Useful links and web sites

Arbinger Institute - focuses on the idea that the underlying problem is often not the what we do, but how we do it - self deception.  The book Leadership and the Art of Self Deception is a useful resource for both coaches and manager, to better understand how we relate to others around us, whether at work or outside. 


Otto Scharmer - including articles and tools on the U Journaling process.


Aid on the Edge of Chaos - exploring complexity & evolutionary sciences in foreign aid.


Personality theories, types and tests - Businessballs


Covey - overview of ideas in 7 Habbits


Mike the Mentor - compilations of coaching models


Psychosynthesis



The Clean Collection - clean language


Systemic Constellations

Andecote - Change management 

Lasagne and Chips - knowledge and change management blog


Ingenious People's knowledge - people are the centre of all action


Johnnie Moore - articles and podcasts about facilitation


The Work Foundation 


Adair action centered leadership - Runge Effective Leadership 


Slideshare



Association for Coaching (AC) - Recommended reading 



Metaphor - TED talk


Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation Daniel Pink


Motive means and opportunity - Bruce Britton

Delta 7 - great site using images to get to the unspokens in organisations

Delta 7 - This is our organisation

MIX Management Innovation eXchange

Blog article on starting small and bottom up change 


Incomplete manifesto for change  Bruce Mau


Peter Senge interview 


The Terrible Dance of Power - Barry Oshry


Collaborating for change: the organization workshop

Congruence - the four quadrants in organisations

Much of my coaching to date has exposed the personal ‘angst created when personal and organizational values are no longer aligned. This was the reason I first enrolled on an executive coaching course, and which took me the next six months to work out how to manage effectively, through this outlet called coaching.  

	INNER	OUTER
INDIVIDUAL	SENSE OF PURPOSE / MEANING ASPIRATIONS DESIRES ATTITUDES BELIEFS PERSONAL VALUES	GOALS PLANS SKILLS BEHAVIOURS
ORGANISATION	MISSION ORGANISATIONAL BELIEFS / CULTURE CORPORATE MINDSET	VISION ORGANISATIONAL GOALS STRATEGY BEHAVIOURAL NORMS CODE OF CONDUCT PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS

The four quadrants were first developed by Ken Wiber in A Brief History of Everything, and have been developed by Downey (Effective Coaching, 2003).

• The upper left concerns the inner life of the individual, his/her personal values, beliefs and needs. 
• The upper right is the way in which these are expressed externally: their goals, plans, skills and how they behave. 
• The lower left concerns the inner life of the organization: its mission, culture, values – what is seen as possible and not possible.
• The lower right is the external representation of the lower left: the organisation’s vision, goals and strategies, collective behavioural norms, code of conduct. It also embraces the systems that facilitate the management of the organization.

In healthy organizations there is congruence between the quadrants: between the lower left and lower right, the lower left and upper right and, importantly for coaching, between the lower left and upper left.   

Downey suggests that ‘the biggest reason why values fail to take root in most organizations is the schism between the lower left and the upper left: between what an individual’s personal values are and the expressed values of the organization. This occurs in two ways.  

• The leadership group that generated the values was not creating them for themselves but for everyone else, so of course they don’t ‘walk the talk’.
• Secondly, for the majority of the staff the values are imposed upon them and bear little or no relation to what the individual’s values actually are; a failure to align the personal with the organizational prevents the values from coming to life.’

Where an individual feels obliged to hide his/her inner values and beliefs in the external world of organizational life I would argue they cannot be fully engaged and committed to the organization they work within. Their personal strategy is usually survival rather than development and growth.  They may seek to demonstrate externally through their behaviours how 'on board' they are. They may seek to align their personal beliefs and needs outside work. By definition though, they are unlikely to be wholly committed to the organization as they experience it.  This is may be visible through depression and burn out at its most extreme, to denial, pretence and semi-engagement as a standard work strategy at the other. Individuals often internalize the situation, blaming themselves for not adapting better to something which, fundamentally, they cannot adapt to without compromising their ‘essential’ selves.

Clearly not all coaching within organizations is about values and congruency but where these are important they cannot be ignored. 

Coaching  offers the opportunity for personal honesty.  The player is encouraged to put all his/her cards on the table and to examine them close up from a less emotional place. They often discover that the hand they thought they had been dealt is not stacked and there are other personal wild cards that have been put on one side and overlooked.

First conversations are usually highly practical and factual and appear to make rapid progress.  Next issues are usually those concerning self-perception, self-confidence and managing relationships. And under all these are values. Where misaligned values are involved I would argue these need to be examined. 

The organizational quadrants allows players to understand better why they may be feeling in this ‘stuck place,’ and that this is an area that they cannot fundamentally change but may need to adopt new strategies. There can be no blame. Their own values are not wrong or bad, simply misaligned with the values in use (to parallel Argyris and Schon's theory) they are experiencing around them. How they choose to manage this is their personal choice.  Rather than feeling a victim of the situation they can regain control through their choice of action, or inaction if this is now their choice.

The Good Work Project offers a useful Value Sort Activity that allows you to prioritise and review your own values and reflect on how these might overlap with, or differ from, others. 

Managing burdens

How heavy is this glass of water?....... The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends upon how long you try to hold it. If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance. In each case it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it the heavier it becomes.  And that's the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on. As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest  before holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden. 
So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down. Don't carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you are carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can. Relax, pick them up later after you've rested. Life is short. Enjoy it. (Chesterman, Personal communication, 2006). p30 - from Hawkins, P and Shohet, R., Supervision in the caring professions. 


Managing personal energy rather than time  Tony Schwartz   The Energy Project,   Energy audit link

A vision for a balanced life:

If you were brought before a court and accused of poor work-life balance would there be sufficient evidence to convict you?  (courtesy of The 18 Challenges of Leadership, Waldock, T. & Shenaz, K-R (2004)

Management, leadership, coaching

Management 

• Line-managers need to manage and have a responsibility, both to the organisation and to the individual, to do so.
• Line-managers, as part of managing, need to agree clear goals for their direct reports (What).
• Line-managers need to hold their direct reports to account for the goal that has been agreed.
• Once the goals have been agreed, and any other parameters surrounding their role such as values and behaviours, the line-manager coaches the report to achieve the agreed goals (How).
• Line-managers need to lead, to keep present in the minds of their direct reports the overarching aims of the organisation and be role-models for the desired values and behaviours. (Downey, M. 2003)

The 'What' is generally non-negotiable and falls under the authority of the organisation.

The 'How' is more discretionary and is falls under the authority of the individual. 

The 'How' is the domain of performance.  The line-manager is the direct link between the organisation as an entity and the individual working within the organisation. Where this work relationship is poor, or individuals are disengaged, organisations cannot pretend to aspire to high performance.  It is the role of the line-manager to lead (set direction and inspire others to follow), to manager (to set clear parameters, goals and expectations) and to coach (to grow and develop) their direct reports. 


The underlying management role of setting clear goals and expectations is key to individual, team and organisational performance: If people do not have clear goals it is extremely difficult to be successful and even more difficult to discuss performance'. (Downey, M. 2003)

Desired futures? Life purpose?

From the often 'stuck' present place it is often difficult to define what this desired future is. Below are some options that may help to clarify what is is we really we really want for ourselves. 


Postcard from the future:
Imagine yourself in the future doing this thing you feel you want to be doing. Where are you? Doing what? Who is with you?  How does it look, feel, smell, taste? What is good about it? Write yourself a postcard describing how it is and how you got there. Perhaps find a card that represents this future as a backdrop to write on. Or, draw yourself your own postcard.


How do you want to do / be / feel?  Downey suggests ' if you cannot detect something through your senses then it does not exist. It is a figment of the imagination. If you take the time to translate goals or objectives into something you can see, hear and feel - and I guess smell if you must - then you will identify two additional aspects of the goal.' Effective Coaching , 2003.


Celebration / remembrance speech:
How would you like to be remembered? What would others be saying about you, your life and what you did in it?  This could be when leaving your organisation, one part of your life or even at your funeral. An interesting slant for women leaders could be - how would you like your daughter to remember you, for what?


Coaching wheel: 
The coaching wheel can be used to set out visually where you feel you are at present, where you would like to be for the future and to identify which areas you would like to focus on at present. 


'Golden moments' / 'In the zone'
The 'in the zone' sports analogy is often referred to in coaching. That moment when you are so totally engrossed in what you are doing you could carry on almost forever, you are relaxed and focussed, perhaps exhilarated, enjoying the moment and no longer bombarding yourself with doubts about whether you are able to do it. 
Think back to situations where you have felt like this. What were you doing, what made it so special, who were you with, what were they doing, how did you feel, what personal driver or need did it meet?  Recall several of these moments and note your thoughts down. What pattern emerges? What is it telling you?

Working on options

WORKING ON OPTIONS

Think through your options and note them down. What are the advantages (pluses) and disadvantages (minuses) of each option?  Note them down.  Review your options. Which is the most attractive ?

OPTION 1
ADVANTAGES
e.g.

• it is ..
• it allows ..
• I can ..

DISADVANTAGES

• I cannot..
• it might ..
• it limits...

OPTION 2
ADVANTAGES

• xx
• xx
• xx

DISADVANTAGES

• xx
• xx
• xx

OPTION 3

ADVANTAGES

• xx
• xx
• xx

DISADVANTAGES

• xx
• xx
• xx

Set out the options, with advantages and disadvantages in parallel:
OPTION 1                                     OPTION 2                                OPTION 3
ADVANTAGES                               ADVANTAGES                           ADVANTAGES

•                                                      

DISADVANTAGES                           DISADVANTAGES                      DISADVANTAGES

• 
  

How attractive is each option on a scale of 1-10?


My preferred option is: 
Option 1, option 2, option 3 / a combination of these ? / something completely different`


What I need to do to make this happen ?

• What additional information do I need?
• Who might have this ?
• What resources do I need?
• Where can I find these?
• Who do I need to help me?
• What is the timeframe?
• What might get in the way?
• Personal commitment
• How realistic is this? (on a scale of 1-10) 
• How committed am I to doing this? (on a scale of 1-10) 
• What would increase my commitment ?
• Making it happen
• First I will …… by x date
• Next I will ….. by