Discovery

Process Consulting: A Journey of Discovery through Metaphor

By downieh
  • Casting a Net: Reaching out to my networks!

    680 is done - lets dive deeper into 698! Contacting networks all over. Virtually dormant since beginning HSI... Looking for a non-hierarchical organization. DP2ish. Learn from, and see what they may need help in their innovative working contexts.
  • Period: to

    Creating & Discovering the Process Consultant in me!

  • The Making: Putting a face to the cold call emails!

    Blooper - Video Journal 1/1 Part of the journey of self-awareness is being able to look back and poke fun at yourself! First and last video journal. There is some wisdom in "Fake it until you make it".
  • Sending out the email, CV, PC, HSI info and the video! "Fake it until you male it!"

    Sending out the email, CV, PC, HSI info and the video! "Fake it until you male it!"
  • Pitch to my networks, cold call marketing company and a national organization.

  • Silence.... and then client response through Social Media - Twitter

  • Emails lead to Skype Conversation with Marketing Company

    Benefit Corporation
    Helping Hand - lead the process within the organization.
    President passed me on to contact person who is in charge of project...
  • End contact marketing - door open for the future?

  • Diner with Solomon - HSI Connection!

    Courage to share and ask for help! Credit where due. We are a community of practitioners! You are not alone <3
  • Contact with the Client Great Work of Your Life

    SK- Client – “wonderful potential for a mutually beneficial partnership”.
    Entry point – Great work of your life, book.
  • Field Supervisor Connection (John Gancz) / Long List of Learning Goals

  • Call with Gancz

    Montreal - Ottawa
  • Meet with CEO - Contact Client at Office

  • Follow up with client's interest/thoughts on working together?

  • Call with Gancz

    Learning Goals Authenticity
    Integrity
    Metaphor Realistic grasp of the situation.
    Work with what you have.
    One idea at a time
    Shared sense of purpose with client system.
    Alignment of learning goals.
  • Reconnecting Email - two busy people... Timeline

    Empathy
    Timeline - Serious
    Present idea to staff.
  • Call with Contact Client - Presenting problem through CEO lens

    Original problem seemed as though team was not on the same page … as CEO. Timeliness of us working together “critical point in the life of things right now”. Conversation: Felt like two consultants working with each other.
  • Cleaning with Client - Contracting

    Cleaning with Client - Contracting
    "If you are coming to help me you are wasting your time. But if you are coming because your liberation is bound up with mine, then come and let us work together." Understanding the client (stigma & feedback loop). Contracting. Establishing relationship. Learning from the client: Make sure that your own janitor closet is clean. Inner condition and tuning of process consultant. Listen to myself.
  • Call with Gancz - Learning Goals

    Call with Gancz - Learning Goals
    Narrowing down my learning goals: Authenticity, Integrity & Metaphor. [System is a metaphor in itself].
  • Reflections - Motivation ...

    What is keeping me going with Zenith? CClient said – I was doing an immersive study on company… Previous experiences: Inscaping, Cleaners Around the World, Previous HSI grads. Zenith is itself trying to bring the metaphor of cleaning to reality! Asked of me: How does working with Zenith align with your own purpose?
  • W7 Gathering

  • Another Perspective: Envt Scan Conversations Continue

    Another Perspective: Envt Scan Conversations Continue
    Power dynamics. Influence within organization. "Can we have a real training program?"
    "There is no watercooler at Zenith."
    “Too much into the metaphor” Living personal philosophies – different gradients of the metaphor. Organic ways of being still has structure.
  • Observed Team Meetings - Observation Tools

    Observed Team Meetings - Observation Tools
    Can I observe team meetings? Had not had one in the last 2 years (trauma within the org). Called a meeting for me to obs.
    We, we, we... Believe... Oneness. Passive Particiaption (Bion) Magical leader. BaD ... Switching between states. CEO speak on behalf of others. I sense that people want to get involved. Untapped potential. "Do you need help with that? I can help". CEO asking people to "groom" him - give him feedback. Silence. H - Transparency - and way of being - human side at the end.
  • Understanding the Culture of the System

    Understanding the Culture of the System
  • Structure of the System

    Structure of the System
  • Ethics April - May

    Main issues: Power dynamics
    • Observe team meetings
    • Clean
    • Interviews
    • Feedback of Data
    • Feedback - Survey
    • What next?
  • W7 Meeting

    H is exhausted. Crucial Conversations at Work. H must keep on… work continues but enthusiasm fizzles. What do I need as an intervener to stay engaged? Intervene with CEO? How do you hold each other accountable? Evolving client system (in and out). 4 new, 4 old. What does a “clean” team look like? What does a “dirty” team look like?
  • Call with Gancz - In the weeds... want to tend to whole forest.

    Stuckness. Wide Envt scan. Turbulence at work / change within the system. I moved. Can’t go into a system wide open. Need some sort of barometer. Foundation piece – checking. Always going to be opportunities to explore. 610 shadow. Many lines of inquiry. Temptation to collect more information. Best that you can do in this lifetime. Self-care & giddy up ! (Gancz)
  • Negotiating with Contact Client - Time and Compensation

    Ethics: Planned for a 3 hr session looking at the data, determine next steps, and possibly work together on implementation. Time/compensation – okay – but does not want to waste time. Not sure if staff will be available for 3 hrs. CEO– wanted to pay for my cleaning time with them. No.
  • Email Exchange - Presenting Opportunity / Collusion

    From CEO: “How can your work with us embody cleaning and how can we look at everything we are doing or want to do with a cleaning lens assuming cleaning is an expansive and universal metaphor... Brings it home for me and all of us. No? Yes?". Asking me to use the metaphor language. H – Proposed that we have staff use language that they choose in exploring what we are working on.
  • Call with Gancz - Exhausted by the metaphors myself.

    Perception, language... grounding in reality. Explorations as a PC: Working with changes within the system, midstream, new players… new projects. Culture of living organization. Who "owns" the project? Whose steering it?
  • W7 Meeting

  • Hi Client System! Quiet - I miss you? Remember me/us/you?

    Hi Client System! Quiet - I miss you? Remember me/us/you?
    Quiet from the system. "Hi! We are still on! Check in." No responses. Recap of the entry of project. Impact of silence on me. Motivation. Curious if the same experience within client system.
  • Call with Gancz - Momentum Helping Relationship

    Call with Gancz - Momentum Helping Relationship
    … Keep momentum going. People other than CEO doing leadership workshops. Contrasting client system to my work place. Helping relationship: two way… Humble Inquiry – (dependence on each other).
  • Observing Team Meeting - Iceberg

    Observing Team Meeting - Iceberg
    CEO Agenda: Common understanding of what the values are at company. Teaching/Telling/Classroom. Iceberg. Wisdom of room: “Accessing Oour own ignorance”. Not sure if everyone is on the same page. Body language. Alive: Mention of structure and freedom tension (Email exchange CEO & admin staff). Low energy in the room - H - energy into project. 15mins to speak - 2 mins.
    With me: (Telling temptation = expert vs. Humble PC). Telling – faster change/impact … not sustainable…? TRUST PROCESS
  • Call with Gancz - Time Poverty

    "Time poverty becomes an excuse for not changing” JG. Infrequency of contact can complicate the situation. Collection of individuals vs. team ... vs. system.
  • Interview

  • Call with Gancz

  • Interview

  • Interview

  • Call with Gancz

  • Interview

  • Interview

  • Calll with Gancz

  • Interview

  • Vacation - Cabin in the woods - Reflections

    Doodle Poll for Feedback - low participation and not everyone available on same day. H - Also "slow" to call a date. Motivation. How can I continue helping this organization? Still exploring the surface? What does resistance look like in a positive organization? (Same behaviours?) Argyris. Better than other places. Less to complain about. Blindspots.
  • Call with Gancz

    4/10 people responded. Summer.
  • 15 days without contact with the system...

  • Called the feedback of the data meeting. Just do it!

  • Intervention Prep - 1.5 hrs - a few designs K.I.S......S

  • Call with Gancz

    How/when to work with CEO's leadership? CEO – outward investment. Team coaching? Is there a team? Is a team needed to sustain an organization? Wisdom in the room untapped.
  • Outcomes: Closing of this chapter? Or entire relationship?

    Captured voices at the end: Choose 1 focus: Team > Clients
    Growing Healthy
    Team / Individual
    Work More Hours
    Team Connection “Can we keep the data?” - Culture artifacts. Anyone coming into the organization will understand what they are all about – seeing quotes and images.
  • Immediate Feedback

    Immediate Feedback
    • Provided for a rich experience.
    • Immersed in their org. deeper than previous engagements.
    • Value of external perspective – Validation of different voices. - Facilitation skills.
    • Patience
    End is the beginning!?
  • Planned Intervention

    Planned Intervention
    What happened?
    Outcomes: Cleaning as practice affects other aspects of your life, Freedom, The team, Ambiguity/Structure, Barriers, Scaling our work and our impact Cleaning Communication, Clients Scaling up in a Healthy and Sustainable way. “Can we keep the data?” - Culture artifacts.
  • Call with Gancz & Reflections

    What next factor? Capacity vs. dependency Closing of chapter. What of implementation phase? How much is theirs? How much is mine? Tension between ambiguity and structure. Reflection: Zenith group formation – constantly in forming stage… To what degree is this a system? Why does this matter?Is a system needed for change?- Accountability- Purpose- Responsibility- Parts…. Whole
  • Post intervention debrief with CEO

    Post intervention debrief with CEO
    What sustains growth of people side of Zenith? Mandatory meeting. Open to changing format of the meeting. Survival – opportunity to share. Critical to our existence. We suffer a lot and give a lot to clients. Energy into staff.
    Purpose has to inform culture. Challenge – creating something that does not exist. Shortcomings – funding opportunities.
  • Sent Feedback Survey out as an intervention.

  • Close-out with John and Warren

    Highlights:
  • Survey results... after 3 reminders.

    Survey results... after 3 reminders.
    Questions: Shifts in the system, key learnings, my shoes, themes, scaling up in a healthy and sustainable way, keep, drop, create - team meetings, ambiguity/structure, priority, anything else? 5/9 people responded. 1 - "just don't do surveys". 1 - too busy, is it too late? Silence from 2 others. Using feedback as an intervention - what next? Involve, Team, Transformation, Ambiguity, Scaling, People, Need, Clients, Community, Structure, Ideas... [Metaphor into reality to sustain it]. Purpose.
  • Collage Images - Inside of me as a practioner and whole self!

    Collage Images - Inside of me as a practioner and whole self!
    Authentic FireBeautiful mind towards Action! Transitioning from student into a process consultant.
  • Final Presentation!

    Final Presentation!
    Final Presentation Gratitude (John, W7, Cohort, Teach Team, those before us).
    Requirement and celebration (lets have fun)!
    Break the isolation from 698 - Bring system out.
    Share Insights with cohort as community of practitioners: Culture, metaphor, experience, intervention, time, team, client, help, needs & wants, people, questions and purpose.
    Learn and be challenged
    Sense Making (Metaphors, Word Cloud, Images, thoughts).
    Beginnings from Endings
    My Purpose
  • What next? Further exploration, or uncovering?

    What next? Further exploration, or uncovering?
    Aha moment! The service of a metaphor - evokes ideas and direction, and at the same time needs to be sustained - into reality, practice, experience, refined, updated etc. How does a metaphor see it self? It needs to be experienced by others and kept “alive”. Metaphor in relation to purpose.
    Self-as intrument - play and tune. Ex. Captain of my Own Ship - Dormant, Alive, Intention into Action.
  • Inside world of a metaphor?

    Inside world of a metaphor?