Then other key men and women in the system are interviewed. Interviews are usually thirty minutes to an hour. This results in a detailed understanding of how the system works, how leadership is exercised, which behaviors are rewarded and which discouraged, how communication is enabled or blocked, how people support or undermine their leaders’ goals and objectives and their own. By that point, the original "problem" has turned into an objective description which can be examined without being threatening.

Understanding how the system works is the booby prize. Using that understanding to make a difference is the prize - and that requires timing and the ability to enter the system, build trust, and use that window of opportunity to intervene in appropriate ways to shift behaviors in desired directions. So energy and information will flow in a way that’s aligned with the leader’s objectives.

My experience is that we are all doing the best we know how to do, under the circumstances. The circumstances, however, may include mixed motives, unconscious behaviors, or simply not knowing how to do something that we want to do because we lack the training, power, or opportunity.

So I try to understand what’s really going on and what kind of intervention might make a difference.

The conclusion can take the form of a coaching session, a training session, a plan for further action by myself or others, or no action at all. Sometimes no action is exactly what is needed for a problem to resolve itself.

It’s important to speak the language of the people in the work place. Nothing bombs faster than pretense or phoniness. Everybody knows what’s really going on, but they may not always be free to express it. Describe the situation in a way that everyone knows is nonsense and you’ve blown it.

Sometimes, after listening to confidential "focus groups," you wouldn’t know that the groups were talking about the same place. It sounds as if they live on different planets. This is particularly the case when gender or racial issues are involved, but it happens whenever there’s a significant power differential and leadership that says one thing but does another.

So it’s important to tell the truth that people know ... but we don’t want to know the truth if it makes us feel powerless. We can hear it (hear it, that is, in a way that enables us to act) only when hearing it lets us see realistic possibilities. That gap between denial and empowerment is where we put the tip of the lever called consulting to move the rock. The rock, of course, is how the system has learned to work, how it knows everything about itself, including which behaviors are really rewarded.

If you think enhanced insight into system dynamics, the truth about what’s going on out there beyond the office walls, or assistance in developing a realistic actionable strategy for getting something unstuck would be helpful ... let’s talk.

Call. E-mail. Fax. ... Richard Thieme at ThiemeWorks.

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