mindful organizing: using the method of blamefree evaluating

Strange| Strategy and Change

Shirine Moerkerken www.shirine.nl

MindfulnessMindfulnessWhere and how to Where and how to

start?start?

Third International HRO workshopJanuary 9 &10, 2010



What can you expect What can you expect in the next 30 minutesin the next 30 minutes…?…?

The City of Amsterdam: Staff rides to provoke a sense of urgency

But first, there are two things on my mind:2. Where to start?: being mindful as an interventionist1. Where to start?: being mindful as

a guest speaker at this conference



Where to start?Where to start?1. Being mindful as a guest speaker at this conference (in interaction with the audience)

Can experience be transferred to others?What could be helpful methods in doing that?

•Storytelling•Introducing language to talk about experience•Asking questions about your experiences•Inviting you to experience•…



Where to start?Where to start?

Are you preoccupied with failure…?Are you reluctant to simplify…?Do you have sensitivity to operations…?

RIGHT NOW

Can I recognize these principles in your behavior or in your body language, in the noises you make, in the way you look at me?




2. Being mindful as an interventionist



Imagining failure as an Imagining failure as an interventionistinterventionist……• I help organizations with what they

think is an answer to their problem• I miss weak signals in the first

moments of interaction

• I simplify, search for the one true definition of ‘the’ problem that needs to be solved

• I take over and my client is depending on me



Imagining failure as an Imagining failure as an interventionistinterventionist……

The first interactionsThis period of definingThis period of negotiating

IS WHERE YOU DO 50% OF THE WORK



The first moments of interactionThe first moments of interaction

So let’s take a closer look at this 50%

• March 2007: meeting at ‘Kunstwerken’

• September 2008: meeting with the Board of DITT

• May 2009: meeting at the ‘Alliance’ of six departments who are taking care of the Amsterdam public space



The art of interveningThe art of intervening

• These examples illustrate the presence and lack of mindfulness

• Negotiating with the client before starting a (change) project:• What problem is this an answer to?• Who experiences a sense of urgency?• Which people and therefore

perspectives are included?• What cannot be questioned or

touched?




Think of a project you are working on at the moment

•What problem is your project an answer to?•Who experiences a sense of urgency?•Which people and therefore perspectives are included?•What cannot be questioned or touched?



What can you expect What can you expect in the next 20 minutesin the next 20 minutes…?…?

The City of Amsterdam: Staff rides to provoke a sense of urgency



SituationSituation• Department of Infrastructure

Traffic and Transport (DITT) in the City of Amsterdam in The Netherlands

• Assignment: improving the collaboration between employees working in different sections in the organization

• The lack of collaboration so far resulted in critical articles in the papers and in the decision of an alderman to resign



SituationSituation• Large number of

organizations that work in Amsterdam on infrastructural projects

• Projects are very complex (technological, social and political)

• The management and workers at DITT have gotten used to things going wrong, fixing problems at the last minute

• They shrug when they hear what went wrong this time. They got numbed in a way



Proposal at Proposal at 'Kunstwerken''Kunstwerken'Staff Rides …

to provoke a sense of urgency



Staff RidesStaff Rides

• Choice of unexpected events• Preparation by the owner of the event• Three storytellers• Three groups of managers and

employees that are asking blame free questions

• Reconstruction of the timeline• Looking for dysfunctional patterns



• We postpone our interpretations and judgments

• We do that by including multiple perspectives

• And by asking participants to tell their story in terms of observations

• We do not look for guilty parties that contributed to the unexpected event

The Blame Free PrincipleThe Blame Free Principle



• Judging enables you to make a decision

• If it is not necessary to make a decision, you can postpone your judgment

• By postponing your judgment, you can start observing and renew your observations and interpretations concerning a certain event

Postponing your Postponing your judgmentjudgment



• One observation can be interpreted in ten different ways

• Ten interpretations can be valued in hundred different ways

• Connecting the who’s and the what’s enables you to see multiple perspectives

Including multiple Including multiple perspectivesperspectives



• Tell me about the specific moment that you experienced something you did not expect?

• Where were you at that time, who was there with you, were you sitting or standing?

• What did you say, in what way did you move?

• And then? What happened then?• And then?

Storytelling in Storytelling in observationsobservations



• We assume that patterns of interaction will make anyone act in the sameway, making the samemistakes as did the personin this specific situation

• So it is about changing thepatterns, and the conditionsin which these patterns can excist, not about changing the person

No one is to blame forNo one is to blame for



I invite you to stand and walk over to someone

And to practice some blame free evaluating by asking the other person about how he or she woke up and got to the conference this morning

Invitation to Invitation to experienceexperience……



Method of implementationMethod of implementation

Step 0: First moments of interactionStep 1: Preparation with managementStep 2: Preparation with employeesStep 3: Preparation of the staff rides with the ‘owners’Step 4: Executing staff ridesStep 5: Joint analyses and action



A staff ride is not an easy ‘can – use – it –anywhere – anytime’ intervention

Mindfulness does also apply here

In other words…In other words…



DifficultiesDifficulties• Being part of the

patterns of the organization…

• When the sense of urgency becomes part of your own system…

• ‘Success’ leading to becoming a one trick pony…

• Relationships deepen and therefore understanding…



ResultsResultsManagement and employees:• learnt how to evaluate their (non-)

collaboration in a blame free manner• became aware of the dysfunctional

patterns that have become part of the organization’s culture, habits and processes

• understood how they contribute in maintaining these dysfunctional patterns

The staff rides evoked a sense of urgency



ConclusionConclusion

• Mindfulness, where to start?

• Staff rides to provoke a sense of urgency

• Mindfulness in the process of usingthis tool



What can you expect the next 10 What can you expect the next 10 minutesminutes……??

mindful organizing: using the method of blamefree evaluating

Documents

sense of urgency

patterns of interaction

moments of interaction

city of amsterdam

multiple perspectives

kunstwerken staff rides

employees step

management step