Balancing natural forces in organizational health

Organizational or system health is a sense of vitality in both the human and commercial dimensions of a business and is predicated on a number of things being aligned; on a number of natural forces being acknowledged and attended to. These systemic influences and forces make themselves known, make themselves felt, in a number of unusual but strangely familiar ways.

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The three important forces in a system-

• Time -What comes first has a natural precedence over what follows. Starting with the founders, if their place and contribution is acknowledged by those that follow, the system can create space for new members to join and flourish. When a new leader recognizes that they are in the last place, in the context of the natural organizing principle of TIME, it settles the system and allows their authority to manifest and have influence.
• Place: For a system to thrive, everyone and everything that has belonged must be given a place. When a right to a place is denied and people are suddenly or disrespectfully excluded from a system, this creates a strong dynamic as the system attempts to ‘re-member’ what or who has been excluded until they and their contribution have been acknowledged. Businesses that try to keep facts secret – the bad year, the industrial accident that we don’t talk about, the fact that we had to let some people go a few years back – slow down the system and create a culture of defensiveness and instability. Everything has a place. In order to let things go, you must ‘re-member’ them fully first, acknowledging what they were able to contribute. Then they are free to leave.

All systems will balance out a right to PLACE that has been denied.

• Exchange: In all interactions there needs to be a balance of exchange between employers and employees, and between the organization and its customers and suppliers. It’s not only about the money. Truly motivating people and meeting their need for exchange is very rarely about giving them more money. In fact that can often have the opposite effect. The most valuable commodity in any exchange at work is usually acknowledgement and feedback. Regular, planned and expertly delivered feedback on performance, combined with progressive developmental support, is key to getting the balance of exchange between employer and employed improved. ?These unconscious and invisible levels of exchange are very important in supporting organizational health and allowing the visible and conscious exchange mechanisms of money, cars and health plans to take their place and have their useful effect too.

All systems will balance out a right to EXCHANGE that has been denied.

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In a healthy relationship system, everyone who has contributed is acknowledged and the history of the system is spoken about, including all the difficulties (TIME). Everything has a place. Roles are created in conscious connection with the purpose of the whole system (PLACE). There is a balance between what each individual and team gives and what they receive. Everyone feels safe and able to relax into their own authority and apply it, willingly, for the good of the system. (EXCHANGE)

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On the other hand, systems don’t tolerate ‘moving on’, ‘forgetting’ or otherwise excluding, and will entangle another person in the resulting dynamics until the issue is properly attended to. Yet organizations around the world still give people more money to leave than they did to join, believing that this will help them to leave the organizational memory. It has exactly the opposite effect on the system, which will ‘re-member’ them.

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If you are sensing an imbalance of energies (Time, Place or exchange) in your teams, send me a DM.? I’d like to work with these teams, using systemic coaching techniques, which will help illuminate these challenges and facilitate the team members in realigning their energies.

#MeetaMeraki #Organizationhealth