideas in regards to transforming a culture of fear into a culture of love and joy?
I would love to hear you, comment below or get in touch.
