Change in groups

When enough individuals in the group embrace the anxiety associated with change, making a conscious effort to take back their projections, the resulting process of change is chaotic, painful and deep.

The change model shows four areas of change and the four transformations that take a group through these four steps.  There is a vortex in the middle where deep and unpredictable change happens, sometimes with destructive results.  The outer area shows where teams regress to safer less authentic or effective behaviours, where no change happens.  The orange centre describes the steps groups may follow as they move through the cycle of change.  Of course it is unlikely that any group will navigate a change down the centre of the model.  It is more likely that they will find themselves either languishing in the backwaters of regress or struggling desperately for survival in the maelstrom.  Perhaps change leadership is about building the critical mass to navigate through these waters of change. 

Hanging On

When the threat of change emerges we find the group clinging mindlessly to an inappropriate frame of reference.  The group protect themselves from dealing with the issues by idealising some people and denegrating others (heroes  and scapegoats). The task of the group is to take ownership of the need for change as well as their resistance to the new world.

Entry into the next phase takes place when a critical mass of members start talking about the change and what they need to do about it.  They take responsibility for the issues.

Not all groups can take this step.  Some groups are so lost in defensive routines (idealising, vilifying, envy) that they are quite unable to talk about the change itself and how it will affect them.  They regress into a state of denial.  We still have groups living in fenced-off trailer parks in this country, clinging to an old way of seeing the world rather than engaging in the freedom and tensions brought in by the democratic process. 

I suggest the role of the team coach, in this phase, is to surface the clinging behaviour and gently assist the group to talk about the change itself.

Working Through

The group talk about their experience of the change.  This is the “talk-shop”.  For this to be effective the group need to let down their guard enough to listen to each other at a deep level.  However, they also need to maintain enough structure to prevent members being swept away by emotions, losing sight of their integrity (riot behaviour).   The group regresses when members can’t listen to each other about their personal experience of the change.

Entry into the next phase is made possible by a critical mass within the group exploring their past, present and anticipated future experiences together.  As they hold this conversation, they engage in a deep sharing and mutual discovery. 

I suggest the role of the team coach is to hold the conversation space and assist the team to create permeable boundaries, to expand emotional boundaries and to articulate a shared description of the focal group issue.

Some members may be frustrated by the talk-shop and may call for action.  However the actions they suggest are often simplistic and usually do not take the rest of the group into account.  Quite often is really another excuse for inaction.   I attended a workshop to chart the way forward in a project to deal with HIV in our country.  This was a joint venture between our electrical power provider and a large financial services group.  The delegates included members from each organisation, academics working the field and a number of facilitators.  The electrical team kept calling for action.  ”We have had enough of the talk” they said.  They challenged the delegates, the process and the facilitators of the session.  But they had no solutions and no approach.  Eventually the workshop disintegrated.

Letting Go

The deep sharing prepares the members to acknowledge to each other that they can no longer behave in the old way.  ”Embracing the void” means letting go of the old before they have learnt the new.  The task of the team is to fully experience the despair, hopelessness and emptiness associated with the death of the current way of dealing with the focal issue.  When the team has reached this place they are ready for a critical mass to take ownership of their emotions and their intellectual and imaginative abilities and decide to test new approaches.  This critical mass may take the group into the next phase.  

Some of the group may not be willing to engage in the next process and become lost in emptiness. They become the living dead.

I have worked with teams within corporates who have grappled with empowerment.  There is an interesting point at which they realise they are no longer being guided in everything they do and they have to marshall their creativity and intent.

I suggest the team coach can play a support role here to enable the team to embrace the anxieties of the void as they manage the tension between relaxing in their lack of understanding and to take responsibility for transformation. The coach should also be aware of individuals requiring individual coaching.  Personal Learning Contracts become a powerful tool in helping the team out of the void.

Moving Beyond

Members begin a process of awkward experimentation, allowing themselves and others to fail as they wait for the penny to drop.

Transformation is attained when a core group integrate new meanings and new patterns of behaviour.

Some groups in this phase just can’t bring them to commit to a particular solution.  There is always something else to try out.   And this is the regressive solution.  The group, permanently unstable, lost in continuous experimentation, unable to make a final decision about how to operate.

I suggest the role of team coach is to support the team in the learning process and assist them to deal with the uncertainty, awkwardness and tentativeness inherent in the phase. The coach should also know when to stand aside as the team launches into a new phase of productivity.

Conclusion
Working with unconcious issues should be done with great care.  But it is a powerful step to help groups acknowledge that although they are talking in one direction, there is an unconcious process leading them in another.  I have on occasion stopped a workshop and asked the group what was going on. This has sometimes given the group an opportunity to acknowledge and accept unconscious anxieties, allowing them to move on. I have, though, had groups respond that there is nothing going on and that it is just my “stuff”.  This model has helped me understand some of the behaviours in groups as they deal with change.  Perhaps my next note should comment more on the unconcious processes that sutain this cycle of change.

This note is based on a paper by Gemmill and Wynkoop (1991) who describe the psychodynamics of transformation in small groups.   Gemmill, G, Wynkoop, C. (1991).  The psychodynamics of small group transformation.  Small Group Research, 22, 4-23.

A quick prioritisation tool

I have just completed a workshop with a client who wanted to work through a long list of actions in a very short time.  They wanted to focus on the priorities without losing the value of less urgent work.  

During the briefing session, before the workshop, I suggested we use the matrix Steven Covey presents in his book “The Seven Habits of Highly Succesful People”.   I can’t remember exactly how Steven Covey presents the matrix but at the start of the workshop, I offered this view on a flip chart:

The team agreed the approach and we began.  The team agreed a short list of “priority 1″ actions.  They also listed issues that were important, but not urgent.  Steven Covey suggests that when our planning is working we will spend most of our time in this quadrant.  After going through the list we just had time to list other impacts on the programme as well as Final Decisions and Actions before we closed the sesson.  

The sponsor sent me the following note this morning:

“The matrix you used, was simple yet very-very effective and [the key players] and I’m sure the entire audience found it to be a very quick and effective way to open discussions of this nature.  Thank you for your input and for always being open to suggestions during your facilitation with us.”

Here are some pointers coming out of my reflection on the session:

1. Let them make it all their own.  One of the participants suggested we turn the numbering around to align with the priorities.   I really like it when this happens early in a workshop because it shows the participants are involved.  But more importantly, it is an opportunity for me hand ownership over to the group.   So we changed the matrix to:
2. Allow some early exploration.  The first iteration is always more difficult.  So I allowed a little more time.  The team got into a little more detail than we could afford for each of the items.  However, as each person speaks they invest a little more emotional energy in the outcome.  And early in a workshop the team sometimes needs to wander far beyond the agreed boundaries just to understand the type of information or conversation we are trying to avoid.  
3. Set the timer.  We had very little time for discussion.  We agreed to spend 2 minutes per item.  Just enough to agree the priority, the deadline, the responsibility and any other interesting facts.
4. Put on a “blue hat”.  After the fourth item I stopped and asked how the process was working for the team.  This is Eduard de Bono’s “blue hat” to review the process.  This is essential in any workshop, especially if you are doing something new with the team.
5. Work with extraordinary clients.  The session went well.  The matrix clearly was a good idea.  I find I have the best ideas when I work with clients who I trust and who trust me to come up with tools and solutions.  
6. The team knows.  The team finished with a manageable list of Urgent and Important issues.  If the list of “Priority 1″ issues had been longer, it would have been necessary to consider other criteria for prioritisation.  I would have suggested a short brainstorm activity to list the criteria and agree the most important. 
7. Sweat the tool.  The same 2×2 matrix can be used with any different criteria for prioritising projects.  At a strategic level it may be important to look at “cost” versus “impact” or “difficulty to deliver” versus “strategic alignment”.

By the way – Albert has a posting describing the Covey Model with his own commentary on his blog Growing Clients.

Insights on learning

After my last post on this blog in 2008 I put down my coaching and facilitation tools, cleaned and loaded my palette, soaked my brushes and painted.  (I never stretch paper).  It felt so good to do watercolours again.  Somehow I need to make time to sit and paint.  But that is for another discussion.  I want to reflect on how I learnt new skills as a painter

I have been reading books on watercolour technique by Charles Reid.  He has adapted alla prima oil technique (working on a painting from start to finish in one go) to watercolour.  Contrary to accepted wisdom, he will start with the darkest dark, softening edges and linking swatches with middle values.  He leaves carefully placed white paper to control the flow of colours and for highlights.  Rather than mixing on the palette, he allows colours to mix on the paper.  He does not push colour.  One stroke of wet and the colours are left to do what they want.  Though it sounds random, he knows exactly what he is doing and the process allows for exciting unplanned effects.  This is real skill.

His pictures are vibrant, wild and crackle with life.  I wanted this for my work.

Though I read his books often, I did not learn any technique.  I just enjoyed the pictures.  This holiday I determined to learn.  I read the words in the books.  Read and understood.  It was very difficult.  I found it hard to complete reading each paragraph.  I found I could only read a short passage, just one part of how he did a painting, or the instructions on how to paint an eye, for instance, before I stopped understanding the words.  So I painted, almost every day, sometimes all day and late into the night.  But my paintings remained laboured, painstaking and careful, and frustrating.

So I read again and again.  I wanted to try something more risky and rewarding so I sat and painted with Charles Reid open next to me,  following step by step.  One mess after another.   

 

  

When I thought I was ready I had another go at a complete picture, part of which is shown below:

My final attempt somehow it worked better.   see below:

I tried to stick to the approach.  You can see the reds and blues in her legs.  This was exciting and had all the chance to fail.  But I like the result.  To see the whole picture you can look in my watercolour blog.  

Why was it so difficult to read?  Perhaps it has something to do with:

• Looking at the pictures being a right brain, creative and intuitive activity
• But readingon how to recreate technique being a left-brain, linear, cognitive activity.  

There must be tons of papers written on this.

As I reflected on this experience I noted:

• Practice with reflection is key.
• The unfamiliar really can be quite daunting.  
• It is possible to move from understanding the written word to applying the learings in practice, but it is hard work.  
• Maybe growth is not about sweeping change but many incremental, cumulative adjustments.  My learning came in small steps.  I found small changes happening.  I was able to focus on the small planes of light and colour and portray them as smaller, more caringly placed swatches of watercolour than before.  Maybe the secret is to keep up the pressure for transformation but facilitate lots of small, non-returnable changes.  And the next time you look, the world is different.
• It felt really good to put my work out for others to see, even though my watercolour blog is very young and unknown.  
• Care – In his watercolour class, Ryno Swart  taught us to be caring not careful and that is a beautiful distinction.
• This was hard work.  But it was such fun.  What is this passion?  I do an exercise from Jim Collins, with clients who are developing their strategy.  They have to define their passion, what they can be the best at in the world and an economic ratio that makes them look at their business in a fresh way.  I come across many individuals and teams who really don’t know their passion.  But for me when I paint I am drawn into my very own world where all else becomes irrelevant.  And the hard work is full of joy.