The visioning process is a process of participative inquiry. It requires convening meetings where people can talk about their dreams and fears for the future. It requires accessing people deep desire for connection to each other and to a bigger purpose.
Mental models are powerful when you are unaware of them. Because you are unaware of them, you don’t examine them. And because you don’t examine them you don’t change them. It is very difficult to get to grips with something that has you in its grip.
Organisations can create a culture of personal mastery by making it safe for their people to have an alternative vision, where commitment to embracing truth and reality is the norm and where challenging the status quo is expected.
Great organisational cultures have the aptitude to integrate conflict and collaboration. Both are needed together. Collaboration without conflict leads to conformity and a lack of creativity. Conflict without collaboration leads to disrespect and alienation.
The conflict coach doesn’t just enable disputants to settle their issues, rather the conflict coach supports the organisation so that it learns from its conflicts and so that the organisational culture becomes more effective in resolving similar disputes in the future.
Every difficult behaviour you experience represents a skill you can learn. By rejecting people who engage in difficult behaviour you risk losing a valuable opportunity to learn from them.