As you know from previous posts, I have been wondering if anyone has used the power of groups to change organizational culture. Yes they have, with simple protocols that have proven effective!
Joan Wangler has been building resilience into the fabric of society in a little corner near Washington – the Goddard Space Center. For 8 years, she has been leading creative learning groups and coaching young leaders. She since began the Civility Collaborative, which meets regularly at Goddard and has improved the business culture from the inside out.
"We share observations about our own civility, make recommendations about what we are reading on civility, we reach out to the schools and other government agencies. There is a whole movement afoot in Howard County on raising civility – there are even bumper stickers.”
“When we meet, we have speakers – like P.M. Forni, who has a book called Choosing Civility. His message is that civility is a form of gracious goodness and benevolent awareness. When we are civil and exercise restraint and
respect, we have a whole different appreciation of life."
"So what has been happening in the Collaborative is that we are supporting each other in getting more emotionally intelligent. Social intelligence is a more accurate predictor of being successful in life than your intellectual competence. So this is a focus on relational competence, from a different point of view. This is a whole other way of appreciating diversity."
"In the Collaborative, we structure learning conversations around the topic of civility. First, someone tells their story, something they captured from their life in their little notebook, and no one interrupts. At first we were talking more about road rage types of stories, but now we are talking more about our encounters with people at work and how we have chosen to be more civil or requested a way of moving forward that is civil.”
“Then we have a speaker – last week we had someone from Alternative Dispute Resolution who talked about how civility would avoid conflict. Then we also discuss Forni's book. He has a number of rules of civility, and stories to illustrate each. So in the group someone will take responsibility to lead the discussion on that particular chapter, and take it way beyond."
"We run the Collaborative like a "World Café" – a red and white checkered table cloth, food, and people who are willing to talk about what matters. We do a lot of coaching, and we use the ‘feed forward’ process."
"Marshall Goldsmith has a book about feed forward. In feed forward, someone shares a story about an issue they want to accomplish something on. They tell the story. Then we stand up. They say what they want to achieve, and different people popcorn ideas. The person just says ‘thank you’ not ‘that won't work.’ People come back the next time and say here's what I tried. People have had breakthroughs in their relationships as a result of this process."
"I always feel a lot of love and appreciation in that group." There are plenty of bottom-line financial reasons to implement this brand of leadership development, but the other bottom line is just as important. Joan is authentically committed to bringing civility not only to one organization, but beyond, to the world. The social technologies that have worked at Goddard can be applied elsewhere to foster resilient communities. The word is civility, but the secret mission I hear is "love and appreciation." Who wouldn't want to show up to work in that kind of environment?
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Monday, June 16, 2008
Tips from athletes and sports psychology
One of the fascinating things that has happened in the area of stress reduction is that doers, rather than thinkers, have come up with the best methods. Excellence in athletics has led to some of the most useful "best practices" for reducing stress.
Read some of these tips here.
Read some of these tips here.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Return to your core values for strength.
In the name of self-care, I googled "inspirational stories" and came up with this very cheesy one. Blatantly sappy, but on reflection I think it reminds or invokes a return to a core value - generosity and kindness.
Core values are one of the most important sources of resilence.
Core values are one of the most important sources of resilence.
Monday, June 2, 2008
re-entry... adjusting to the unacceptable
For a beatuiful taste of what it is like to return from a humanitarian context to the safety bubble of the West read the Saturday, May 31, 2008
"re-engaging with the clamor of the west while residing in the gap between misery and enlightenment" entry of Gwen's SalusWorld blog.
An excerpt:
What I have realized is that traveling and working abroad in areas of need of humanitarian action makes one modest - you are forced to see what a tiny place you occupy in the world and what a crap-shoot it actually is that you just happened to be lucky enough to be born to a privileged family in a privileged country devoid of horrifying events in your immediate environment. Seeing the world also reminds you that the horrifying events – the poverty, and war and trauma is the real global REALITY and what we’ve got here is layers upon layers of denial and dissociation. How is it that we can be at war and I (nor any of my closest friends) have been immediately affected? And, how it is that things like genocide, torture, kidnapping, environmental degradation, violent repression of political rights, the release of toxins into pristine environments, discrimination and the conscription of child soldiers all over the globe occurs constantly and we don’t stand up and swallow up such brazenness in one gulp?
"re-engaging with the clamor of the west while residing in the gap between misery and enlightenment" entry of Gwen's SalusWorld blog.
An excerpt:
What I have realized is that traveling and working abroad in areas of need of humanitarian action makes one modest - you are forced to see what a tiny place you occupy in the world and what a crap-shoot it actually is that you just happened to be lucky enough to be born to a privileged family in a privileged country devoid of horrifying events in your immediate environment. Seeing the world also reminds you that the horrifying events – the poverty, and war and trauma is the real global REALITY and what we’ve got here is layers upon layers of denial and dissociation. How is it that we can be at war and I (nor any of my closest friends) have been immediately affected? And, how it is that things like genocide, torture, kidnapping, environmental degradation, violent repression of political rights, the release of toxins into pristine environments, discrimination and the conscription of child soldiers all over the globe occurs constantly and we don’t stand up and swallow up such brazenness in one gulp?
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Book on the effects of war
For a comprehensive catalogue of all the ways war can affect vets and their families, see _Back from the Front: Combat Trauma, Love, and the Family_
by Aphrodite Matsakis
by Aphrodite Matsakis
The case for organizations to use peer networks to foster resilience
Exhibit A
From A War of Nerves: Soldiers and Psychiatrists in the Twentieth Century by Ben Shephard:
"military psychiatry is often done best not by psychiatrists but by doctors, officers, or soldiers who understand the principles of group psychology and use the defenses in culture to help people through traumatic situations."
In other words, the members of a given culture can be the best ones to tap into it to foster resilience, using the values, beliefs, rewards, and reframing concepts that are the norms within it. Culture makes sense of reality, and trauma often ruptures that sense, leaving people feeling exposed in a crisis of meaning. Who better to help repair that rupture than a peer who knows the nature of what has been lost, and perhaps even the way back? Who better to call on the resources that community uses to provide extra support where needed than someone who knows exactly what those resources are?
PEER NETWORKS RULE!
From A War of Nerves: Soldiers and Psychiatrists in the Twentieth Century by Ben Shephard:
"military psychiatry is often done best not by psychiatrists but by doctors, officers, or soldiers who understand the principles of group psychology and use the defenses in culture to help people through traumatic situations."
In other words, the members of a given culture can be the best ones to tap into it to foster resilience, using the values, beliefs, rewards, and reframing concepts that are the norms within it. Culture makes sense of reality, and trauma often ruptures that sense, leaving people feeling exposed in a crisis of meaning. Who better to help repair that rupture than a peer who knows the nature of what has been lost, and perhaps even the way back? Who better to call on the resources that community uses to provide extra support where needed than someone who knows exactly what those resources are?
PEER NETWORKS RULE!
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Debrief, exit interviews, follow-up and peer support networks for humanitarian staff – making the business case to management
When humanitarian aid workers exit an organization to their next assignment, a little extra and relatively inexpensive attention from the organization can make a big difference. The difference for the departing staff member or consultant can be between a debilitating stress reaction or a smooth transition. The difference for the organization can be between a loyal recruiting pool, and reduced legal risk of liability cases on one hand and a faltering reputation on the other.
Management therefore has a stake in making the time, even in a busy and overstretched resource environment, for conducting psychological debriefs for staff returning from the field, giving exit interviews that glean lessons learned, and following up at six weeks and six months to establish that staff have found adequate resources for coping with any adverse reactions to the stress they experienced in the field.
Another simple and cheap way to provide support to exiting staff is the provision of peer networks in the form of listserves or informal virtual introductions among alumni of the organization. Events, newsletters, and other community maintenance services can supplement to good effect, but the basic facilitation of connection can provide ample opportunity for forming supportive ties with others who can provide empathy, due to their own similar experiences, as well as outlets for sharing ideas, mentoring, and stimulating positive social change.
Social support, as provided by management in the form of exit protocols and by peers through social networking, is important for several reasons. Recent studies show that “traditional social networks play a surprisingly powerful and underrecognized role in influencing how people behave.”1 A World Vision study2 showed that “individual resilience factors only accounted for some 7% of the variance between those who develop stress and trauma reactions and those who do not. … the degree and type of social support an individual is experiencing… accounted for up to 30% variance.”
Sharing these facts may convince, but in order to win real commitment by management for actual implementation, decision-makers will understand the need for providing exit services when they have experienced the bite of a stress reaction for themselves. Field visits, stories, and simulations can be useful in communicating, at a visceral level, the impact of stress in absence of a supportive environment.
1. Social Networks' Sway May Be Underestimated By Rob Stein, Washington Post Staff Writer
2. Conference session on Stress and Trauma Effects on National Staff: How Best to Use the Resources (Tuesday, 16th November, 2004; 3.50pm) by Janelle Richards, Human Resources Manager, World Vision, Australia, Janelle.richards@worldvision.com.au, Supplementary analysis was conducted by staff at the Headington Program at Fuller Seminary.
The key findings were:
• The relationship between a manager and their staff is critical for the mental health of all groups whether exposed to trauma or not.
• Those with compromised Social Support are 10 times as likely to be experiencing trauma following an event during service with WV as those with non compromised Social Support.
• Staff exposed to trauma who have compromised social support are 2.6 times as likely to experience moderate to severe anxiety as staff exposed to trauma who have good levels of social support.
• Social support within the organisation is a good a predictor of health with the most potent social support being the team leader.
• There is a threefold higher risk of experiencing anxiety if staff social support is compromised than if it is not.
Management therefore has a stake in making the time, even in a busy and overstretched resource environment, for conducting psychological debriefs for staff returning from the field, giving exit interviews that glean lessons learned, and following up at six weeks and six months to establish that staff have found adequate resources for coping with any adverse reactions to the stress they experienced in the field.
Another simple and cheap way to provide support to exiting staff is the provision of peer networks in the form of listserves or informal virtual introductions among alumni of the organization. Events, newsletters, and other community maintenance services can supplement to good effect, but the basic facilitation of connection can provide ample opportunity for forming supportive ties with others who can provide empathy, due to their own similar experiences, as well as outlets for sharing ideas, mentoring, and stimulating positive social change.
Social support, as provided by management in the form of exit protocols and by peers through social networking, is important for several reasons. Recent studies show that “traditional social networks play a surprisingly powerful and underrecognized role in influencing how people behave.”1 A World Vision study2 showed that “individual resilience factors only accounted for some 7% of the variance between those who develop stress and trauma reactions and those who do not. … the degree and type of social support an individual is experiencing… accounted for up to 30% variance.”
Sharing these facts may convince, but in order to win real commitment by management for actual implementation, decision-makers will understand the need for providing exit services when they have experienced the bite of a stress reaction for themselves. Field visits, stories, and simulations can be useful in communicating, at a visceral level, the impact of stress in absence of a supportive environment.
1. Social Networks' Sway May Be Underestimated By Rob Stein, Washington Post Staff Writer
2. Conference session on Stress and Trauma Effects on National Staff: How Best to Use the Resources (Tuesday, 16th November, 2004; 3.50pm) by Janelle Richards, Human Resources Manager, World Vision, Australia, Janelle.richards@worldvision.com.au, Supplementary analysis was conducted by staff at the Headington Program at Fuller Seminary.
The key findings were:
• The relationship between a manager and their staff is critical for the mental health of all groups whether exposed to trauma or not.
• Those with compromised Social Support are 10 times as likely to be experiencing trauma following an event during service with WV as those with non compromised Social Support.
• Staff exposed to trauma who have compromised social support are 2.6 times as likely to experience moderate to severe anxiety as staff exposed to trauma who have good levels of social support.
• Social support within the organisation is a good a predictor of health with the most potent social support being the team leader.
• There is a threefold higher risk of experiencing anxiety if staff social support is compromised than if it is not.
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