My Take on the ONA Summit 2022: new perspecives on organizational change

This year’s ONA Summit was mind blowing and touching at the same time. Many personal stories were shared about how our humanity impacts our day to day lives in these challenging times.It also?presented us with unique ideas and drive?to make our workplaces truly human-centered.

We are not machines. We?no longer?live in the age of the industrial revolution nor Taylorism. The way we design organizations should not be centered around efficiency, competition and performance. If we want our employees to thrive and not become part of the spreading phenomenon of quiet quitting “we need to see them?as resourceful humans and not human resources” just like?Paula Holt suggested during her client case representation.

If we center our organizations around humans?the rest will follow. All those things that executives are obsessed with today:?as when organizations become more human centered there is an increase in profitability (23%), in quality (41%) and they also outperform S&P 500 companies by 211%. Maya Townsend inspired us to think about the importance and benefits of recognizing others’ humanity, caring for others and treating them well not just from a business perspective , but as human beings.

I also loved how?we were able to connect people from all over the world (from India to the US) to share experiences and discuss how to solve problems within our companies that we are all face as leaders and employees. In one of the breakout rooms during an interactive session we had a lively discussion on how our perception of the way informal networks are formed in different cultures could help improve cross country collaborations .?

Our shared message board was continuously on fire during?all of the keynote speeches and interactive sessions. It was a truly wonderful thing to see and to be a part of. People were asking challenging questions, sharing experiences and even recommending books and articles in hopes of inspiring a deeper understanding of ONA and co-creating visions of ideal workplace dynamics

?We seem to have become?closer to each other than ever before?through our online communication tools.Virtual spaces offer instances where connecting with each other is instantaneous. Still it appears that we are further away from each other on a personal level than ever before. . Quiet quitting, the great resignation and in general people becoming emotionally disconnected from their teams and organizations all became an unfortunately trending norm within modern workplaces. Michael Arena shared amazing insights on the importance and value of face-to-face communication. It is clear that we need to become much more intentional about the ways we connect and focus on collaboration?if we want to keep our teams engaged and our innovation engines running. This is where organizational network analysis might offer?help for those that wish to trace organizational connectedness within their enterprises .

Every challenge that we are facing today requires quick adaptation. Organizations need to radically change the way their teams collaborate and innovate.

?There is also a need to address the?many beliefs about how people are resistant to change.?Leandro Herrero during his keynote presentation took this statement under intense scrutiny and dissected it so we realized that people are resistant to change mainly when it is imposed on them. Therefore, to successfully execute change initiatives, first you need to go on?some myth busting. When you get into the vicious cycle of ‘I believe, that you believe, that we believe’ it can easily result in a bystander effect. You, as a leader, or as an employee have to make sure that people have a platform to, and are encouraged to to speak up. That, of course, requires you to create open space and make time for honest and tough discussions, even letting people vent. It is much more productive than you might think.

To achieve large-scale and sustainable behavioral changes, you also need the power of informal networks and trust. The stories of the cultural journey that Health Service Ireland and GSK embarked on is truly astounding.

?How might you create a culture of care, compassion and trust in a healthcare service organization with over 100K employees? What HSE Ireland did,was translating values into specific behaviors and starting a social movement with the involvement of key influencers they’ve identified through ONA. Key influencers are the most well-connected and trusted people in the informal network whose behaviors others subconsciously copy.?

They are the superspreaders of behaviors.

?If you help them?realize their influence on shaping behaviors and support them by providing mentorship, boot camps and an environment where they can freely express their concerns and ideas. If you succeed, then the multiplication effect really kicks in through the informal networks.

?It was heartwarming to hear Klara Kis’s story on how being identified and involved as an influencer in GSK Vaccines helped her to speak out when she recognized that deadlines of a key project seemed impossible to meet for her team. You can talk a lot about values and mindsets but it is these behaviors and stories that spread in communities and have the most powerful impact on your informal networks.

If organizations can become more human-centered then workplace culture will also transform for the better . For the benefit of people and businesses alike. We also need to share our stories to create this change.?

If you are interested in catching up with the Summit, you can now access the video recordings under our Membership Section at Orgmapper.com. Feel free to browse through the content to your leisure, and I hope to see you live at our next Summit!