Reflections on Deliberate Development & Wholeness
3rd week of the Practical Self Management Journey
What drives a self-managed company? An Evolutionary Purpose
“The evolutionary purpose of a Teal organization reflects the deeper reason the organization exists. It relates to the difference it wants to make in the community it operates in, as well as in the marketplace it serves. It is not concerned with competition or outperforming others; it is serving the ‘greater good’ that matters” as Frederic Laloux, the author of Reinventing Organizations states here. This week we explored a backbone for this — deliberate development. This TED — How to get better at things you care about — does a great job into summarizing the mindset behind. As for a perspective that is more applied to organizations — a brief video and an extensive white paper. The link between the Evolutionary Purpose and Deliberate Development is that in order to serve the greater good one must constantly seek to improve and grow.
Immunity to Change
To understand what growth means on a personal level we each had to an Imunnity to Change Map. The idea behind the whole concept is that behaviour is an effect of certain assumptions. In order to change a behaviour one must work on the assumptions driving that behaviour first. If you try to change the behaviour alone it’s “immune” to change — you might be able to do things differently a few times, but in the end you’ll just revert back to the habit already in place. In a very simplistic manner that’s how coaching and psychotherapy work — identify and shift the assumption first, tackle the behaviour after. This simple map allows oneself to go through the same kind of process without a coach or a therapist. More on the concepts and research supporting it can be found here. My personal Immunity to Change Map was on the topic of accountability — I want to hold myself and others accountable of commitments. Check it out over here
Deliberately Developmental Organisation
To get a better feeling of how deliberate development is part of the culture of an organisation we had a chat with Bryan Ungard, Chief Purpose Officer at Decurion. As stated on their website “ Decurion’s portfolio comprises four primary businesses as well as a number of other operations. Pacific Theatres is a major regional movie exhibition company. Robertson Properties Group is one of the leading real estate development, acquisition, and property management companies in Southern California. ArcLight Cinemas represents a new concept in enhancing and extending the moviegoing experience. And Hollybrook Senior Living creates a context for seniors to flourish.” What’s interesting about them it’s their philosophy of doing business — “ Decurion’s purpose, the fundamental reason it exists, is to provide places for people to flourish. We believe that every human being has something unique to express (perhaps several unique things over the course of a lifetime). While building each of our businesses to world class standards, we seek to create the conditions in which that expression will emerge. Flourishing is the process of living into one’s unique contribution. It is the process of becoming oneself. We expect to do this through our work.”
Reflections
Immunity to Change
It was hard to get started. I didn’t know what to write. I didn’t know if I there’s a right commitment to work on. It took me 3 days to think how to get started. It only took me 1 hour to complete it once I set in motion. I would say — iniating this kind of conversation with myself is much harder than actually doing it. Looking back at it now I find it much easier to do. During a conversation with my peer, Jose, on the topic — “how would you initiate this kind of process with someone else?” — I remembered something that Traci Fenton, the founder and CEO of WorldBlu, calls the power question: “What would you do if you weren’t afraid?”
Wholeness
Self-management does not exist in isolation. If one wants to shift the way he/she manages the company, implementing various self-management practices without some other forms of supporting elements, would be like setting sail to the Titanic — when the first big iceberg occurs (some crisis or difficulty) the ship will sink (revert back to command and control, even more stiff than before).
Conclusion
The tools we use are evolving at a high rate. This means that some of us will have to change jobs 3 or 4 times during their life. The key to staying sharp and valuable — learnability!
