Belonging continued; practicing inclusion...
Tim Collings
Nurturing regenerative capability with groups, organisations and communities, co-creating better futures for all.
Welcome back, and to the penultimate letter for 2024. If you've been journeying with these letters for sometime, thank you for returning again - I trust you will find some use and meaning in this letter - and if this is your first time spending a few minutes with my words, welcome.
This month I'm reflecting on my continuing exploration of Belonging, and specifically practicing Inclusion.
A previous letter focused on Belonging, which I've linked as reference later on, if you're curious to include that additional perspective in your own exploration.
Exploring belonging in a developmental context has taken many forms in my life and work over the years. In work, very often this has shown up in the guise of engagements to co-create bespoke DEI programs for organisations in Australia, New Zealand and the USA. One of the longest tenured engagements, now running over 2 years, is the source for this specific reflection on practicing inclusion as an approach to enhancing team, organisational and commercial performance.
What I've learnt over this journey with one specific group of organisations, in a program deployed in team one specific group of organisations, in a program deployed in team made up of 16 company’s working towards a shared endeavour, is that a huge amount of meaning making, collective enablement, co-generated and mutually reinforcing resilience and a deeper level of understanding of colleagues, purpose and meaning of a shared endeavour and an enhancement of self are all possible via a clear intention to nurture, practice and work inclusively. This is specifically done with great attending to context, the realness of the work and frequent deep listening practices, going deeper and expanding more broadly than typical inter-project dialogue.
The invitation this has provided our design and practitioner team, as well as the client team we have been engaged by, has been to challenge many of the conventional assumptions around forming effective multi-stakeholder teams?—?that a singular focus on performance metrics orientated to commercial outcomes will invoke sufficient will to deliver the desired outputs, and that a paternalistic top-down approach from client to prime contractor to sub contractors etc, governed by punitive governance structures, is most effective. This program has shown that these structures themselves need be overhauled, as well as the benefits of participative, open, authentic and respectful dialogue to generate a shared sense of collective journeying. The simple invitation to you (and much harder to work through than write I appreciate) is to attend to all of these levels in your most complex endeavours.
The prompt I’ll offer here in the hope this resonates with you, is below. Please carry this with you and ponder upon it further as you wish. I’d love to hear anything that emerges for you if you choose to do so and share your reflection.
领英推荐
Where are the spaces to practice inclusivity in my daily work and home life, and what specific practices are needed?
Thank you once again for your time and attention with my words here today.
Be well, lead well and keep on co-creating better shared futures,
Tim
Owner and COO of Design ME Marketing & Zo?si
3 个月Tim, your dedication to fostering inclusion and belonging is truly inspiring! Your work undoubtedly leads to stronger teams and better outcomes. Looking forward to more of your insightful reflections!