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Got Momentum?
Ever leave a work meeting, conference, or retreat with a surge of energy and ideas around “what” to do to innovate and improve, yet soon afterward revert to familiar habits, unclear about how to sustain the innovation and momentum?
Does your team’s follow-through require the cooperation of others to build on innovative ideas and implement them?
No matter how enlightening the retreat, or how sophisticated our processes for staying informed and connected thereafter, we’re often challenged to find more meaningful ways to stay engaged. On top of a busy work schedule, we need relevant, productive ways to share knowledge and to create lasting new solutions together – in integrated, sustainable, everyday ways.
At planning meetings and retreats people often devote much time to designing new “artifacts” – programs, structures, processes, roles, etc. for growing and making things better, faster, cheaper, more efficient, and so on. That’s all good – great, even; except when little to no time is spent on behaviors, norms, mindsets, and assumptions that will be essential to breathing life into those artifacts and moving the plans forward. What good is a top-notch growth strategy if your team doesn’t have the internal muscle—or as we say, “appreciative capacities”—for seeing it through and sustaining it over the long haul?
Want your team to sustain momentum like none other? Consider the following key learnings I’ve gathered over the years:
FIRST - Change Is A Journey, Not An Event.
Which is more important, really: planning a great wedding or nurturing a great marriage? Often organizations spend so much energy scheduling the next planning offsite that they overlook the importance of engaging their workforce so that strategic decisions are made everyday, consistently throughout the system. Don’t get me wrong; planning events are important – and can be both productive and fun if facilitated well. But more important than the event is the journey forward: the consistent inquiry into leading practices and what gives life; the expansive search for bold, yet grounded and relevant possibilities; and the capacity to integrate these efforts into standard routines and practice.
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SECOND - Lasting Change Examines The Iceberg Above And Below The Water’s Surface.
There is only so much of an organization’s culture that we can readily see, and often it’s that which we can’t see that obstructs our ability to sail full speed ahead.
Below the surface of cultural artifacts (buildings, customs, and symbols) are the behaviors, norms, values, and assumptions that support (or not) lasting positive change. Some behavioral patterns are hard to see right away, and may make people feel vulnerable, even uncomfortable, when surfaced in a conversation. Behaviors and assumptions have to be tended, however, as any new plan, program, or process is only as good as the people who implement it. Whether one-on-one with a colleague or with the help of an executive coach, take the time to dive below the water’s surface – appreciatively – and be open to the learning and readiness for follow-through that’s there to surface.
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THIRD - Engage The Whole System.
Planning meetings are often reserved for the powerful elite, the lucky few seated in a corner office. The wisdom and know-how of these leaders is important, but so is the brain and muscle power of those on the line who execute day to day. Think the office clerk has nothing to contribute beyond making copies? Think again. People commit to what they help to create. Harness the stories, experiences, and ideas of the masses and commitment and follow-through will flourish. But more than being inclusive, “wholeness” makes possible “relatedness” without which sustainability cannot exist. My dear friend and colleague, Sallie Lee, refers to this as the three relationships essential to achieving wholeness:
- The relationship of “I” to “WE” – our connection to each other, the relationships that brought us together;
- The relationship of “I” to “IT” – an individual care and concern about a central topic or focus;
- The relationship of “WE” to “IT” – our shared concern and focus on that topic.
Organizations often recognize the importance of the first relationship, “I” to “WE,” even when they’re not masters of collaboration – hence the consistent demand for “teambuilding” like services that bring diverse yet interdependent people and teams together. The often-overlooked relationships, however, are the second and third: our individual and collective relationships with the topic at hand, the “IT”. What good is building and strengthening team member relationships if you don’t have a clear, shared topic to focus on and work toward together? Taking the time to clarify what matters, the “IT,” and to then affirm why it matters to us individually and collectively is a critical step to achieving lasting, sustainable change – the kind that David Cooperrider refers to as “change at the scale of the whole”.
FOURTH - Flex Some Muscle: Strengthen Internal Appreciative Capacities For Lasting Change.
Take the time to sharpen much-needed skills for discovering and elevating individual and group strengths. Increase awareness about everyday choice points, behaviors, and actions that generate and sustain lasting positive change – cooperatively. In our work we call this “slowing down so you can speed up.”
Below are the five core “Appreciative Capacities” we’ve found essential to sustaining momentum:
- Collaborative Capacity – The ability to invite, engage and involve many (in a positive way) in a conversation around what matters; the ability to create an environment where people are willing to share their thinking, listen to other points of view, and move into action – together.
- Affirmative Capacity – The habit of seeing the world with an appreciative eye; to notice and articulate what is good, healthy, constructive and life giving.
- Reframing Capacity – The ability to seek out and study a new frame or worldview; to be open to new concepts, ideas, perspectives and possibilities.
- Emergent Capacity – To live present in the moment; to be able to remain open to allow possibilities to emerge.
- Potential Capacity – The ability to see the positive possibilities that are resident for oneself, others, a group/team, organization, or community.
Leaders who mobilize individuals and groups to engage in more participative and collaborative conversations not only “get momentum” but they take it a step further and sustain positive change practices over time. They seek out and affirm the strengths of others; they reframe problems in order to see, create, and actively pursue new leads and opportunities; and perhaps most importantly, they ask positive questions in ways that help us stay open to learning, while fostering connection and collaboration – even when the going gets tough.
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In summary, to sustain your group or organization’s momentum you need to nurture a “living” plan. Worry less about the nicely bound credenza ware and instead engage your team in appreciative, meaningful, everyday ways. You’re sure to get where you’re going faster, and really enjoy the ride.
Want to learn more about sustaining momentum in your group or team? Contact Jen Hetzel Silbert or check out our Appreciative Inquiry Workshops for a “Sustaining Appreciative Capacities” workshop near you.
Got Momentum?
Ever leave a work meeting, conference, or retreat with a surge of energy and ideas around “what” to do to innovate and improve, yet soon afterward revert to familiar habits, unclear about how to sustain the innovation and momentum?
Does your team’s follow-through require the cooperation of others to build on innovative ideas and implement them?
No matter how enlightening the retreat, or how sophisticated our processes for staying informed and connected thereafter, we’re often challenged to find more meaningful ways to stay engaged. On top of a busy work schedule, we need relevant, productive ways to share knowledge and to create lasting new solutions together – in integrated, sustainable, everyday ways.
At planning meetings and retreats people often devote much time to designing new “artifacts” – programs, structures, processes, roles, etc. for growing and making things better, faster, cheaper, more efficient, and so on. That’s all good – great, even; except when little to no time is spent on behaviors, norms, mindsets, and assumptions that will be essential to breathing life into those artifacts and moving the plans forward. What good is a top-notch growth strategy if your team doesn’t have the internal muscle—or as we say, “appreciative capacities”—for seeing it through and sustaining it over the long haul?
Want your team to sustain momentum like none other? Consider the following key learnings I’ve gathered over the years:
FIRST - Change Is A Journey, Not An Event.
Which is more important, really: planning a great wedding or nurturing a great marriage? Often organizations spend so much energy scheduling the next planning offsite that they overlook the importance of engaging their workforce so that strategic decisions are made everyday, consistently throughout the system. Don’t get me wrong; planning events are important – and can be both productive and fun if facilitated well. But more important than the event is the journey forward: the consistent inquiry into leading practices and what gives life; the expansive search for bold, yet grounded and relevant possibilities; and the capacity to integrate these efforts into standard routines and practice.
|
SECOND - Lasting Change Examines The Iceberg Above And Below The Water’s Surface.
There is only so much of an organization’s culture that we can readily see, and often it’s that which we can’t see that obstructs our ability to sail full speed ahead.
Below the surface of cultural artifacts (buildings, customs, and symbols) are the behaviors, norms, values, and assumptions that support (or not) lasting positive change. Some behavioral patterns are hard to see right away, and may make people feel vulnerable, even uncomfortable, when surfaced in a conversation. Behaviors and assumptions have to be tended, however, as any new plan, program, or process is only as good as the people who implement it. Whether one-on-one with a colleague or with the help of an executive coach, take the time to dive below the water’s surface – appreciatively – and be open to the learning and readiness for follow-through that’s there to surface.
|
THIRD - Engage The Whole System.
Planning meetings are often reserved for the powerful elite, the lucky few seated in a corner office. The wisdom and know-how of these leaders is important, but so is the brain and muscle power of those on the line who execute day to day. Think the office clerk has nothing to contribute beyond making copies? Think again. People commit to what they help to create. Harness the stories, experiences, and ideas of the masses and commitment and follow-through will flourish. But more than being inclusive, “wholeness” makes possible “relatedness” without which sustainability cannot exist. My dear friend and colleague, Sallie Lee, refers to this as the three relationships essential to achieving wholeness:
- The relationship of “I” to “WE” – our connection to each other, the relationships that brought us together;
- The relationship of “I” to “IT” – an individual care and concern about a central topic or focus;
- The relationship of “WE” to “IT” – our shared concern and focus on that topic.
Organizations often recognize the importance of the first relationship, “I” to “WE,” even when they’re not masters of collaboration – hence the consistent demand for “teambuilding” like services that bring diverse yet interdependent people and teams together. The often-overlooked relationships, however, are the second and third: our individual and collective relationships with the topic at hand, the “IT”. What good is building and strengthening team member relationships if you don’t have a clear, shared topic to focus on and work toward together? Taking the time to clarify what matters, the “IT,” and to then affirm why it matters to us individually and collectively is a critical step to achieving lasting, sustainable change – the kind that David Cooperrider refers to as “change at the scale of the whole”.
FOURTH - Flex Some Muscle: Strengthen Internal Appreciative Capacities For Lasting Change.
Take the time to sharpen much-needed skills for discovering and elevating individual and group strengths. Increase awareness about everyday choice points, behaviors, and actions that generate and sustain lasting positive change – cooperatively. In our work we call this “slowing down so you can speed up.”
Below are the five core “Appreciative Capacities” we’ve found essential to sustaining momentum:
- Collaborative Capacity – The ability to invite, engage and involve many (in a positive way) in a conversation around what matters; the ability to create an environment where people are willing to share their thinking, listen to other points of view, and move into action – together.
- Affirmative Capacity – The habit of seeing the world with an appreciative eye; to notice and articulate what is good, healthy, constructive and life giving.
- Reframing Capacity – The ability to seek out and study a new frame or worldview; to be open to new concepts, ideas, perspectives and possibilities.
- Emergent Capacity – To live present in the moment; to be able to remain open to allow possibilities to emerge.
- Potential Capacity – The ability to see the positive possibilities that are resident for oneself, others, a group/team, organization, or community.
Leaders who mobilize individuals and groups to engage in more participative and collaborative conversations not only “get momentum” but they take it a step further and sustain positive change practices over time. They seek out and affirm the strengths of others; they reframe problems in order to see, create, and actively pursue new leads and opportunities; and perhaps most importantly, they ask positive questions in ways that help us stay open to learning, while fostering connection and collaboration – even when the going gets tough.
|
In summary, to sustain your group or organization’s momentum you need to nurture a “living” plan. Worry less about the nicely bound credenza ware and instead engage your team in appreciative, meaningful, everyday ways. You’re sure to get where you’re going faster, and really enjoy the ride.
Want to learn more about sustaining momentum in your group or team? Contact Jen Hetzel Silbert or check out our Appreciative Inquiry Workshops for a “Sustaining Appreciative Capacities” workshop near you.
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