Practicing Organization Development (A guide for Consultants) - Part 43 pptx

S What is SO? What is the situation now? (In as much vivid detail as possible.) T What is the TARGET or TRANSFORMATION? What will things be like when they are perfect? (Again in vivid detail.) R What are the REASONS you are not there now? What RESOURCES are present, supporting your intended breakthrough? (This is basi- cally a force field of the situation.) What are the RATIONALIZATIONS that are keeping things stuck? I What are the major ISSUES that you know will have to be addressed? (What have been the “dead horses on the table” that have been diffi- cult to admit or discuss?) P What POLARITIES are present and not being managed well? (Where are you positional about something, holding it as an either/or when it might be a both/and? What are the potential benefits of the position you have been resisting or avoiding?) E What will be EVIDENCE OF SUCCESS? (How will you recognize that movement is taking place? What will be the first signs?) S What is a FIRST STEP you could take which, itself, would be a small breakthrough? (When will you take that step?) Coaching as Appreciative Inquiry For the via positiva, we use appreciative inquiry, a relatively recent addition to our OD technology, as an example. AI, as it is known, is based on a philosophy and practice that engage the client in an inquiry about what is working. (See Chapter Twenty-Two for more on AI.) An AI coach works in ways that are a sharp contrast to the traditional problem-solving or expert model of coaching. Some guiding principles of AI follow: • Words create worlds: For example, the word “issue” is replaced with a more neutral or even affirmative label, “topic.” What is focused on becomes reality. Reality is created in the moment an experience is “named” in the act of perceiving it—and there are multiple realities, brought into existence by the language used to describe what is happening. • Inquiry creates change: The very first question begins the change process and influences the client in one way or another. AI questions are open, invite rapport—not report—and provide space for the person to swim around in a topic he or she may not have thought about before. PERSON-CENTERED OD INTERVENTIONS 391 22_962384 ch15.qxd 2/3/05 12:23 AM Page 391 • Life provides an endless opportunity for learning: Once someone enters the AI process, everything that happens to him or her can become “grist for the mill” of learning. • Image inspires action: Developing a strong, visceral image of a passion- ately desired future helps the person to want to start living it. • The more positive the coach’s questions, the greater the willingness to take action, and the longer lasting the change: The most powerful ques- tions call forth and affirm the positive core of the person, for example, “What do you value most about what you are able to contribute when you are at your best?” • Wholeness brings out the best in people: People make the most progress when what they are doing integrates all aspects of their lives, bodies, minds, and spirits. • The past is a powerful source of wisdom and energy for the future: Peo- ple are more ready to journey into the future (the unknown) when they carry forward the best parts of the past (the known). • Choosing liberates personal power: Personal development, AI style, is all about choice. The clients choose what to focus on, their image of the future, and their options for getting there. The appreciative inquiry process is very simple and moves the client from the past to the future in a powerful way. The general steps, in sequence, are 1. DISCOVER—The client is invited to take an in-depth look back at what has worked in the past and forward to hopes and wishes for the future. Prior to this step, the client is helped to be very specific about the situ- ation he or she wants to see changed. For example: AI Coach: “You say you want to do a good job leading this layoff and you are scared. OK. Imagine that the layoff is over. What are one or two specific outcomes of the layoff that would make you proud and amazed?” AI Client/Leader: “Every employee who had to leave left feeling respected and ready for the unknown, and those who survived are ready and excited about moving ahead with the company.” 2. DREAM—Building on the best of the past, the client translates his or her greatest hopes and wishes for the future into a statement. Written in the present tense, as though the future is actually happening, the statement needs to stretch and challenge, be exciting and something the person really wants. “If everything in this situation were perfect, what would be happening?” 392 PRACTICING ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT, 2ND EDITION 22_962384 ch15.qxd 2/3/05 12:23 AM Page 392 3. DEFINE—Working together, the client and the consultant pinpoint exactly where the focus of the intervention will be, targeting specific behaviors that will need to shift. 4. DESIGN—This is the HOW. The client is asked to help design the inter- ventions for making that future happen. What will be done? Who are key people who must be involved? Long-time AI consultant and coach Barbara Sloane guides her individual clients to interview key stake- holders themselves, using the AI questions, to find out how they are perceived from those who know them best. “Based on what you have experienced from me recently, when I am at my best, what am I doing and/or not doing?” With these data in hand, the client then selects the topics to focus on and decides where to begin. 5. DELIVER—The client is coached to get started, to go out and actually do what was just designed, putting energy into those key relationships and improvising as necessary, as the desired future becomes the present. The Cutting Edge of Executive Coaching: Deep Empowerment for Personal Transformation Coaching as traditionally practiced is a relatively straightforward process. Using either the gap analysis or the appreciative inquiry approach, the coach meets with the client—either on the phone or in person—and gets him or her involved in moving from where he or she is to where he or she wants to be. This may happen in a single session, or, as is most often the case, over a period of time and several sessions. There is a potential tragedy, however, in traditional coaching. Given the open mind and heart of a client asking for coaching and the potential for transfor- mation, a great deal of coaching “leaves money on the table,” meaning that the client could have been assisted in going much further. As the old adage goes, “A guide cannot take the student where the guide has not been.” Traditional problem solving and even much of what passes for personal development is more like papering over an old wall, adding to what is already there in the par- ticipant. Occasionally this is enough. Usually it is not. For instance, if a con- sultant were to coach a dictator who comes for help to better communicate, the consultant may simply have helped make the dictator more effective at leaving the same trail of victims. He or she may have missed an opportunity to help the dictator confront reality and choose another way of living and leadership. Or take a highly effective and much-loved manager who is starting to collapse mentally and emotionally under the weight of a tendency to over-commit. As the coach, a consultant could get the manager to delegate more burdensome tasks to lighten the load. But, like acne on the teenager who reduces the pimples (the symptom) with a powerful cream only to have them pop up somewhere else, the PERSON-CENTERED OD INTERVENTIONS 393 22_962384 ch15.qxd 2/3/05 12:23 AM Page 393 client will be back in the same state again until he or she identifies the root cause of the inability to say “no” and opens him- or herself to a new way of being. What he or she is doing—by saying yes all the time—is exhibiting behavior driv- en by some aspect of his or her being. The coaching challenge is how to help the client work back up the causal chain to what will transform his or her fear of saying “no.” This will require the consultant and client to go deeper. Traditional training gives people new skills or increases an existing skill. It improves what is there by adding skills or capabilities to those a person already has, which is not necessarily a negative thing. In fact, training is something every human being should be involved in all the time. The goal is incremental improvement through skill development. Deep, empowering, transformational education and development goes a huge step further. Education comes from the Latin verb educere, which means to draw out or to bring out something latent. When consultants are involved in educat- ing or developing clients, they are not adding to what is there, rather they are calling forth something that is already there, from a deeper level—drawing out something the client may not even have known was there. Thus, the client is assisted in becoming more of who he or she already is. These first two levels of coaching can be looked at as helping someone who is learning how to drive a car. Training is learning how to go faster in first gear. Transformational education and development is like shifting into second gear. It changes the learning experience considerably. A person can do a lot more things in second gear than in first. Transformation through coaching can lead to per- sonal development at an altogether different level, leading the driver to consider questions like, “Where am I trying to go?” and “Why am I still in this car?” FEEDBACK: A CORE INGREDIENT IN PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT Feedback is a fundamental element in every training program or mentoring and coaching relationship. But a person doesn’t have to be in a program to get feed- back. In every healthy organization, informal feedback occurs continuously, in all kinds of ways, and usually addresses above-the-waterline work content issues—things like how well a report went, or the accuracy of an email, or mea- surements of a person’s productivity. There is a tacit opening and expectation that someone will give you feedback on your performance. It comes with the job. When subordinates have achieved a level of competence and motivation in their jobs, the manager’s appropriate role becomes one of supporting from behind the scenes and giving feedback. To paraphrase Charlie Seashore, feed- back is information about past behavior, delivered in the present, in a way that allows it to influence future behavior. 394 PRACTICING ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT, 2ND EDITION 22_962384 ch15.qxd 2/3/05 12:23 AM Page 394 The kind of feedback we highlight next, however, is a little different from the on-the-job variety. In a personal development activity or experience, whether in a training program, mentoring, or coaching, feedback is quite often aimed below the waterline at levels a little closer to home, for example, the functional or adaptive areas. This requires true openness for the feedback from the recipient, as well as a depth of relationship sufficient to bear the dissonance created. Regarding this level of feedback, Seashore observes that without feedback, how could anyone test the reality of his or her perceptions, reactions, observa- tions, or intentions? If someone wants to share his or her feelings about some- thing that has happened, what other way is there but feedback? If you want to influence someone to start, stop, or modify a behavior, how else but through feedback? In short, feedback is a potentially critical dimension that is present every time anyone interacts with anyone else, about anything. Mark Yeoell, founder of the Global Integrity Leadership Group (www. gilgroupinc.com), has used the term “interpersonal bandwidth” as a useful way to describe the level of trust and respect that exists between two people or groups. When offering work content feedback, a person can get away with minimal-to-moderate trust and respect levels—a fairly narrow bandwidth. But when engaging in exploration of deeper functional and/or adaptive issues—say in a T-group—a person needs maximum trust and respect, or the largest band- width possible. So the first task in engaging participants in providing significant feedback is to make the investment of energy to create sufficient bandwidth. Once that is established, even poorly worded or partially formed feedback can be received as useful or even life-changing. Giving and Receiving Feedback Effectively Interpersonal feedback involves at least two people: one who gives feedback and one who receives it. The main purpose of feedback is to help the recipient increase personal and interpersonal effectiveness. Giving Feedback Effectively. The effectiveness of feedback depends on the behaviors and responses of both the feedback provider and the feedback recip- ient. One who gives feedback, such as an OD consultant, can increase its effec- tiveness by ensuring that feedback: • Is descriptive rather than evaluative (“X happened, which confused me” versus “That’s ridiculous”); • Is focused on the behavior rather than on the personality of the recipient (“When you did XYZ. . . ” versus “You’re a very controlling person”); PERSON-CENTERED OD INTERVENTIONS 395 22_962384 ch15.qxd 2/3/05 12:23 AM Page 395 • Concerns behavior that is modifiable (“Making a funny sound in your throat” versus “That limp of yours. . . .”); • Is specific and based on data wherever possible rather than general and based on impressions (“Yesterday, the way you handled XYZ. . .” versus “You’re never nice to my friends”); • Is based on data from the provider’s own experience rather than on hearsay (“I noticed XYZ. . .” versus “Stacey said that you XYZ”); • Reinforces positive new behavior and what the recipient has done well (“Opening your presentation with that overview seemed to create a receptive listening. . . .”); • Suggests rather than prescribes improvement avenues (“I wonder what would happen if you did XYZ?” versus “Next time, do XYZ”); • Is continual rather than sporadic; • Is based on need and is best when requested by the recipient; • Is intended to help rather than wound; • Satisfies the needs of both the provider and the recipient; • Lends itself to verification by the recipient; • Is well-timed; and • Contributes to the rapport between the provider and the recipient and enhances their relationship (“I want us to have an honest relationship and so I am willing to take the risk”). Receiving Feedback Effectively. The effectiveness of feedback depends as much on how it is received and used as on how it is given. If the feedback disconfirms an expectation of the recipient (for example, concerning his or her self-image), dissonance is created. According to dissonance theory, disconfirming an expec- tation stimulates psychological tension, which sets up a moment of truth where learning can happen. The feedback recipient may reduce dissonance by react- ing in either a defensive or an open/confronting manner. When people feel threatened by the feedback they receive—for example, if they are criticized or blamed or are given negative feedback that they do not agree with—they tend to build a defense to protect themselves. However, using defensive behaviors to deal with threatening feedback is like using pain-killing drugs that reduce awareness of pain but do not address its cause. Defensive behaviors create an illusion of having dealt with a situation but do not change it. Hence, defensive behaviors reduce anxiety but do not resolve the conflict felt by the feedback recipient. Excessive reliance on defensive behaviors is likely to produce a “conflicted self,” however. On the other hand, if an open/confronting behavior is used, conflict is reduced. Over time, the feedback recipient forms an “integrated self.” Of course, 396 PRACTICING ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT, 2ND EDITION 22_962384 ch15.qxd 2/3/05 12:23 AM Page 396 defensive behavior is not always negative, and on some occasions may be war- ranted, for instance, when the giver of the feedback intends real harm. But if both people involved in giving and receiving feedback are interested in main- taining a relationship of trust and openness, then defensive behavior under- mines that goal, rendering feedback ineffective. In order to benefit from feedback, a recipient’s examination of the defensive behaviors he or she uses when receiving feedback can be helpful. Then the indi- vidual can prepare a plan (preferably with the help of others) for reducing defensive behaviors and adopt confronting behaviors. Open/confronting behavior helps a person to build relationships and collect more helpful feedback. The way in which a person receives and uses feedback also influences the way in which others give it. The recipient may test ideas and exper- iment with new behaviors on a limited basis, seeking more feedback to find out how others view his or her self-improvement efforts. This kind of effort can set in motion a self-improvement cycle, leading to increased interpersonal effectiveness. If feedback is given in the spirit of a trusting and open relationship, and if it is received in the same way, it can become a powerful instrument of change. But if feedback is not properly received, it can disrupt interpersonal relation- ships and undermine group development. While the degree of “bandwith” established before engaging in detailed feed- back is vital, it is still likely that the recipient will experience some reaction to the feedback being delivered. The key is for the giver to ensure that his or her motives are pure. As Charlie Seashore puts it, “When giving or receiving feedback, the central issue is congruence, which means acknowledging, understanding and delighting in what is happening inside you during the exchange” (Seashore & Weinberg, 1997, p. 191). The consultant might ask, “Are you offering this feed- back because you care and want to contribute to this person’s growth, or are you trying to get this person back for something he or she did or said to you?” A recip- ient of feedback may want to ask, “Is this person caring about me right now, and is he or she taking a risk by sharing his or her truth? And even if I do not like what I am hearing, what part of this message is valid for me?” Finally, Seashore poses and answers a key question: “Why is feedback so universally important? Our environment is constantly changing, so we can’t sur- vive unless we adapt, grow, and achieve with others. But unless we can do magic, we need information about how we performed in the past in order to improve our performance in the future” (Seashore & Weinberg, 1997, p. 8). INSTRUMENTATION: A HELPFUL FOCUSING “LENS” For an individual to experience significant personal development, whether through training, mentoring, or coaching, it helps if he or she sets clearly defined goals or objectives early on in the process. Of great assistance in this PERSON-CENTERED OD INTERVENTIONS 397 22_962384 ch15.qxd 2/3/05 12:23 AM Page 397 regard is some kind of diagnostic assessment instrument. It can be as simple as a checklist (see Exhibit 15.1) of a few items of interest to the individual with a scale for each item, allowing the person to do a self-assessment and then to collect data from peers, subordinates, and other colleagues. This is referred to as an inter-rater evaluation™. Quantifying perceptions in this way makes it easier to formulate personal development targets for improvement, although informally developed instruments may be lacking in both reliability and validity. The SAFI Process: How to Use Instruments Effectively For person-focused interventions, the Self-Awareness through Feedback from Instruments (SAFI) is a very powerful process (see Pareek, 1984). In using SAFI, participants take the initiative and use the scores they receive to find ways to increase their interpersonal effectiveness. Since they control the use of the data, there is a perceived higher degree of safety and therefore honesty in the process. There are nine steps in the SAFI process. 1. Completion of the instrument—Participants complete an instrument that has been standardized by experts. 2. Conceptual input—Participants read the theory associated with the instrument. This step familiarizes them with the instrument’s concep- tual framework. If an OD consultant is available, he or she can clarify the concepts underlying the instrument. 3. Prediction—Based on what the participants understand about the the- ory and meaning of the instrument, they predict their scores to reflect their own self-perceptions and their understanding of their own styles and behaviors. 4. Scoring—Participants score their completed instruments according to the procedures provided by the instrument’s author. 5. Interpretation—Participants write down the interpretations and impli- cations of their scores. 6. Feedback—Participants check the instrument feedback with other sig- nificant people whom they trust, such as managers, peers, and subor- dinates. They then collect factual evidence to confirm or question their interpretations and reconsider the implications of their scores. 7. Action planning—Participants decide to improve aspects of their per- sonal styles or behavior and prepare plans to experiment with new styles or behave differently. 8. Experimentation—Participants implement their action plans, keeping detailed notes of satisfactory and frustrating experiences. An OD con- sultant, if one is available, provides guidance. 398 PRACTICING ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT, 2ND EDITION 22_962384 ch15.qxd 2/3/05 12:23 AM Page 398 PERSON-CENTERED OD INTERVENTIONS 399 Exhibit 15.1. Sample Executive Development Assessment Executive Development Intensive Pre-Work Assessment Tom is about to participate in an Executive Development Intensive. Part of that experience involves receiving anonymous feedback from six to eight colleagues on how they experience him in his role as leader. He has selected you to contribute to this “database.” Please circle the number beside each of the following leadership dimensions that best represents how you have experienced him recently—and fax directly to John Scherer at [555-555-5555]. Results will be collated and an anony- mous summary presented to Tom. Thank you for your thoughtful contribution to Tom’s development. 1 = Almost Never 2 = Seldom 3 = Occasionally 4 = Frequently 5= Almost Always 1 2 3 4 5 Makes tough decisions 1 2 3 4 5 Has the courage to do the right thing 1 2 3 4 5 Exhibits self-confidence (saying or doing things he might not have done before) 1 2 3 4 5 Has the ability to hear what people are really saying 1 2 3 4 5 Is authentically “present” for interactions 1 2 3 4 5 Has a sense of who he is and what makes him—and other people—tick 1 2 3 4 5 Recognizes and resolves conflicts in a timely fashion 1 2 3 4 5 “Speaks the unspeakable” 1 2 3 4 5 Has the ability to understand and work with different management styles 1 2 3 4 5 Persuades others or enrolls them in ideas 1 2 3 4 5 Has a positive attitude about himself 1 2 3 4 5 Has a positive attitude about colleagues 1 2 3 4 5 Has a positive attitude about the workplace 1 2 3 4 5 Catches himself when he’s “hooked” (emotionally reactive) 1 2 3 4 5 Is able to see his work as a vehicle for personal and professional development 1 2 3 4 5 Is a strong contributor to his work team and the organization 1 2 3 4 5 Works with a greater sense of purpose 1 2 3 4 5 Sees possibility in people and situations 1 2 3 4 5 Is effective with less effort 1 2 3 4 5 Turns conflict into positive change 1 2 3 4 5 Is able to integrate the “hard” and the “soft” aspects of a situation or problem 1 2 3 4 5 Knows how to relax when he needs to Developed by John Scherer, 2002, for use with executive coaching clients. Practicing Organization Development, 2nd Ed Copyright © 2005 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Repro- duced by permission of Pfeiffer, an Imprint of Wiley. www.pfeiffer.com 22_962384 ch15.qxd 2/3/05 12:23 AM Page 399 9. Follow-Up—After a time lapse, the participants complete the instru- ment again to determine whether there is a significant change in their scores. They elicit feedback from others whom they trust about any behavioral changes that have been observed. (For additional guidance on the use of this instrument in a personal develop- ment intervention, see Pfeiffer & Ballew, 1988.) CONCLUSION First, doing person-centered work inside an OD intervention requires being aware of and managing a polarity. It is essential for the OD consultant to under- stand that it is impossible to do an intervention aimed at the system without also impacting every individual very personally. In the same way, when carry- ing out an individual intervention, such as coaching, the consultant must real- ize that the intervention will, even in a small way, impact the system—and trigger the organization’s self-protecting “immune system.” Second, each person-centered intervention has strengths and weaknesses. For instance, training individuals can produce major change in a participant but, if it goes as deep as it is capable of going, the person may find re-entry to be very difficult. Mentoring is the easiest to introduce and requires the least “band- width,” but it is also limited as to how deep it can go because of the authority- laden relationship between the mentor and the mentee. Coaching, at least the kind that develops someone “below the waterline” in the adaptive skill areas, requires a very mature, centered, non-positional, well-trusted consultant. Finally, the OD consultant of the future needs to have all three personal- development “arrows in the quiver”—training, coaching, and mentoring—and be eager to explore theories and models from outside traditional OD. We must allow ourselves to work with less tangible—but no less real—dimensions of human existence. Perhaps we are where physics was in 1905. Could we be oper- ating with what is akin to Newtonian (mechanical) principles, which “work” at most levels, while resisting what would be akin to quantum (relational) princi- ples? In OD, especially in the world of personal development, we are simply not able to sufficiently explain what happens inside and between people using our traditional models. The system-oriented OD principles of our founders, which were revolutionary at the time, will have to be accompanied by new, yet-to-be- discovered principles, based not on cause and effect, but on more subtle forces and principles that involve the unpredictable and indomitable human spirit. The next generation of person-centered OD practitioners must emulate the pioneer- ing spirit of our founders and do what they did: go beyond what is taken for granted. When they do, they will be standing on the shoulders of smiling and appreciative giants. 400 PRACTICING ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT, 2ND EDITION 22_962384 ch15.qxd 2/3/05 12:23 AM Page 400 . 399 Exhibit 15.1. Sample Executive Development Assessment Executive Development Intensive Pre-Work Assessment Tom is about to participate in an Executive Development Intensive. Part of that experience involves. and exper- iment with new behaviors on a limited basis, seeking more feedback to find out how others view his or her self-improvement efforts. This kind of effort can set in motion a self-improvement. experiences. An OD con- sultant, if one is available, provides guidance. 398 PRACTICING ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT, 2ND EDITION 22_962384 ch15.qxd 2/3/05 12:23 AM Page 398 PERSON-CENTERED OD INTERVENTIONS