Resources

Today you need a planning process that is agile and responsive. It has to account for the challenges of complexity and uncertainty you and your organization face.

Merriam-Webster defines culture as, “the set of values, conventions, or social practices associated with a particular field, activity, or societal characteristic.” Culture and culture change have been central to leadership practice in the past decade. It is no less important, but it is much more difficult, to manage, in this age of Zoom “rooms” and Teams “chats.” 

In today's world, facilitators work with groups to address issues that are more complex and challenging than ever before. They deal with forces that rock their clients’ worlds. They address the partisan impacts of diversity at local and global scales. Facilitators value the importance of relationships and connections over time, in addition to relying on the notions of cause and effect.

Executive coaching is definitely not a game, but the issues clients bring to us are finite and infinite games – ones you try to “win” and ones you try to keep playing.  It’s like the image above. If I had named it “My Mind” you would make the translation and possibly think “She’s feeling scattered and crazy.” The art piece is resolved in your mind (finite game). If I leave the art piece untitled, you can keep looking at it wondering what it is. Each time you look at it, based on the time in your life, the issues you are experiencing, etc., you might see something different (infinite game.) So, how does this relate to coaching our clients?

This is the third in a series of blogs where Royce Holladay and Mary Nations explore the dynamics of Generative Engagement. In last week’s blog, I explored a set of conditions that Mary and I believe can shape system-wide patterns of purposeful, meaningful dialogue; productivity across differences; and highly adaptive relationships. This week I want to share some thoughts we have had about what can happen if those conditions get out of balance with each other or when any of the conditions exclude individuals or groups in the system. As you read, consider how you see each situation play out in the systems where you live, work, and play.

In HSD, we teach people to see patterns in complex situations, and to understand them in true and useful ways. The goal is to make choices and take actions that shift those patterns toward greater health and wellbeing—away from oppression.

Engineers know a lot about pressure:  Boyle’s Law, pounds per square inch, and cold fronts that bring thunderstorms in the summer.  You know about pressure, too:  Deadlines, politics, demands, more with less, and forward farther and faster.