Archive for February, 2014
Be prepared!
It was Lord Baden Powell, father of the scouting movement who created the famous scouting motto,
“Be Prepared”
…meaning specifically that a scout must prepare himself by previously thinking out and practicing how to act – so that in any accident or emergency he is never taken by surprise.
So it is for effective leadership of groups and people.
Whether leading a team, facilitating a meeting or influencing an individual in terms of their performance – there is nothing more important than to be prepared!
Asking instead of Telling
Ed Schein’s latest book Humble Inquiry: the gentle art of asking instead of telling, (2013), represents the culmination and distillation of his 50 years as a highly respected social and organizational psychologist in the US.
Miscommunication is most often the root cause of disharmony in workplaces, poor business performance, relationship breakdown, safety incidents etc. Ed Schein, writes a very cogent and concise book on how our culture of doing and telling, gets in the way of building trusting relationships based on good communication.
Telling often has the effect of putting another person down and implies that they don’t already know what they are being told, and ought to know it. Questioning on the other hand temporarily empowers the other person in the conversation and makes the questioner more vulnerable. This builds trust and draws the other into the conversation.
Cycles and Levels of Organizational Life
For insights into the growth and decline in organizations, an understanding of organizational culture and the use of archetypal psychology to better understand what makes organizations tick, click here to read a paper that has evolved over 30 years of working with organizations.
