The organization of our world is dissolving – jobs into projects, communication into computers, corporate offices into homes and copy centers, and even national sovereignty into international markets and corporate strategy. The lifecycles of many jobs, products, strategies, and even some whole organizations have been crashed from decades to months. – Michael Herman, The Inviting Organization (1998)
Everything is urgent. We need to respond quickly and effectively to any kind of change or disruption – in spite of everything. Cultivate resilience. Engage, learn, adapt, transform. Breathe. Invite new focus, catalyze action, sustain effort, scale and grow. These simple, powerful practices can achieve all of this, in more humane and sustainable ways:
- Invite Everyone to Focus and Engage (open more space)
- Visualize Everything to Plan and Manage Effectively (create a canvas or marketplace)
- Commit Incrementally to Deliver Dependably (synchronize efforts)
- Learn Together to Improve, Replicate, Scale and Evolve (review, refine, repeat)
This approach is immediately practical, for any kind of business or community intiative, with the people and resources you already have. It works with all of the outcomes you need to achieve (your high performance) and everything that’s getting in the way (disturbing your peace).
Start with one or a few teams. Link product and marketing, sales and finance, or any other sorts of teams, in reinforcing, collaborative cycles. Connect supporting functions and allied groups. For best results, leaders go first. Start with the senior team, board and committee chairs, or any other core group – and work out from there.