19. März 2021
The digital world is a great source of new potential for organizations to foster a cultural change that is more democratic and more tuned into the future in order to address the challenges of an increasingly complex and dynamic world. In future, culture will be even more important in organizations. Culture fills gaps that cannot be bridged by structures and traditional processes alone.
Virtual organization development – Virtual OD by SYNNECTA – provides sustainable support to this aspect.
Cultural change aims to strengthen engagement, heighten performance, improve collaboration, make effective use of diversity and become more agile. It aims for the sustainable development of an organization. Only those organizations that engage in such continuous development will in the future be able to deal with change swiftly and appropriately and maintain long-term success.
Cultural change can take place from two directions
Approach 1: Central perspective – one guiding theme creates a pervasive common notion that is delivered ‘top down’ in order to integrate differences (different characteristics, metaphors, …). Further along, we see the development of islands that network self-sufficiently and influence the central pervasive message.
Approach 2: Synchronous-lateral perspectives – Useful aspects emerge automatically. Peripheral perspectives emerge laterally and enable the required multi-perspective viewpoint from the beginning. Resonance and successful action foster the emergence of new structures, which in turn resonate again and thereby reinforce each other (spiralling development) – self-sufficient organizing.
This is where Virtual OD by SYNNECTA opens up great opportunities.
Both approaches take place in conjunction in everyday Organizational Development, but are given different emphasis.
Employee community and identification with the organization serve as social glue. An organization’s strong core identity prevents it drifting apart. Communication within a continuous dialogue that provides emotional touchpoints is an essential guiding element here.
Organizational Development today: limits and challenges
Cultural transformations traditionally begin at the »centre«, meaning from an organization’s headquarters and spreading from this »epicentre« to other areas and through the entire organization in order to become »global«. The direction of change therefore goes from »central« to »local«.
In this process, thinking and acting come from the central perspective of the headquarters from the beginning. This means that the process is asymmetrical from the very start, with a decline from the centre to the periphery. Consequences can include:
- Lack of identification in the peripheral areas that are not part of the centre.
- Weaker acceptance and lacking commitment.
- Difficulties guiding the transformation on global and international levels.
- Varying depths of effect and speeds of implementation between centre and regions.
- The differences between centre and regions stay in place and may even be reinforced or increased (insider/outsider thinking).
- Important perspectives and potential from the periphery is not sufficiently included and utilized.
Successful cultural development always includes self-organized dynamics and therefore requires an approach »across the field« that departs from the notions of »top-down« and »bottom-up«, which reinforce a hierarchical mindset. The real force of renewal is therefore found in the periphery. The digital sphere provides an opportunity to strengthen or improve these aspects.
Digitalization can foster a new Organizational Development
Any organization essentially has the implicit knowledge to be sustainable for the future. However, it is often not understood how to explicitly use this knowledge. Virtual OD by SYNNECTA shifts the dynamics from central to local. At the same time, it provides an opportunity to leave to dominant notion of »top-down« and »bottom-up« behind. Organizational Development at eye level!
The three classic levers of Organizational Development are creating meaning, changing patterns and establishing commonalities. These three levers can be expanded by Virtual OD by SYNNECTA. It allows for the guiding theme to be disseminated with greater conviction (see approach 1), but even more importantly, to design self-sufficient organization more effectively (see approach 2).
The greater efficacy of virtual organizational development is mostly created by the following aspects:
- Time and space are opened, so that simultaneous activity is possible and asymmetries are eliminated.
- Synchronous and asynchronous events/communication/collaboration take place at a global level.
- Fast and high degree of networking among people in the digital space.
- The power of weak joints. Weak joints are the basis of prolific cooperation. Virtual OD by SYNNECTA uses the power of weak joints.
- More outcome thanks to focussed collaboration.
- A greater degree of self-sufficient organization, stronger interaction and involvement.
- More effective dynamics permit themes to spread virally faster.
- Creation of virtual communities (of practice).
- Greater use of creative tension through multi-perspective working in the digital sphere (using diversity).
What moves you?
- Remote work will stay with us!
- How will the dominant position of the headquarters be reduced?
- How do we achieve greater and more sustainable employee engagement?
Contact us!
18. März 2021
Die digitale Welt bietet Organisationen neue Möglichkeiten, den Kulturwandel demokratischer und zukunftsgerecht zu gestalten, um die Herausforderungen einer zunehmend komplexen und dynamischen Welt anzugehen. Kultur wird in Zukunft einen noch höheren Stellenwert in Organisationen erhalten. Kultur füllt Lücken, die durch Strukturen und klassische Prozesse allein nicht überbrückt werden können.
Virtuelle Organisationsentwicklung – Virtual OD by SYNNECTA – unterstützt diesen Aspekt nachhaltig.
Kulturwandel zielt darauf ab, das Engagement zu steigern, die Performance zu erhöhen, Kollaboration zu verbessern, Diversität effektiv zu nutzen und agiler zu werden, um die Organisation langfristig weiterzuentwickeln. Nur die Organisation, die sich so fortlaufend weiterentwickelt, ist zukünftig in der Lage schnell und angemessen mit Veränderungen umzugehen und langfristig erfolgreich zu bleiben.
Kulturwandel kann aus zwei Richtungen geschehen
Ansatz 1: Zentrale Perspektive – Ein Leitthema schafft »top down« ein durchdringendes Gemeinsames, welches Unterschiede integriert (unterschiedliche Ausprägungen, Metaphern, …). Im Weiteren bilden sich Inseln heraus, die sich selbstorganisiert vernetzen und die zentral durchdringende Aussage beeinflussen.
Ansatz 2: Synchron-Laterale Perspektiven – Nützliches bildet sich automatisch heraus. Periphere Perspektiven entwickeln sich lateral und ermöglichen von Beginn an die notwendige Multiperspektive. Über Resonanz und über erfolgreiches Handeln bilden sich neue Strukturen aus, die wiederum Resonanz erzeugen und sich damit verstärken (spiralförmige Entwicklung) – Selbstorganisation. Insbesondere hier liegen die Chancen von Virtual OD by SYNNECTA.
Im Alltag der Organisationsentwicklung finden beide Ansätze immer gekoppelt statt, jedoch mit unterschiedlicher Ausprägung.
Verbundenheit unter den Mitarbeitenden und die Identifizierung mit der Organisation wirken als sozialer Kitt. Eine starke Kernidentität einer Organisation verhindert, dass diese auseinanderdriftet. Ein wesentliches Steuerungselement ist dabei eine kontinuierliche dialogische Kommunikation, die emotional berührt.
Organisationsentwicklung heute: Begrenzungen und Herausforderungen
Klassischerweise beginnen Kulturtransformationen »zentral«, also im Headquarter der Organisation, und breiten sich von diesem »Epizentrum« auf andere Bereiche oder das gesamte Unternehmen »global« aus. Die Veränderungsrichtung ist also von »zentral« zu »lokal«.
Es wird von Beginn an aus einer zentralen Perspektive des Headquarters heraus gedacht und umgesetzt. Dadurch entwickelt sich von Beginn an eine Asymmetrie, mit einem Gefälle vom Zentrum zur Peripherie. Die Folgen können sein:
- Mangelnde Identifikation in der Peripherie, also den Regionen, die nicht zur Zentrale gehören.
- Schwächere Akzeptanz und mangelndes Commitment.
- Schwierige Steuerung der Transformation auf globaler bzw. internationaler Ebene.
- Unterschiedliche Durchdringungstiefen und Geschwindigkeiten in der Umsetzung zwischen Zentrale und Regionen.
- Der Unterschied zwischen Zentrale und Regionen bleibt bestehen und wird ggf. verfestigt bzw. verstärkt (Insider-/Outsider-Denken).
- Wichtige Perspektiven und Potenziale aus der Peripherie werden nicht genügend eingebunden und genutzt.
Erfolgreiche Kulturentwicklung beinhaltet immer selbstorganisierte Dynamiken und braucht daher einen Ansatz »auf der Fläche«, der wegführt von den Begrifflichkeiten »top-down« und »bottom-up«, da diese ein hierarchisches Mindset verfestigen. Die eigentliche Kraft der Erneuerung liegt daher in der Peripherie. Der digitale Raum bietet die Möglichkeit die genannten Aspekte zu stärken beziehungsweise zu verbessern.
So kann die Digitalisierung eine neue Organisationsentwicklung unterstützen
Grundsätzlich verfügt eine Organisation über das implizite Wissen, um zukunftsfähig zu sein. Sie erkennt jedoch häufig nicht, wie dieses Wissen explizit zu nutzen ist. Durch Virtual OD by SYNNECTA wandert die Dynamik von zentral zu lokal. Zugleich bietet sie die Chance aus dem beherrschenden Bild von »top-down« und »bottom-up« auszusteigen. Organisationsentwicklung auf Augenhöhe!
Die drei klassischen Hebel in der OE sind Sinnstiftung, Musterveränderung und Verbundenheit. Diese drei Hebel können durch Virtual OD by SYNNECTA ausgestaltet werden. Das Leitthema kann auf diese Weise überzeugender verbreitet werden (siehe Ansatz 1), insbesondere aber kann die Selbstorganisation effektiver gestaltet werden (siehe Ansatz 2).
Die höhere Effektivität in der virtuellen Organisationsentwicklung entsteht im Wesentlichen durch:
- Öffnung von Zeit und Raum, wodurch ein gleichzeitiges Geschehen möglich wird, welches Asymmetrien aufhebt.
- Synchrone und asynchrone Veranstaltungen/Kommunikation/Zusammenarbeit auf globaler Ebene.
- Schnelle und hohe Vernetzung der Menschen im digitalen Raum.
- Die Kraft der schwachen Bindungen. Schwache Bindungen sind die Grundlage einer reichhaltigen Kooperation. Virtual OD by SYNNECTA nutzt die Kraft der schwachen Bindung.
- Mehr Outcome durch fokussiertes Zusammenarbeiten.
- Ein höheres Maß an Selbstorganisation, stärkerer Interaktion und Beteiligung.
- Wirkungsvollere Dynamiken bei der sich Themen schneller viral verbreiten.
- Bildung virtueller Communities (of Practice).
- Stärkere Nutzung kreativer Spannung durch multiperspektivisches Arbeiten im digitalen Raum (Nutzung von Diversity).
Was bewegt Sie?
- Remote Work wird bleiben!
- Wie wird die Dominanz des Headquarters reduziert?
- Wie wird höheres und nachhaltigeres Engagement der Mitarbeiter*innen erreicht?
Rufen Sie uns an!
16. April 2020
How can we find novel ways to pair physical distancing with social connection at work?
(Katrijn van Oudheusden)
Introduction: The Need
As seven strangers attempt to scrutinize each other’s faces over a limited internet bandwidth, it becomes clear once again how unskilled we are at compensating for the challenges of online communication. Although all workshop participants have their audio and video working, and really seem to be making an effort to be present, half the faces I see are unclear due to the shadows falling on them. A few are frowning into their screens, and one video is frozen solid. As a facilitator, I am trained in reading people and adapting my style to them. At the moment, I am navigating through thick fog. But the technology and the lighting are not the limiting factors here, although many will hide behind these aspects to explain the challenges of remote communication.
Our »Leading Remote Teams« workshop gets off to an emotional start as we each describe our current situation working from home. The frustration and stress can be heard and seen in some of the voices and faces, but there is also evidence of hope and excitement coupled with a can-do attitude. This is clear from the examples people give and the choice of words in their descriptions, which even include a feeling here and there. Yet the participants are only volunteering this information because they were asked for it. The exercise is specifically designed to get people talking about their feelings, worries, hopes, and needs. In the rest of the workshop, I will have to do my utmost best using self-reflection and specific tools and methods, to get them to contribute their feelings and needs, as well as their intentions for speaking.
This is the issue this article addresses: When we communicate online, we generally forget to compensate for the loss of interpersonal information. We do not actively take into account that up to 80% of non-verbal communication is lost in digital space. No matter how dedicatedly people gesticulate into their video cameras, the lush interpersonal landscape that tells us so much about each other, turns into a virtual desert online. For this, we must learn to actively compensate by fostering »rich conversations«. Only when we focus on orally adding back to the dialogue what has been lost over physical distance, do we have a chance of deepening relationships online.
The Model
The Rich Conversations Model is a simple (but challenging to implement) formula, that when followed ensures an online dialogue that is replete and deep. Besides being trustworthy, authentic, and generally likeable, the ability to have rich conversations is the key to establishing and fostering online relationships. And online relationship building is the prerequisite for doing business remotely, whether that business is conducted between members of the same team working to deliver a project, between the purchasing department and their suppliers in a negotiation, or between a manager and her subordinate in a coaching conversation, to name just a few examples.
The model itself is simple:
Communicating feelings + needs + intent = rich conversation
Applying this in remote conversations is a true communication skills challenge that brings immediate and tangible results in the quality of the relationship. Perhaps right now you are thinking that this is what makes communication in general, skillful and deep. Definitely. If you are a skillful communicator in analog settings, you may remember to translate these good habits to a remote setting.
Yet for many of us, myself included, the stress and raw »remoteness« of the online setting sets us up to forget about these aspects of good communication. We generally become more task oriented and superficial. We feel under increased time pressure and find ourselves getting impatient, interrupting others, and not scheduling time for emotional check-ins or coffee-corner chats. And as if that weren’t enough, for almost all of us, the digital setting encourages us to lose some of our interpersonal humanity. It becomes easier to treat others as mere objects appearing on our screens, taking up our limited time and energy. It becomes more stressful to open up and communicate how we are doing or what is bothering us. Every inclusion of that which makes us vulnerable and human seems to take even more effort when talking to an object, to a computer monitor. Many extroverts become introverted (although some go in the other direction), and introverts become even more introverted. Sensing the human beings on the other side of our internet connections becomes a chore, instead of being a natural part of human interaction.
If we do not intentionally alter our behavior, we end up eroding our relationships, losing trust and emotional safety in the process. Often too late, we realize that something essential in human relationship was missing online, and the relationship suffered irreversibly. Many will blame the technology for this, arguing that some things simply don’t translate to a remote setting. I disagree.
To counter these tendencies, which are not intrinsic to the technology for digital dialogue, we have to actively and intentionally change our attitude to remote communication, as well as hone our communication skillset. The Rich Conversations Model is therefore composed of two levels: a specific mindset and skillset.
The Skillset
First, the skillset. The skills for rich conversation consist of just three aspects: actively orally communicating a) feelings, b) needs, and c) intent as part of normal conversational flow. The point is not to take extra time-out to talk about our feelings, although this is definitely helpful. The idea of rich conversations is to include feelings, needs and intentions in our normal spoken language, so that the missing humanity in the digital setting is compensated for with our use of words. We can think of this as frequent and clear oral signposts, helping us to navigate the thick interpersonal fog complicating the digital exchange.
a) Skillset Part 1 – Feelings
Do you know what you are feeling in any particular moment? Most of us are generally out of touch with our feelings. Additionally, we have neither the practice nor the vocabulary for communicating feeling states. We can usually determine whether we are happy or angry, perhaps even depressed or excited, but for many of us that is about the extent of our spontaneous concepts for feelings. Finally, we confuse thoughts with feelings. We say we feel disappointed, but this is not so much a feeling as a judgment of someone else’s behavior (as in: you disappointed me). The actual feeling is probably sadness or anger.
In training to become a mediator, I learned about Non-Violent Communication as developed by Marshall B. Rosenberg. This method for conflict de-escalation as developed by Rosenberg includes communicating both our feelings and our needs, and this Rich Conversations Model borrows much from his approach. In the context of trying to navigate the digital dialogue fog, the idea is to proactively and frequently communicate what we are feeling. Our listeners will be missing much in terms of vital non-verbal clues to determine this for themselves and are consequently missing out on important interpersonal information that fosters trust and emotional safety. Not only are we no longer building trust, we also risk corroding relationships.
The solution: we actively tell our conversation partners how we are feeling. If you believe this is too simple a solution, I invite you to go ahead and try this a few times in your next online meeting. Also go ahead and ask for feedback after the meeting, to determine if anyone noticed anything different.
To be able to communicate our feelings, we need to practice 1) determining what we are feeling, and 2) learning the words for describing feeling states. Both are practices, which means we will have to make multiple attempts and get it wrong many times, before we become skilled communicators of our feelings. I encourage you to print out an overview of both positive and negative feelings and put this in a prominent place on your desk. A helpful overview is Robert Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions, but any other overview will do, as long as it helps you to start naming and communicating what you are feeling.
»But I cannot possibly tell people that I am feeling ________ (insert negative emotion here).« I hear this excuse all the time. We fail to realize that, in a physical analog setting, we would be picking up on each other’s emotions anyway. We may not actively discuss these emotions, but you can be sure I am noticing that you are frustrated, bored, or just plain angry. When I am experiencing you in a live setting, I have the option of (subtly) reacting to your emotional states. In small and often unconscious ways, I will adapt my behavior in the interest of improving and strengthening our relationship, if that is what I am after. In the remote setting, I will miss out on all these subtle clues about your state of mind, unless you actively communicate them to me. This means I have much less information to act on: to show empathy or to respond adequately to the situation. In the long- or mid-term, this is likely to erode our relationship. A few weeks later, I will notice that we are not as close or trusting with each other as before.
As I see it, communicating our feelings is an opportunity to lead in terms of online behavior. We can go first in strengthening our relationships in a remote context instead of watching passively as they gradually erode. Becoming aware of and communicating our feelings also naturally makes us more empathic towards others. Of course, we can also ask others what they are feeling and experiencing. I would advise caution with this. Putting others under any form of pressure to share their feelings may backfire. Go first, be brave, and in the interest of reinserting the humanity in digital connections, actively communicate your feelings online.
b) Skillset part 2 – Needs
As with feelings, the enrichment of online conversations works through active communication of our needs in the moment. Again, we are usually unaware of what we really need in a particular situation and are usually limited in terms of the vocabulary needed for talking about needs. Expressing which need we want to have met in the moment is another element taken from the Non-Violent Communication method.
All human beings have a shared set of universal needs, that are more or less important to us at different times. We universally recognize all needs however, making it more or less impossible to have an argument about anyone needing anything at this level. Examples of universal needs are belonging, rest, contribution, challenge, understanding, and autonomy. As with feelings, there are different lists and overviews, but the point is not to find a definitive or exhaustive taxonomy. We all have a right to our needs and to finding ways to meeting them, although we can argue about the strategies we use to do this.
In the Rich Conversations Model, actively communicating what it is that I need, allows others to understand what I am trying to achieve with my behavior. For example, instead of simply becoming frustrated at the lack of response and general silence meeting a proposal I just made in a videocall, I can communicate that collaboration is important to me right now and that I would be happy if the others give me their opinions and feedback. This allows my conversation partners to understand what it is that I am really after, to react to me with empathy, and to figure out a shared course of behavior that can meet my needs as well as theirs. Some of them may even communicate their own needs in response, for example that they need more clarity and structure to understand the proposal before commenting. All of this would remain implicit and lost in the fog of the digital space if I do not proactively communicate my needs.
In the same way as with feelings, asking others about their needs is good communication practice. Nevertheless, I again recommend going first and leading by example by expressing your own needs first. If we all focus on enriching our own dialogue first, we will have made a significant leap in deepening online conversations, without trying to make anyone else do anything they are not ready to do.
c) Skillset part 3 – Intent
The third and final aspect of the Rich Conversations Model is to communicate your intent in speaking. This means you need to be aware of your motivations for contributing to the conversation. What is it that you are trying to achieve? Why are you speaking? The challenge here is finding a short and pertinent motivation and again actively communicating this in an authentic way. For example, you may be contributing to a discussion, and your intent is to summarize the points of view you heard so far in order to come to a vote on the issue. If your listeners don’t know this, they will get frustrated (which happens much faster online) that you are repeating the statements of others. If you say, »I am going to quickly recap the opinions I heard so far, and then we can vote on the issue«, everyone understands the purpose and can sit back and listen to you without the stress of uncertainty.
In both digital and analog settings, we are constantly making best guesses about why others act the way they do, as well as their motives for speaking. But these guesses are informed by how we think and are therefore usually wrong. Because I am missing so much interpersonal information when speaking with you online, I will have even less clues to base my guesses on. Additionally, communicating our intent will help others listen to us with more understanding in the desert of digital dialogue. I know where you are headed with this, because you just told me, and it is easier for me to focus on you on my screen and listen to you over my headphones when I know what you are trying to achieve.
The Mindset
As may have become clear from the part on skillset, applying the Rich Conversations Model requires a courageous, authentic and vulnerable mindset. Meaning the skillset can only be applied well if I have the corresponding motivating beliefs. Good, trustful relationships, both off- and online, are not created or strengthened without some effort. This has more to do with the psychological effort of opening up and sharing my subjective experience however, and not so much with the effort of force of will.
People who are willing to have rich conversations believe that opening up, being vulnerable, exposing their true feelings and needs, as well as going first in sharing these, contributes to deepening relationships online. They see it as their part in bridging the digital communication gap. Instead of seeing remote relationship as a second-best option and fatalistically accepting the loss of depth and eroding of trust that comes along with it, they actively intervene by compensating for the loss of humanity online.
I can’t expect others to share their feelings, needs and intent if I don’t go first. I will need to lead by example, conquer my own squeamishness, and enrich my own speaking in the digital space. Doing this, I will risk others being surprised and perhaps uncomfortable with my transparency at first. But I do this with confidence in the knowledge that I am strengthening the social connections with my team, with my colleagues, and with my partners, instead of allowing them to slowly erode due to physical distance.
Katrijn van Oudheusden