That Moment Before Starting: The Joys and Pitfalls of Team Check-ins
“For our check-in, I invite you to answer this question with a single sentence: ‘How do I feel about our objective?’” The first time I encountered the practice of the check-in was about twenty years ago, during seminars rooted in the US-UK tradition. At the time, it seemed unusual to me: in most seminars, participants […]
In teams as in chorus: singing with joy even when we make mistakes
«N’ayez pas peur de vous tromper, soyez à fond, prenez du plaisir… même si on se trompe l’important c’est d’être à fond ! Le public pardonne aux gens sympas, pas à ceux qui restent là paralysés sur scène.» ‘Don’t be afraid of making mistakes, give it all you’ve got, have fun… even if you make […]
Unlocking Regeneration: when reconnecting to the context provides a key to work through an impasse
Last week I led a large international group of about fifty people, speaking different languages, all belonging to the same organisation but at different hierarchical levels, in a profound reflection on collective identity. The objective, which started from a need to regenerate meaning and belonging, was to experience a moment of reconnection together in order […]
Walking with systems: learning curve 2 – Grande Traversée des Alpes part I – 2022
On the strength of this first solo experience, I’m setting myself a new challenge: crossing the Alps from north to south. I plan to walk the GR5 from Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean ten days a year for three years. I’ve learnt a lot from the previous year: a short first stage with little climbing, […]
Walking with systems: learning experience 1
The most brilliant concepts can be very simple and yet difficult to assimilate. That’s how I felt when I discovered the systems approach and the work of Donnella Meadows. Powerful but complex. It took me a long time and a lot of miles to understand. Every summer since 2021, I’ve gone walking alone in the […]
In search of happiness?
During a coaching session, my coachee’s request fell like a sentence: I am looking to be happier. What makes people happy is happiness. But what is happiness? Luck (the good luck charm) or the state of fully satisfied consciousness. There are countless quotes on happiness: “Happiness, wrote Roger Martin du Gard, is not a cup […]
Owning our part: from denial-based business to a regenerative economy – Part 3
Denial is being challenged In her wonderful paper, the renowned systems-thinker Donella Meadows (1999) explains how, on a housing estate in the US, where houses were more or less identical, the electricity consumption was 30% lower in a particular block, compared to the surrounding blocks. Whilst insulation, number of appliances, cost of electricity, etc., were […]
Owning our part: from denial-based business to a regenerative economy – Part 2
Purpose as a way of working through this splitting Figure 1, adapted from the work of the Grubb Institute1, can help us understand what is at work in Michael’s experience. In that framework, Michael (a Person) works in a pharmaceuticals organisation (a System) that has an impact in the world (the Context). Through his […]
Owning our part: from denial-based business to a regenerative economy
Article published on “Organizational and Social Dynamics” Abstract In this article, we explore a core set of organisational and social dynamics at work in the business world: the denial and disowning of the part we play in co-creating the world we live in; and the splitting needed to protect us from the guilt and shame […]
What if subtraction helped us to be in touch with purpose? Thinking and acting by subtraction – Part two
So what can we do? The solution is not to eliminate addition completely, it is not in binary and polarized thinking… what we can do is, every time we think about a problem, remind ourselves that there is also the possibility of taking away. So it is not a question of stopping adding, we have […]
