Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Organizational Awareness


"AS IT IS ABOVE SO IT IS BELOW"
What can we learn about organizations from a 25,000 year old cave carving? The Venus of Lausells is a backdrop for this week's video blog reflection.

What is the intersection of all the little events popping like hot kernels of corn around us and the large macro forces in play in our organizations?

I'm advocating for better organizational awareness. Let my two minute video be a conversation starter...


Here are a couple of thoughts on how we can put stories to work to help us develop greater organizational awareness of the small and large things:

  1. We use stories to explain other people's behavior and develop strategies for how to interact with them.

  2. We are also capable of considering alternative behaviors that go against our ingrained ones by being aware of what stories describe our nature and by imagining alternative ones.

  3. Stories are the templates upon which new behaviors can be projected onto and actualized. We use stories to gain an understanding of who we are. Collectively our stories paint an accurate picture of who we are. If we can access this information, we give ourselves freedom. In other words we can break out of an old story and temporarily adopt a new one.
What can you add to this list?

Be sure to check out my awarding winning assessment tool. Story-based observational skills are at the heart of the model.

There are also a book of self-development exercises you can use to strengthen these skills in your self and others.

And for the final shameless product plug for a guy who loves to share but also does need to make a living I have a wonderful book of group process activities that can be used to help people experience these critical skills.

Thanks!


No comments:

Post a Comment

Thank You!
Adding your stories and thoughts to this conversation is enriching for everyone.