Culture of Cooperation = Networking

How do networking skills change the way people work?

Imagine a work environment where people beg you not to give them any more work, because they are overloaded as it is. Imagine promising this group of people that by participating in a networking leadership course for three afternoons in a 3 month period, they will experience their work as being more fun and they will get more done with less effort.

This is the promise of a project designed to promote a culture of cooperation that NETSHEILA is presently undertaking in a school environment in the Netherlands.

 

 The people

Before looking at how this promise is working out, let me introduce you to the project. It takes place at a secondary school with thousands of students and many many staff. My client loves being an educator and wants his staff to have the best environment possible in which to do their work. The teachers in the project were hand picked by my client. From the moment we met I could tell they are passionate about teaching. They have a busy load, and one of their challenges is to carry the load and stay positive about their work. They are passionate about what they do. They are delighted to be teaching, proud to be the people who are educating the young people in our community. They work closely with the students to surmount problems and they celebrate wildly when the students are successful. They give themselves fully to their job. They really do work hard. And they are willing to test run a project that is designed to improve the quality of the work environment at the school.

Outside of school hours they are also passionate. I am working with teachers who live full lives outside school hours. One is a volunteer at a radio station and has been for years. Another loves to build things for people, and one business administration teacher with one little child and one on the way converted her attic into a kitchen where she makes delicious cakes and pastries. One person is secretary of a car-lovers society, another runs the local ice-skating club, a third trains kids to be Olympic champions in judo. 

 

Defining the need

On the first afternoon, everyone was asked to think of a task or a plan or an issue that they have on their plate that is bigger than what they can deal with alone. They are assured that having something on your plate like that is a sign of strength. After all,  if you can deal easily with all the challenges you face, your game is too small. If you are up to something big, you need other people.  I defined this ‘something’ as a need.

Everyone could easily think of something. They then shared with the three other people at their table what their need was. 

 

Ding that people are social assets

Putting their need aside, people then proceeded to map out their circles of friends and acquaintances. Some noted the categories of people, others the people themselves.  Friends from college friends from school, friends from previous work situations, people they play sports with, family, colleagues, and on and on. 

 

Matching needs to assets

Each table of four then took one for one the needs people had described, and looked at who in their community map could be useful for that person.  Even if they felt they could help the person themselves, the purpose of the exercise was to see what other human resources they as an individual have that they can provide their colleagues.

Everyone left the first afternoon with a need that was concretely expressed, and with an understanding of conversations they could have in and outside school that could easily help them work further on this need.

 

Concrete results

Twenty days later the group came together for a second afternoon. The intention of the afternoon was to take the knowledge of connecting to people to the next step, creating a culture of cooperation at school. A lot had happened in 20 days.  One teacher had been able to overcome management failings in her department by asking to be assigned the role of section head, and getting the role. The other section heads in our group freely offered to support her in developing herself in this new role. Others had found the space they needed to sit together with their team and plan. Another had started conversations with various people to find the money he needed to implement an innovative plan. When one teacher declared he hadn’t done anything relating to the need he had expressed, two other people let him know they had taken up his issue and big progress had been made. 

 

After 20 days teachers were experiencing their work as being lighter and they were getting more done with less effort.

 

Moving toward a culture of cooperation

The challenge is to create that ease and lightness in a structural way, which is why we then proceeded to working on developing a culture of cooperation.

Tribal Leadership, the work done by the good folks at CultureSync, forms a basis for developing this culture.

 

The 5 stages of culture

Tribal Leadership distinguishes 5 stages of culture existing in the world of work.

Stage 1 is Life Sucks. Researchers Dave Logan an others found 2 percent of companies in their 10-year study to fall within this category. I see stage 1 as mainly the realm of criminal societies, where there is no empathy for others and it is an environment of shoot or get shot. Having said that, I can think of plenty of examples where people try to trip up their colleagues to avoid getting tripped up themselves.

Stage 2 is My Life Sucks. It seems to the individual that everyone else is doing fine, its just a pity that their own life isn’t where it should be. When asked if they will do something this people in this culture say “I’ll try”, but they won’t commit.

A stage 2 culture can advance into (and not step over) a stage 3 culture. “I’m Great!... and the Others Are Not.” Why did that project fail? The other people were not of a good enough quality.  Why did you not get the job you wanted? Someone else had the boss’s ear. About 49 percent of organizations function within the culture.

A stage 4 culture says “We’re Great” and while there is rivalry in that (the implication is that the others, the competition, is not great) there is a sense that we can work together to get things done. This is a culture of cooperation, and 22 percent of organizations function at this level.

Then there is stage 5, which is a great place for saints like Bishop Tutu and the Dalai Lama to dwell but most of us can be pretty satisfied if we manage to operate consistently in a stage 4 culture. At stage 5 the dominant expression is “Life is Great”.  

The structure of the environment in each stage is key to the capacity for organizations having cultures like these to be cultures of cooperation. Stage 5 cultures are an interlinkage of integral units. At Stage 4 the working units are integrated. At Stage 3 management operates the hub and spokes method: tell me everything an don’t disturb your colleagues by telling them what you are up to. At Stage 2 there is little adequate management and at Stage 1 the actor is outside the culture, looking in.

In other words, to have a culture of cooperation the best place to be is in Stage 4. Or stage 5 (Good luck on that).

 

Consistent at stage 4

At our school, we are working on developing a culture of cooperation where the participants are consistently operating at Stage 4. And to do that, the advisors at CultureSync say, people have to be able to operate in triads. Triangles are powerful structures.  Each side of the triangle keeps the other side in place. In a triad, each person listens to the expressed intention of the other two people. The expressed intention is the thing that inspires the person to undertake something that is bigger than him or herself. The genuine desire to educate kids, for example. To not be stopped when there is not enough money for projects, or not enough other teachers wanting or willing to participate in a project, but to keep going, keep looking for that funding, keep enrolling those teachers to participate because educating kids takes courage and effort. Each player at Stage 4 regularly checks in with two other people to have the discussion: are you acting in a way that your intentions will be realized. These two people are not necessarily colleagues. They just have to be people who are committed to you being successful. They are your committed listeners.

 

Practice

The teachers have now formulated shared projects, taking some of the needs expressed in the first session to the level of projects. They have triads supporting them in focusing on their intention, helping them to not get bogged down in the rejections, the complaints, or the negativity that Stage 3 people around them will possibly place in their pathway.  The coming 6 weeks is a time of practicing being consistently in Stage 4. 

Lin  McDevitt-Pugh

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Lin McDevitt-Pugh MBA, owner of  NETSHEILA, is a management consultant with a particular expertise in creating cultures of cooperation in the workplace.  With a culture of cooperation, organizations can realize big goals through fun, ease and connectivity. Call +31 6 150 48468 to see how NETSHEILA  can support your organization. We work in Dutch-language and English-language environments.

David Logan on Tribal Leadership

Tribal Leadership is finding its way into business vocabulary, and for good reason. The ideas behind Tribal Leadership are a cornerstone to understanding how people connect, and how businesses can get the most out of the fact that their employees are human and are connected to other people. To provide the value of Trbal Leadership to our clients, NetSHEila is trained in delivering  the wisdom of Tribal Leadership in the business context.

Watch this TED Talk to get a background on what Tribal Leadership is about.

Also visit CultureSync and  rework365 for  background information.

In the work NetSHEila does with clients, we first establish establish triads, stable relationships between three people that help each person focus on delivering something in the world that is bigger than anything they can produce on their own. Triads can be formed between peers, between network participants, between stakeholders. As long as people are willing to share the mystery of how we make things work, and are inquisitive, the level in the organization does not matter. What matters is that you share with the other triad members what your values are, what excites and ignites you.

Stable partnerships based on three people rather than two, are the key to creating a productive culture.

 

Lin McDevitt-Pugh

Lin has 20 years experience working as a consultant, initiator and manager of large international projects. She has worked in the publishing industry, in NGOs with a gender focus and as an independent consultant in Australia, Europe and Africa.

To engage in a conversation on how NetSHEila and Lin McDevitt-Pugh can contribute to your work, call Lin on  +31 (0) 615048468 or write to mcdevit-pugh@netsheila.com.

 

Corporate Lesbians Cause Companies to Catch Up

Last week, 25 energetic women came from all over the Netherlands to listen to the offering of the Triad Leadership Program. These women, and the program, are extraordinary in many ways.

• First, the way we are approaching this work was created by corporate women in the Netherlands, and guided into shape by a brand new offering, the Tribal Leadership technology being developed at CultureSync.
• Second, the program participants are doing the work partly for themselves and mostly for others in the organization.
• Third, it takes guts to stand up, in whatever level of the organization you are, and say: I want a different culture and I will make that happen.
• And fourth, the women recognize that only the people who understand the issues can shape the solution.

The issue

Here’s the bottom line. In the Netherlands we have great laws that demand that there is no discrimination on the grounds of ethnicity, religion, sexual identity, or gender.

Laws are great. They are guidelines. If you step over the line, there are procedures to pull you back in line.

Laws are not everything. People still step over the line. Discrimination still happens.

In the corporate world, there are degrees of stepping over the line. There are organizations like the Equal Opportunities Commission that employees can engage with to lodge a complaint. The Commission will check out the story and determine whether an unlawful action has taken place.

And then there are the inadvertent cases of stepping over the line. They come in many shapes and forms and are often due simply to an unawareness of how things work.

For example, during my research into the value of Dutch Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) networks for corporations, I found that many LGBT people do not contemplate foreign postings as a career path, because they think their company will not be able to accommodate their family situation, particularly if the posting is to a country where homosexuality is illegal. Or, if they are a US citizen living in the Netherlands with a Dutch partner, they don’t consider moving back to the US because the US immigration law will not allow them to bring their partner.

Chances are, the company doesn’t know about any of the thoughts going through the person’s mind. The company only knows about the people who do apply for foreign postings.

30% of lesbians are in the closet at work. It’s their decision, based on negative experiences. Recent research indicates that lesbians experience negative reactions to their sexual identity mostly from strangers, and then from work. Family comes after that. It stands to reason that if lesbians are in the closet at work, their managers and HR are unable to work with them to stop harassment, or think and work through other issues they face.

The problems are not all out there with the company. Lesbian women make assumptions about their lives, what is possible and what is not possible, and shut down possibilities before they even notice them.

I was struck this week by how I do this and have done this. I was at a Landmark Education event and saw a woman I remembered from 11 years ago. I remembered that I was in a Landmark Education program, and the leader had been speaking all day about commitment to your relationship. It came down to: if you are committed, get married. If you are not, don’t. I sat in my chair thinking: Its OK for you to say that, you CAN get married. I can’t. Then this woman stood up and announced she had asked her girlfriend to marry her. I realized in that moment that I had reduced my options to the legal limitations at that time in the Netherlands. The homophobia was inside me. From that time I declared that I would marry my sweetheart. I told this to politicians and colleagues and family. 10 years ago the institution of marriage in the Netherlands was changed to include same sex partners. We were married a month later.

The point of this story being: we think there are barriers to equality between all people, but if we don’t address them they will not move.

The solution

Its only when someone steps up to her manager, or HR, and presents the problem that the manager or HR can be aware of the problem. Managers don’t sit around wondering why a person does not apply for a foreign posting. They really don’t. And with 30% of lesbians in Dutch companies still being secretive about their sexuality at work, we can’t expect managers to come up with the answer themselves.

Lesbians need to own the problem, and to own the solution.

The program that we have developed – and are continuing to refine through the experience of running the program – has the potential to shift mountainous barriers.

Each participant takes on shifting the way things work in her organization. She doesn’t do this alone. She has two friends that have her back. They form a triad, and together they discover the power of three. The triads have a monthly coaching session with the program leader, me, and a monthly learning and sharing session with all the other participants.

We will discover barriers as we go. And there is one thing I know for certain: change will happen. Never before have corporate lesbians worked together, across the companies, to make change happen. With the powerful people in the room last Monday, I can only imagine the future we are walking into, together. We are writing history together.

I am inspired by Australian Aborigine activist, Gary Foley recently said, “History will be kind to me as I intend to write it.''

The Triad Leadership Program will be developed for all people wanting cultural change in their organizations. We want workplaces to work for everyone.

Getting Started with Triads

NetSHEila's newest program is the Triad Leadership Program. With a number of people we have developed the contours of a program that we envisage will last for a year. On 24 October we will put it to the experts, the people who will join the program, and invite them to shape it with us.

NetSHEila is committed to working with organizations to get the most out of networks. We are also committed to workplaces being spaces in which people can be themselves, 100% of the time.

Triads - well, let Dave Logan explain what they are in this TED Talk.

Triads are powerful, three person networks. Powerful, because the network of three is operating at two levels.

• Triads create good relationships. This has to be one of the most important assets a company can have. Oscar Berg (@oscarberg)  describes the value of informal networks well, and in many ways triads do what informal networks do. "Everyone has informal networks, and informal networks are the operating system of every enterprise out there. Yet surprisingly few organizations and knowledge workers seem to understand the dynamics of their informal networks and harness their abilities." Oct 3, 2011   He continues: "Since good relationships are much more likely to lead to transactions and value being created than bad or non-existing relationships, businesses necessarily need to focus much more on building and nurturing relationships than they do today. Relationships need to be treated as the foundation for all value creation in a business. Organizations need to shift focus from being purely transaction-oriented to become more relationship-oriented. This in turn requires a corresponding shift away from the currently dominating one-way and transaction-oriented communication to a richer, more personalized, honest and transparent two-way communication with customers and other stakeholders as well as internally within the workforce."

• Triads are a perfect learning space. Triads occur naturally - a team-a coach-a player. A teacher-a student-a school.  Two parents and a child. A marriage: two people and a community that promises to support their union. Triads provide the opportunity to learn together, because there is trust, there is a shared goal and there is commitment.

Triads can change the world. Particularly if there are a few of them, all working on the same issue. Our program is about introducing some quite simple measures to level the playing field for all employees. It is about diversity management.

If you would like to come to the project start-up event, please write to admin@netsheila.com and we will give you the details.