Practicing Organization Development (A guide for Consultants) - Part 64 pps

quality of life. In your continuing quest for self, you can be aided not only by the external sources already mentioned, but also by internal sources. These may not normally be in your awareness. However, with commitment and patience, they can be slowly accessed and moved into consciousness, with the aid of one or more of a number of available processes. These processes provide the per- son with a “third eye”—an eye that can look inward, facilitating introspection, self-awareness, and understanding. • Journal writing. The journal is, in effect, a place to honestly record one’s thoughts, feelings, current problems, insights, moods, attitudes, and so much more. Entries need not be made on schedule. They do not have to be written in any orderly fashion. They can be jottings, free associations, and the like. One can often be surprised by what rises into awareness through this process. • Meditation and prayer. These are processes for quieting one’s mind and for becoming open to the here-and-now. They can aid in transcending limiting ideas about one’s ego, moving a person inward toward one’s essence—one’s being—and outward into a recognition of one’s integral connection with all life and all consciousness. • Learning from one’s dreams. There are several good ways for working with dreams. Freud provided one; Jung, another; and Perls, yet another. Support from a trained counselor can be helpful. Relating to or examin- ing one’s dreams can often provide a bridge from the unknown aspects of self to the known. • Psychotherapy. There are many theories and systems of psychotherapy (for example Freudian, Jungian, Rogerian, Bugental’s (1992) existen- tial—humanistic) sometimes requiring a limited number of sessions (for specific, problem-focused, brief therapy) or years of sessions (in the case of psychoanalysis). Facilitated by a psychotherapist, these processes are focused on consciousness-raising (from the unknown to the known) and to a working through to clarity of understanding and of meaning. It is important once again to emphasize that the quest for self is never ended; it is more of a journey than a destination. For you to believe that you can work through all of your issues, that you can achieve perfection in a life- time of learning, is indeed illusory. However, you can become more aware of the personal issues that negatively impact your professional effectiveness, as well as your personal savoring of life itself. And in gaining greater awareness, you can learn how to confront and deal with these issues more effectively. The choice to do so is yours alone. It is a matter of what you want to do with your life. THE PERSONHOOD OF THE CONSULTANT 601 33_962384 ch25.qxd 2/3/05 12:23 AM Page 601 TO LIFE, TO LIFE—L’CHAIM I cannot—nor do I want to—offer you a rose garden nor promise nirvana. The process of personal learning and deep change is slow. The path can be a diffi- cult and lonely one to follow—one often involving disappointment and pain. But following the path with courage and commitment can also deepen, enrich, and expand your experience of and coping with life as you relate to yourself, to others, and to the larger world beyond. Along the path of personal learning, you may become increasingly aware of the fragmentation that has characterized aspects of your life. Maybe you have experienced anger at the same time that you smiled. You may have doubted your personal worth, while succeeding at most tasks you have taken on. Possi- bly you loved your mate at the same time that you have yelled at him or her. Perhaps at the beginning of the journey, you were not even aware of the frag- mentation, but along the path you not only have gained such awareness but increasingly have succeeded in bringing the parts together. You come to under- stand what the anger is about and what the masking of the smile does for you. You gain insight into why you demean yourself and are blind to your accom- plishments. You experience the love for your mate ever more strongly, as you come to the realization that the yelling and screaming is displaced from another person, another time. The disconnects between body and mind, thought and feeling, head and heart, awareness and unawareness, and others begin to dis- appear. Rather than feeling alienated from yourself, you increasingly have a sense of becoming better integrated—more whole. The process of moving toward increased wholeness is a growth objective of any system, including the human being. Feeling more whole, you become more real in your relationships with others. Instead of giving off confusing, inconsistent signals that only mislead others, you are increasingly experienced by them as being authentic. Moving toward greater wholeness and authenticity, you will increasingly become aware of and experi- ence your essence. Carl Rogers has described it this way: “The individual moves toward being, knowingly and acceptingly, the process which he inwardly and actually is. He moves away from being what he is not, from being a facade. . . He is increasingly listening to the deepest recesses of his physiological and emo- tional being, and finds himself increasingly willing to be, with greater accuracy and depth, that self which he most truly is”(1961, pp. 175–176). As individuals move toward their essence, they tend to become increasingly aware both in thoughts and feelings that they are not separate entities in the world. They sense deeply that their being merges with and becomes a part of all living creatures, of nature, and of the awesome universe itself. Now, more seriously and deeply than ever before, they can confront the mysteries of spirit, spirituality, and soul—the reality of wholeness, of oneness. 602 PRACTICING ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT, 2ND EDITION 33_962384 ch25.qxd 2/3/05 12:23 AM Page 602 PERSONAL GROWTH AND PRACTITIONER EFFECTIVENESS The experiencing of becoming a more aware, better-integrated human being can be an exhilarating and fulfilling one in and of itself. And for you (as well as for others), it can also mean increasing satisfaction and effectiveness in your pro- fessional work. There are many aspects to this. Some I have discussed earlier in this chapter; now I will present additional ones: • The self as a laboratory for learning. By practicing your “third eye” awareness during your own personal learning process, you can also develop your skill for learning much about the processes in which you are professionally engaged and about what is being experienced by the client systems with whom you are working. For example, consider the pervasive process of change. By paying close attention to your own per- sonal experiencing (your thoughts and feelings), you can much better understand such change factors as readiness for change, resistance (feel- ings of threat, fear, anger, helplessness), boundary permeability (both to the inside and to the outside of a system), what can help a system to be open and receptive, and so forth. If you have experienced and under- stood it yourself, you will better understand it when you encounter it in other systems—in organizations as well as in other individuals. • Impact on others. Knowing yourself reasonably well and being more whole, you will generate fewer confused reactions from others: “Where’s that guy coming from?” “I really don’t know what she wants from me.” As stated previously, you will perceive what is “out there” more accu- rately, and will be able to take action more appropriately: “This consul- tant is really on target.” • Being trustworthy. If you are open, consistent with values, caring, not defensive, and not hurtful, others will tend to have confidence in you and trust who you are and what you say and do. • Understanding and accepting others. Not having the need to stereotype others; being able to discern, to value, and to accept individual differ- ences; and having the acuity to understand individuals in depth in spite of their masks—these and related talents stem from your clarity about yourself and your consequent ability to not be threatened by others. • Being positively motivated. Persons who are emotionally torn inside must turn much of their attention inward in an attempt to deny, control, or mediate between the conflicting demons inside. Not having this need, a relatively emotionally mature individual is typically energetic and joy- ous, with enthusiasm and often with creativity and vision. This does not mean that you never have mixed feelings about certain situations; on THE PERSONHOOD OF THE CONSULTANT 603 33_962384 ch25.qxd 2/3/05 12:23 AM Page 603 the contrary, you understand mixed feelings as normal to human experi- ence and are comfortable with holding such dualities while moving ahead with your work. • Ability to move into depth. It is often said that practitioners or coun- selors cannot take others further than they themselves have been able to go. Certainly there are exceptions to this, but in general it has valid- ity. If I cannot accept my inadequacies, can I help others accept theirs? If I cannot express my feelings, can I help others comfortably to express theirs? If I run away from conflict, how can I coach others to facilitate conflict resolution? Your own work with these issues provides the foundation and empathy needed for guiding others, especially through difficult change and learning. • Loving others. Genuinely caring for others—not through a facade or an act, but honestly with the heart—is a human quality that is often found missing in action. Many books and articles speak of the desirability of the practitioner, leader, teacher, or parent showing compassion, caring, or love to others whom they want to influence. It is not always men- tioned, however, that the most important route to being able to love others is to first love one’s self—not to enhance one’s ego, but rather as part of a process of becoming a better human being. If you truly love your self, where that love is rooted in a sense of wholeness and of self- worth, then you can naturally, genuinely, and deeply experience and express love for others. You experience them as a part of yourself. THE ART OF THE PRACTITIONER Acquiring relevant knowledge and skills, gaining hands-on experience, concern- ing yourself with professional and personal values, and involving yourself in per- sonal learning processes are necessary for your development as a professional practitioner, but they are not sufficient. Beyond these lies an area about which we have little understanding; to a considerable extent it is shrouded in mystery. What has made possible a Michael Jordan, a Yo-Yo Ma, and an Oprah Winfrey, as well as our most admired and valued colleagues? In our professional field, if we try to understand what has made our “stars” into masterful professionals, we encounter more differences than similarities among them—differences in education, training, skills, personalities, areas of specialty, professional and life experiences, and many more. None of these professionals is just a sum of the parts; each is much more than genes inherited, things learned, skills developed, values embedded, or experiences 604 PRACTICING ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT, 2ND EDITION 33_962384 ch25.qxd 2/3/05 12:23 AM Page 604 lived. Something more involves the integration of those parts into a systems wholeness. How this occurs is what is so little understood; here lies the mystery, the wonderment. When we observe these professionals early in their careers, we often see at first technicians with a bag of tricks: “a technique I read about,” “a method I saw demonstrated,” “a successful procedure presented at a conference,” or “a strategy Joe told me worked well for him.” Some consultants do not progress very far beyond this point. On occasion (or perhaps more frequently?), they encounter a challenging problem with which they really don’t know how to deal. Faced with the anxiety that accompanies this “not knowing,” they reach for an intervention in their bag of tricks that, when made, has more to do with quieting their personal anxiety than with the here-and-now needs of the client. The intervention is primarily from the head; it is calculated, mechanical, and out of sync with the larger context. It doesn’t flow. In contrast, think of Michael Jordan dribbling down the court, putting opponents off balance, sensing the positions and movements of all players, looking one way and moving in another, eyeing the basket, and using his total body—with grace and beauty—to propel the ball toward the basket. And it falls cleanly through the hoop. If we observe them at work, we see many of our top OD practitioners effort- lessly flowing in an unfolding process with their clients. They are one piece with their well-integrated knowledge-skills-values-techniques-methods-experience- sense of self. They would probably have difficulty telling us why they made a given intervention at the time that they did, and in the way that they did. They might tell us that “It just felt right; I just trusted my gut, my intuition.” Their clients after a day’s work might say: “We made such good progress today. But we don’t really know what made that possible. Our consultant certainly didn’t say or do very much, it was like magic!” It certainly isn’t magic; it just seems that way. It is really art. And although there is a simplicity and apparent effortlessness in their interventions, it is often hard work. At their best, these practitioners are artists. They certainly are not perfect in any respect, and they have their lows as well as their highs. But they do have high batting averages. They are not all-wise, but they have a professional wisdom. They are not all-feeling, but they are appropriately sensitive. And no matter how competent they are seen and experienced by peers, they do continue to monitor themselves, and they continue to seek new learning. Being an artist in this work means not just being a sum of your parts, but something much more than that. Your being and its expression in action reflect this little-understood process of integration into an effectively functioning pro- fessional and person. As you move toward such integration, such wholeness, you are indeed moving toward artistry. THE PERSONHOOD OF THE CONSULTANT 605 33_962384 ch25.qxd 2/3/05 12:23 AM Page 605 References Baldwin, J. (1961). Nobody knows my name: More notes of a native son. New York: Dial Press. Bugental, J.F.T. (1992). The art of psychotherapy. New York: W.W. Norton. Kroeger, O., & Thuesen, J.M. (1988). Type talk. New York: Delacorte Press. Linder, R. (1956). The fifty-minute hour. New York: Bantam Books. Luft, J. (1984). Group processes: An introduction to group dynamics (3rd ed.). Palo Alto, CA: Mayfield. Rogers, C. (1961). On becoming a person. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. Schutz, W. (1994). The human element. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 606 PRACTICING ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT, 2ND EDITION 33_962384 ch25.qxd 2/3/05 12:23 AM Page 606 CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX Adding to the Complexity of Personal Change Kristine Quade E ach of us has identified a primary reason we have been called to this work. In addition, we have discovered while perfecting our practice as organiza- tion development consultants that our primary reason was actually sec- ondary. What comes to the forefront is a primary responsibility for perfecting the practitioner in order to be of useful service to our clients. There have been two important shifts in my own understanding of this responsibility. The first shift was in coming to understand the work articulated in the prior chapter written by Robert Tannenbaum and Saul Eisen about the “personhood” of the consultant and the responsibility for being self-aware. The second shift was in 1998 at the OD Congress in Monterrey, Mexico. A question was posed to the founder of OD in Mexico, Dr. Ezequiel Nieto Cardoza. The participant asked: “How can we justify charging so much for our services?” Nieto responded, “We are the tool. We are the only tool that we bring to the client system. If we allow ourselves to become rusty, to ignore our worth and our strength, then we have nothing of value to offer our clients.” He went on to say, “We are the instrument that is unique, needing to be healthy, balanced, in order to do good work. There- fore, we must charge for this special unique instrument that cannot be replicated.” These two shifts became the foundation for the development of the active change model (ACM) articulated in The Conscious Consultant: Mastering Change from the Inside Out (Quade & Brown, 2002). Utilizing the active change model to consciously develop our “personhood” provides the means to strengthen the results of our work. 607 ∂ ∂ 34_962384 ch26.qxd 2/3/05 12:21 AM Page 607 The choice of “active” as a verb comes from an understanding that there is also reactive change. In reactive change we are in response to a situation that we perceive as outside of ourselves and beyond our ability to cope with. “It hap- pened to me—I had no choice!” is a reaction to the outside force. We are in this reactive place when we are not aware of the choices we could make and often end up making the same choices and doing what we have always done, regard- less of whether it works or not. Change is going to happen, even if we try to ignore it and hope it will go away. The situation may continue to deteriorate, or we could be surprised when the change sneaks up to surprise us. We are thus caught in the cycle of reactive change. Active change, on the other hand, is acknowledging we can choose from pos- sible options and take the action that is the best at that time. To discover the possibilities, we have to slow down our reaction process and expand our under- standing of how we engage with ourselves or the situation “in the moment.” Understanding that change is continuous and sometimes unwelcome, the conscious practice of change leads to an active engagement in the outcomes. The active change model has six phases: Perceive, Describe, Accept, Question, Act, and Change (see Figure 26.1). When reading through these steps, please keep in mind that this short chapter is but an outline from a larger body of work and brings the prior chapter into application. 608 PRACTICING ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT, 2ND EDITION Act Question Accept Describe Perceive Change Perceive Perceive Perceive Figure 26.1. The Active Change Model 34_962384 ch26.qxd 2/3/05 12:21 AM Page 608 PERCEIVE The first step in slowing down our reactive process is to be reflective about what we perceive. This is actually a VERY hard thing to do. By questioning our own perception, we open the door to acknowledge something that is different from reality, as we have constructed it, which may or may not be accurate. Among the things that get in the way of accurate perception are blocks, denial, attach- ment, mindset, or projection (see Figure 26.2). Blocks Blocks are barriers that we have erected to protect the vulnerable parts of our selves. We can either be hiding behind our masks; in fantasy, which is based on our distortions; not willing to expose that soft spot of vulnerability; or just not dealing with the issue “in the here and now.” An example of a block might be found when encountering our own “ism” such as racism, genderism, sexism, or any others. Being a practitioner working with human systems implies that we understand all aspects of the human system and are able to work with any perspective with ease and grace. The scariest place an OD practitioner could be is discovering that “I am having ‘ism’ thoughts.” The statement implies that we may not be as neutral as we need to be and that strong judgments may be driving our reactions to data in the sys- tem. To protect ourselves from a limiting belief, there is a tendency to erect a ADDING TO THE COMPLEXITY OF PERSONAL CHANGE 609 Denial Mindset Blocks Attachment Projection Perceive Figure 26.2. Perceiving 34_962384 ch26.qxd 2/3/05 12:21 AM Page 609 block that manifests itself in a statement such as, “I don’t see color, gender, age, or other differences.” Hiding behind a block gives the illusion of safety, which is actually an unconscious and dangerous place when consulting in complex human systems. The real impact is that I have blocked myself from understanding my own personhood and therefore I have closed myself off from experiencing another person’s unique richness because of a different background, experiences, and knowledge. An inability to explore a block results in a distorted perspective of reality. It creates a world-view based on holes or blind spots leading to reactive responses rather than conscious choices and active change. Denial Denial occurs when something is actually happening but we refuse to acknowl- edge it. The words of denial are “everything is fine”; denial acts as a protection against shame, blame, and guilt. I often hear the question, “So how is it going?” as a reconnecting question. I can choose to lie and say: “Wow, I am so busy right now, I can’t see myself coming or going,” which would create the aura that I am a busy and successful practitioner. Or I can say, “Work is slow and I don’t have any work/projects right now,” which would raise personal vulnera- bility. Admitting I am scared about facing this issue is to admit that I may not be fulfilling all my commitments in my current job and that I may not be appro- priately valued. The lack of perceived value may keep me from asking friends for help, or developing alternatives to keep me active may be too overwhelm- ing. Denial acts as a cloud around my head so that I don’t have to face a painful reality, especially when there are obligations and a family to support. I am essentially saying to myself that not admitting what is out there is better than facing it with courage and authenticity. Attachment Attachment develops when there is a belief that groupings or clusters of people or things are a certain way despite influencing external factors. We fool our- selves that we are in control and safe by saying that we understand something because we see all the components as the same. The result is that we become detached from reality. An example of an attachment belief is that people from a certain country are poor, uneducated, aggressive, untrustworthy, or whatever. If I choose to see grouping as the same, I become detached from the reality that there are actually many differences to discover and that I really don’t know what I think I know. I may have to admit that my prior belief has not served me well and that I am closed rather than open when working in human systems. 610 PRACTICING ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT, 2ND EDITION 34_962384 ch26.qxd 2/3/05 12:21 AM Page 610 . practitioners effort- lessly flowing in an unfolding process with their clients. They are one piece with their well-integrated knowledge-skills-values-techniques-methods-experience- sense of self work. There- fore, we must charge for this special unique instrument that cannot be replicated.” These two shifts became the foundation for the development of the active change model (ACM) articulated. human element. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 606 PRACTICING ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT, 2ND EDITION 33_962384 ch25.qxd 2/3/05 12:23 AM Page 606 CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX Adding to the Complexity of Personal