Organisations that value their reputation, their legacy and that want to be on the right side of history need a story about how they are contributing a positive impact. They need a story that they can tell with a sense of pride and that can bear external scrutiny.
Many of the conflicts encountered in organisations arise from one-sided thinking. From being blind to interdependencies.
Responding to events does not require a lot of thinking. However, engaging with patterns requires a capacity to think broadly and comprehensively – across time and space.
Organisations and teams are similar. Being able to stop is essential for moving ahead. Stopping enables learning. Lots of busy action is not the same as movement. Movement only starts from stillness.
This requires patient work where dialogue skills are key. Emergent facilitation is an especially useful technique for surfacing meaning. It involves creating “practice fields” where identity can connect with new pictures of the future.
They note that by practicing dialogue skills in their other day-to-day work, they amplify their service and impact. They observe that their self-awareness is sharper and that their capacity to be effective in complex situations is enhanced.