What is really going on here?

3/4/2013

I had a new, short, mini-article published online in About Leaders this week called, ‘What is really going on here?’

http://www.aboutleaders.com//bid/176196/leadership-dynamics-what-is-really-going-on-here?source=Blog_Email_[Leadership%20Dynamics%3A.

It introduces examples of different frames of reference we may use when working with people as a leader or coach. I would love to hear what you think, what frames you use and what experiences you have in this area. Looking forward to hearing from you!

16 Comments

Julie Bullen

3/4/2013 06:33:40 am

I'm reminded of a lesson learnt during my clinical psychology training, many moons ago. We were told of an exceptional doctor who trained his students mainly in Listening. His mantra was "Listen to the patient - they are telling you the diagnosis!" It really works - we often try to solve things too quickly - listen and then listen some more - its clear when an 'answer' comes - and of course answers are often layered and only after working for a while on one dynamic (eg, her tolerance of difficulty) will she realise 'others are having this problem in the company'...etc.

Nick Wright

3/4/2013 06:34:20 am

Hi Julie and thanks for responding with such interesting comments. I agree with you that learning to listen and hear are core attitudes and skills of an effective practitioner. I liked your comment, 'it's clear when an 'answer' comes'. It reminds me of similar ideas in existential psychology, listening to what the situation 'calls for'. It also reminds me how important it is to help a person find his or her own answer or calling, rather than trying to impose a diagnosis or solution from the outside. With best wishes. Nick

Joan Peters

3/4/2013 06:52:11 am

HI Nick, yes, agree, many OD people have a few favourite tools, eg a 360, a personality profile, a team diagnostic etc; and regardless of the issue, try to get the client to use their preferred approach. Seems like sometimes we have the solution before we know what the problem is.

Nick Wright

3/4/2013 07:00:08 am

Hi Joan and thanks for the note. Yes, I guess it could appear to the client as something like, 'I have the solution, please don't confuse me with the facts.'

Consultants and coaches often feel most comfortable and confident with approaches, methods, tools etc. that match their own outlook and preferences, that have brought positive results in the past or that appear to be self evidently needed in the client's situation.

I find it's one of the benefits of supervision and networking with people from different disciplines and perspectives. It helps to challenge my assumptions and to keep me open, listening and sharp. One of my favourite questions, drawn from Gestalt psychology, is 'what am I not noticing?'

With best wishes. Nick

James Henman PhD

3/4/2013 11:06:29 am

Nick,
To me the key is in your statement: "It reminds me when working with people to consider intrapersonal, interpersonal and organisational dimensions." When the "and" is at the heart of your perspective, it makes it possible to hear more deeply and share more meaningfully with the client.

Active listening, when combined with NLP and Ericksonian elements, helps the client see different perspectives as aspects of an integrated whole. The moment we try to impose our views, we create resistance. A blank screen can be too overwhelming, but feeding back the clients perspective and sharing other possible perspectives allows the client to expand their choices of understanding/approaching the situation.

Always enjoy your nuggets.

Nick Wright

3/4/2013 11:15:01 am

Hi James and thanks for sharing your thoughts on this topic. I liked your emphasis on helping the client see aspects of an integrated whole. It reminded me of insights from Gestalt psychology. I also found your comment, 'a blank screen can feel too overwhelming' interesting. It reminded me of a humanistic psychologist friend who comments that our goal as coaches is to be facilitative, whatever approach that might entail in practice. Thanks for your encouraging feedback too. With best wishes. Nick

S.K. Chakrabarty

4/4/2013 01:18:51 am

Hi Nick,
Happy to find time to response to your thoughts.
Any situation in the external world will always remain the same for everyone, whether it is Daniell or anybody else.
However, it differs in respect of how different people perceives it differently.
One way of assessing the situation (as an option given by you) is to get different people exposed to the same situation and try to find out the real characteristics of the situation. But that process may not always be practical to be carried out.
The second option is to clear the vision of the person who is facing the situation and finding it stressful. Our perceptions most of the times makes a pre-judgment without making critical reflexion on a subject or creating inference guided by bounded rationality.
Before one comes to a conclusion that the situation is stressful, one must think or be inspired to think that, "Think, there must be a better way".
Helpful in this path, is getting experience which over a period of time may help one to identify the real characteristics of the situation. The other way is to train people how to think more positively being devoid of personal biases or to share the experiences of different people in the similar situation.
Maturity of a person in this regard is more a process than there is any short cut.
The reason as I feel is that howsoever rich knowledge we may give to somebody, assimilating that in the human system takes its own time. The answer therefore may be to the best is to make people exposed to such situations as frequently as possible and inspiring him to face it. Time will take its own course to polish the coarse diamond.

Nick Wright

4/4/2013 01:33:14 am

Hi S.K. and thanks for sharing such thoughtful reflections. I agree with you that a person's experience is influenced by his or her perception of and beliefs about a situation. That resonates with insights from cognitive behavioural psychology and it helps explain why different people perceive and respond differently to (apparently) the same situations.

Perhaps one of the challenges in a leadership or coaching situation is that the leader/coach and client each hold their own perception and beliefs, sometimes subconsciously, which makes dicerning 'what is' challenging. This is compounded by challenges from social constructionism that what is perceived to be 'what is' is really a personally and sociallly-culturally constructed idea.

I found your final thoughts very interesting, concerning the value of exposing a person to a situation as frequently as possible and inspiring him or her to face it. It reminded me of aversion therapy, and the notion of growing stronger through exposure with support. I liked the wisdom and hope in your final statement: 'time will take its own course to polish the coarse diamond'.

With thanks and best wishes. Nick

V. Lakshmidevi

4/4/2013 01:35:39 am

Hi Nick & everyone,
Thanks for sharing your experiences. Great to read through the intrinsic and personal attribution aspect.

Most of the time people around expect a quick fix solution to any aspect not realizing the intricacies or the process as you rightly mentioned as "what is really going on here". It may be similar industry but the root cause for the problem may not be the same. Dynamics may not be the same.

Even in coaching as a practitioner, "holding the space" is key for emergent solution for the coachee.

Have also experienced how appreciating individual effort and "communicating change in plan" to sub-ordinates and peers play a vital role in moving a team to desired result than moving ahead with one's own action plan however great the result can be.

Nick Wright

4/4/2013 01:54:09 am

Hi V and thanks for posting such helpful comments. Yes, although there are times where quick wins are important and possible, a continual expectation for quick fix solutions can lead to inadequate or simplistic understandings of a specific situation and ineffective or unsustainable solutions.

I agree with you that holding the space is very important, and sometimes quite challenging. It can feel paradoxical that the best insights and solutions often emerge from non-doing, which is one of the benefits of interventions such as retreats or coaching spaces away from the normal busyness of business.

I think you make an important point about leaders taking people with them, not simply advancing with their own ideas, no matter how great they are or may appear. In my experiences, that can be one of the greatest challenges for visionary, passionate leaders. With thanks and best wishes. Nick

Steve Coxsey

4/4/2013 01:49:43 am

Thanks, Nick. It's a helpful reminder to remember context, culture, beliefs, interactive dynamics... and anything else that contributes to the system! Great perspective.

Nick Wright

4/4/2013 01:55:44 am

Thanks Steve. Yes, it certainly reminds me that people and situations are sometimes more complex than they may at first appear. With best wishes. Nick

Mike Baker

4/4/2013 09:08:45 am

Nick,
Monitoring the dynamics of the team is a key accountability of the leader and understanding the origins of the stress is a key task. If the issue is project related, the effective leader will insure the team has a clear purpose and tasks have been assigned with quality objectives and well defined resources. This allows team members to get on with the work. With appropriate monitoring,review and communication, the leader can minimize stress on the members and insure a reasonable confidence of success. It also helps to insure team members have a good understanding of their accountabilities to understand purpose, clarify and demand review when needed. Obviously,none of the above is of comfort if the stress is non work related. So, maybe "what's going on here" may be as singular as a poor leader or a larger organizational culture of poor task assignment, communication and allocation of resources.

Thanks!

Nick Wright

4/4/2013 09:17:57 am

Hi Mike and thanks for the helpful comments on team leadership. Yes, I agree with you that a key role of a project leader is to identify and address those factors that typically influence a project team's success, including those you have listed.

In my experience, shifting the frame of reference can be helpful if, having done all those things well, issues still emerge that seem inexplicable within the current frame. In such situations, it can be helpful to ask those involved, 'what could explain this?'

With thanks and best wishes. Nick

Art Worster

11/4/2013 08:13:14 am

Hi, Nick. You are obviously a Platonist from your differentiation between the existence of objects or attributes and how our perceptions are created and used. I would add a third dimension to this - that of cognitive principles. Some use the term paradigms, however, I think that cognitive principles covers a broader concept, so that is the one that I use. In this analysis, an object or process (in this case the leadership of a team) can have attributes that are "real", perhaps as simple as the list of members. We would agree that there have to be some attributes that are factual by any definition. Second, we have our perception of those attributes that are usually filtered by our interaction with them and may or may not be factual. An example would be that a person is "difficult". While this could certainly be a widely held perception (even universal), it could also be a personal and narrowly held perception so it would be difficult to assign "reality" to it. The level of cognitive principles, however, provides another dynamic to this. We all have "scripts" that we use to organize, analyze and understand our perceptions of what we see. While these are often imbedded in our psyche, with work they are also not beyond understanding and changing. In fact, they usually change over time without our direct intervention, but not always in a positive manner. If, for example, your environment growing up and your education has reinforced that all teams are difficult to manage or that you self-image is one of inability to deal with interpersonal differences, that will dictate how you think about teams and regardless of the reality or your perceptions, will cause you to behave defensively, which will usually end up with predetermined results. In other words you expect the team to be difficult and so your actions ensure that it is. This last case would not be factual in the sense that the team is, in reality, difficult. It would also not be based upon objective perceptions, but instead would be based upon cognitive frameworks that preordain how your experience is interpreted.

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