What does this mean for those of us working in organizations, teaching in schools and colleges, and creating communities?  It means we have to shift the way we engage with information.  We have to shift from knowing to inquiring. Both individually and together, we will be more effective by developing inquiry practices that surface new knowledge and diverse perspectives as well as encourage learning, adapting, and innovation. We are stepping into the age of generativity!

Managing Your Reaction

If this rapid change overwhelms you and leaves you feeling stressed and anxious, you’re not alone. Anyone thinking or feeling that they have to have the answers, they have to figure it all out, they have to solve the problems alone should be overwhelmed! That is an impossible task in this day and age. If you have that reaction, it is sure to escalate over time because anxiety and fear actually inhibit your capacity to deal with reality we are facing.

A bit of cognitive dissonance or discomfort can be quite helpful in getting our attention and stimulating creative responses.  Fear, on the other hand blocks our ability to think critically, clearly, or creatively. The greater the fear, the more we are immobilized; a feedback loop ensures that may even spiral into the fight or flight response. As this happens we become more and more reactive and concerned with self-preservation; risk-adversity eliminates any opportunity for creative responses and solutions. Our greatest fears then become our reality.

The flip side of the overwhelm response is one of excitement and anticipation! This is a logical perspective when your shift your thinking and work practices towards collaboration and continuous learning . Resilience, full engagement, open minds, hearts, and wills combined with  practices and policies that surface and generate knowledge and information and advance learning and innovation offer a portal into the world of exponential change.  How do we get there? The good news: current research in positive psychology provides evidence-based practices that actually broaden and build our capacity.  These practices are not foreign to us, however, they are counter-intuitive to a mechanical model for organizing and working.

The Positivity Factor

Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business examined how positivity affects managers. They found that managers with greater positivity were more accurate and careful on making decisions and were more effective interpersonally and spread positivity within their work teams, which in turn produced better collaboration.

Barbara Fredrickson, one of the most reknowned researchers in the area of positive psychology has discovered that positive emotions actually broaden our thinking capacity and build our resilience. Negative emotions narrow our responses, often leaving us with tunnel vision and habitual responses to situations.  This may be beneficial in a crisis where emergency response teams need to react with precision and speed in order to save lives; however, this is far less useful in a training or boardroom.

Wherever you are dealing with human systems and the creation of plans or solution for organizational challenges, it is valuable to have broad thinking capacity. Positive emotions literally give us access to greater thinking capacity, greater recall, creativity, and vision.  Actions, policies, and practices that create a positive environment and positive relationships literally expand the capacity of your organization—instanteously!

You can listen to Dr. Fredrickson talk about positivity, resilience, the broaden and build theory and the importance of positive emotions on YouTube; there are a series of podcasts. Here is a short one to get you started.

The bottom line is that a 3:1 positivity ratio will improve job performance, build resilience, broaden thinking capacity, and generate creativity in your department and organization. Happiness and joy are not the only positive emotions that relate to positivity; there is a much broader spectrum of emotions including, curiosity, interest, contentment, humor, love, gratitude, serenity, hope, contentment, connection, playfulness, mindfulness, appreciation, optimism, and openness.  What’s your positivity ratio?

Managing with the Brain in Mind

As a manager, you set the pace and influence the environment.  An environment that is safe physically, emotionally, and mentally generates a field where positive emotions can flourish.  This means making mutual respect and trust core principles and core practices. It means paying attention to what you say, how you say it, and what you mean to do with your words. Your actions either increase or decrease positivity; change happens the moment you ask a question. Since you cannot avoid having an impact, you must decide what impact you want to have and then be mindful of your actions.

There is a positive feedback loop entailed in this practice because you’re not in this alone: positivity is created in relationship; it is a dance. By acting in ways that enhance a positive environment, you increase respect and trust, which further increases positivity and productivity. Success increases positive emotions, which forms the positive feedback loop.  When the dominant feedback loop is positive, you and your colleagues will be more resilient when adversity does arise. You will be in position to respond efficiently and effectively.

If you are practiced in traditional problem solving, looking for problems or things to fix, this new way of working will feel awkward and perhaps even impractical.  It does not mean you don’t handle the problems; it is the way you go about it that makes all the difference. These new practices invite you to take a step back first. To look at a situation within the context of desired outcomes and to discover where you are most successful in the process of developing strategies for going forward.

You will generate the best solutions for your department/division when your team can access collective creativity and critical thinking; this is facilitated by positive relationships and a positive environment. If you are paying attention, you should see evidence of your efforts in behavior, workplace practices, and organization/department policies.

Practicing Inquiry and Positivity

This week . . .

• Pay attention to the emotions that are motivating you and others. Track your positivity ratio. Become aware of your dominate motivators—your own and what you think is necessary to motivate others.
• Notice when you experience positive relationships or a positive environment. Describe how they impact your team’s capacity to be productive and effective.
• Over the next two weeks, identify things you’ve done to generate positive relationships and/or a positive environment.

The luxury of knowing something…once and for all…is gone.  It is becoming increasingly clear that collaborative learning and intentional systems design will be essential capacities for individuals, teams, and organizations as a whole.

How fast are things changing, check out this youtube video!

Being mindful is absolutely essential to our success in achieving strategic goals and overall mission, and it is central to leading and facilitating collaboration in communities and organizations. It is important enough that the concept of the ‘mindful organization’ has emerged.  Tom Heuerman and Diana Olsen define mindfulness as paying attention to what is (inside and outside of ourselves) and then reflecting non-judgmentally on what is and why it is so. They define organizational mindfulness as the connecting and sharing of the mindfulness of people, in a forum such as dialogue, to create new meaning and knowledge that will help people and organizations achieve greater congruence between their intentions and outcomes.

Organizations committed to learning have improved their capacity for reflection-on-action, but mindfulness is calling for reflection-in-action. It calls us to collectively focus on a number of things even as we act:

• our collective intentions–our strategic outcomes and vision
• the ways we are working together
• the way work is being done

The result of mindfulness is greater alignment of actions with outcomes. It’s like polishing the stone, creating a smooth, frictionless surface, making it easier for us to be successful.

In their research into mindful organizations, Weick and Sutcliffe found that organizations where error and disaster can lead to catastrophe have a unique structure which leads them to think and act differently from other organizations. They use mindful organizing for the unexpected as well as the expected.

Not all organizations have the potential for catastrophe in the event of failure, however, the substance of the elements that Weick and Sutcliffe identified may be broadened in ways that offer key elements for intentionally designing the mindful organization:

1. Anticipation

• Attention and sensitivity to early warning signs and key measures relevant to strategic outcomes
• Commitment to inquire instead of simplify interpretations
• Sensitivity to and awareness about operations, taking into consideration the dynamic and nonlinear nature of Sociotechnical Systems and their relationship to strategic outcomes.

2. Commitment to resilience:

• The capacity to function even in the face of adversity
• The capacity to return to service and excellence following adverse events
• The capacity to learn and grow from whatever happens

3. Deference to Expertise:

• Include “lower ranking” members of the organization
• Place greater emphasis on collaboration, focus on an assembly of knowledge, experience, learning, and intuition.

The good news is organizations can intentionally design for mindfulness. In mindful organizations the stress of having to be the all-knowing leader or manager, of having to make all the decisions and have the answers, is alleviated as organizational members realize that mindfulness and collaboration moves them more rapidly towards their vision and delivers more effectively and efficiently on strategic objectives.