A Theme from Reflecting on my Practice: Humanising organisations – reconnecting teams around honest conversations

 

I find that when people are heard properly half the work is done and then helping them find their wisdom and own response flows easily (Desiree Paulsen, 2023)

During March to August 2023, the bulk of my work has been about helping teams to reconnect with each other and have honest conversations. The purpose of the gatherings may be different but underneath it all is about rebuilding relationships and reconnecting teams to each other, their organisational purpose and their work. Transitioning teams from online to in person engagement is another big area of work as many teams are once more coming together in person. Being together in person helps teams to be more human together, hear each other better as full embodied beings, find consensus much easier and work at more depth relationally. These sessions are practical sessions to build team skills and build capacity to have honest conversations, work more authentically together and communicate more constructively. Finding ways to give and receive feedback is critical as often online engagement has resulted in perceptions to build up and people often hide behind their screens and avoid face to face engagement. This leaves a lot to interpretation and sometimes can result in huge misunderstandings. What creates further tension is a lack of clearing the air between people in ways that are constructive – multiply this a couple of times between people and you have tensions that can fester and bubble beneath the surface of organisational life making it hard to work together or get the best out of each other.

In May, June, July there were smaller interventions with different organisational teams (all of these processes were face to face, except for courageous conversations training which was online with a team that were situated in different countries) – the work conducted were as follows: a values clarification process, strategic mid year review processes, a sexual harassment policy discussion, team cohesion processes, feedback workshops on transformation processes, a series of capacity building workshops on how to have brave conversations.

 All of these had the same theme in common. Bringing teams together for honest conversations and reconnecting teams in new forms of engagement towards alignment to the organisational values and purpose.

As a consultant one of the roles is to help the team/ organisation to see themselves more clearly and this is where individual interviews or focus groups with smaller teams before a group process can be very useful. Then to mirror back to the team/organisation what has emerged – using a thematic approach without directly quoting who said what. Once this has been done – the team is broken up into smaller groups who do some further inquiry into what has emerged and do some sense-making of these themes, sometimes adding or clarifying what has been presented by the facilitator - this is done as a whole group and helps them to build it into a bigger picture which they all can own. This is a very useful process in building a sense of facing reality – an honest picture of where things are at and creating the foundation and data for further honest engagement. At this point the facilitator might do some input on the sense-making and provide useful organisational frameworks that help to better understand why things are as they are eg. Phases of group development or organisational phases could be one such framework. There are others which would be chosen depending on the themes that have come through – this would be where the consultant draws on their expertise and lens to assist the team to see itself and its challenges more clearly. At this point there may be some agreements or next steps on clearing processes which might need to happen between people. The consultant can provide tools for this and also offer to mediate if needs be. This can happen outside of the group process. There could be some practice sessions in pairs to use the tool without delving into the actual issues yet - here it might be useful to invite the group to self-select a partner they feel comfortable with.

Once the groups reconvene, there may need to be moments of reconnection around their organisational purpose, values and practices as well as opportunities to discuss areas that need transformation and helping these teams to make sense of their challenges and clarify their purpose and values.

Team cohesion processes are about identifying what were issues that teams needed to address at a relational level and finding ways to give and receive feedback in constructive ways. Often the teams would reflect that they do not give sufficient time to come together meaningfully and connect relationally or around the work. The loss of connection and virtual work arrangements often led to misunderstandings and misconceptions as well as strategic drift. It seemed that all of these teams were in dire need of good honest connecting conversations and some needed external facilitation to enable them to have it in a contained manner. A deep listening exercise here might also be useful where a pair or triad can practice listening actively together and sharing their stories (the facilitator could provide the topic eg. what inspires me about my work or what I am challenged by in my work) - see at the end of the article has a few useful links for guidelines on doing such exercises.

The processes are designed in ways that allow teams to reflect on their own, meet intimately in pairs or triads, small groups and then have good plenary engagement often in circles (which is a healing format). These processes all provide the social structures that help teams find safety in connecting differently, uncovering what their challenges are, appreciating each other differently and speaking about the work in ways that feel stimulating and motivating.  

Many of these sessions helped teams to become more real and honest with each other in ways that they had not done before. Having any external facilitator helped the group to feel free and contained to speak their minds and hearts.

The work completed in the last 6 months reveal to me that organisations are in need of spaces for honest engagement – it appears that a lot has been hidden below the surface during the two years of COVID and in some cases organisations were functioning almost at a pseudo relational level – people hiding behind screens was the norm and for some who may be feeling demotivated for various reasons work could happen almost at a minimal relational functioning level. Deeper more authentic relational work is becoming more of a need – particularly due to virtual and hybrid work as well as for teams who are moving from virtual back to in person work.

 It seems that work that focusses on personal well being is also necessary and needing to be built into all processes as people are feeling the stress of back to normal work beyond the previous remote work which was for some a comfort zone where they did not need to engage with colleagues as much. For those who continue remote and hybrid arrangements new practices for organisational functioning need to be found and some are caught in bad patterns or habits of less meetings or shorter meetings which is not serving them well.

DEI processes and training is a critical part of humanising organisations – DEI awareness and education, ways to surface issues and challenges anonymously if staff do not feel safe, creating spaces for psychological safety, finding ways to give and receive honest feedback and create clearing processes for those who need it, training on unconscious and conscious bias, capacity building for having brave conversations, embedding DEI across work streams, ensuring organisational DEI policies are in place to ensure justice for those who experience discrimination and need to take action. Leadership and team development is a big need as well - leaders play a key role in ensuring they practice leadership in ways that build authentic teams where all staff have a voice and everyone experiences inclusion, equity and belonging.

As facilitators we are being called to model a humanising approach in the work we do – it requires deep listening and sensing into these systems and asking the kinds of questions that help teams to connect more with themselves and each other. There is a level of desensitising that has happened during the years of being remote and as is common in unusual stressful and crisis times, there are high levels of toxicity and bullying behaviours that have emerged. Guiding teams through a well held process where staff become brave to call out behaviours that are unhealthy and discriminatory and describe the impact it has on them - in doing this we help staff to hear each other and be made aware of how toxic behaviours affect our colleagues. The strain is felt heavily in these processes and I am grateful to be doing the work in partnership with colleagues, but where I am alone I feel I need to protect myself and find ways to breathe it all out as the impact is felt, and the weight of what is needed is heavy as teams rely on facilitators to guide them through these difficult moments. Being intentional about pacing myself and self care, I went on a self care retreat for the first time in years and came back feeling renewed and refreshed and ready to continue the work having filled my well and replenished my inner resources and spirit.

I need to be mindful about how I show up as a facilitator and what I mirror back in the analysis and sense-making aspects of the work as this is a moment of the organisational teams facing themselves and for individuals to think about their role and contribution – I find that when people are heard properly half the work is done and then helping them find their wisdom and own response flows easily.

Finding a balance between being interventionist and allowing the group to find their own way is a balancing act. Deciding what to offer the group by way of frameworks or tools and methodologies that can assist them in their transformation journeys, but then at the same time helping teams to embed new practices which can only happen with long term work and sadly either due to budgets or commitment not all teams contract for longer term processes. This is ongoing organisational health and well-being work which if neglected will impact enormously on the organisational effectiveness and practices. The more an organisation builds its capacity to be more authentic and relational the better it will be at being strategic and intentional in its practice. 

See here for some useful exercises and frameworks to use in group process Tools and Exercises - The Barefoot Guide Connection and Liberating Structures - 1. 1-2-4-All