Navigating Change in Difficult Times
As a leader, we all have those months and seasons where the work is churn for us. I’m defining churn here as the seasons of work that are all about working with little time for rest and renewal. Leaders have experienced an unprecedented amount of change in the last few years. According to McKinsey & Company, this is the new era of organizational upheaval for all leaders.
What’s a leader to do with all this change? Here are some helpful resources from the July 2023 Fully Human | Resources newsletter. First, we learn what superpowers that McKinsey & Company suggest for leadership in changing times. Second, we move into a series for rebooting your leadership with a FREE facilitation guide. Then, we hear from Myrna Jelman – organization development consultant and executive coach – how we can work with human nature as leaders. You ready?
The Future of Work
I’m excited to introduce you to my colleague, Myrna Jelman. Myrna and I first connected in January 2021 through a Structure of Belonging virtual series with Peter Block.
Myrna Jelman is the founder of Springblue, a London-based consultancy specializing in Leadership, Organization Development, and Executive Coaching. Myrna has worked with global organizations, central government and NGOs for over 25 years and brings her humanistic psychology training into organizations to create more human cultures. She now wants to take her expertise to the next challenge by promoting not only human cultures but also human structures and purpose-led strategy.
In this 28-minute conversation, Myrna and I discuss how the state of constant upheaval is impacting the workplace at every level from strategy to leadership to frontline workers to teams. We discuss these questions:
· How is organization upheaval disrupting our workplaces? Spoiler alert – Myrna provides a hearty list of assumptions that have become outdated. Access the full list and article links at the end of this post.
· Considering what’s happening in our workplaces, what are some principles we can use to see these dynamics change? Myrna shares some slides about psychological safety, the SCARF model, and a cohesive team model.
· What are some examples you’ve seen where these principles can change things? Myrna shares examples about working with frontline workers on reflection & trust, using design practices through Liberating Structures, and learning basic coaching skills to promote listening and an environment of inquiry.
· What are some future workplace trends? Myrna drops some great examples like sociocracy, the OS Canvas by The Ready, the concept of leaderhood, the TEAL movement, and evolutionary purpose. She says that organizations using these trends might save us.
This conversation felt like an organization development master class to me. Here are the list of assumptions and articles that Myrna references in our interview.
Evaluation of Impact of a Transformative Leadership Programme at DSM
https://www.springblueconsulting.com/_files/ugd/2c0757_444ac6aa26b04adeab7d0350172a647b.pdf
Sustainability and Purpose: Humanity at work
https://www.springblueconsulting.com/_files/ugd/2c0757_14616c432ce24016b030d1b71b783da0.pdf
Myrna’s Assumption List:
We believe people can’t take the truth
We believe strategy is king and making things happen is junior
We believe that conveying a thought can motivate or reassure people (‘You need to be more strategic’, ‘You’ll be fine’)
We believe hierarchy is the only way to organise ourselves out of chaos
We leave our conscience at the door at work because rules about performance remove the need to use it
We think change can always be designed and planned
We think targets motivate people
We think resistance to change is lack of willingness to move
We think it is not normal to have hurt feelings in relationships and that others should understand us
We believe the worst of other people, but we always mean well
We think emotions and feelings are negative things to be avoided
We believe it is normal to be exploited in organisations as a price to pay for safety, or the illusion of safety
We believe we can’t expect to be happy in organisations
How can we learn to navigate change as a strong team and cascade that work throughout the organization? That’s a question we hear a lot from our clients. Loftis Partners offers the Navigating Change retreat with three goals in mind for our participants:
Build connection
Understanding change at different levels
Co-creating a plan to move the organization forward
Find out more here.