Transparency, money and being horizontal.

I know some of you are struggling in your jobs to get people to feel engaged & take responsibility. I know some of you might feel disengaged at work and are frustrated for not being able to use all of your skills and talents. I know some of you are struggling to make faster decisions to be able to keep up in this fast changing world. I know some of you are struggling to get the culture in your company to change into a more open and transparent one.

If this is about you, read on….

I have been preparing the Going Horizontal training for the last couple of weeks.We are form all over the world ( Canada, UK, Belgium, The Netherlands ) so we do our meetings online. We did not not know each other before this. Samantha Slade wrote Going Horizontal which is a book filled with practical steps that allow you, your company or your community to start, practise or deepen non hierarchical ways of working

It is the big how to when it comes to creating autonomy, transparency and engagement. She works with 7 domains ( Autonomy, Purpose, Meetings, Transparency, Decision making, Learning & Relationships) that will allow you to work horizontal. Because we all can. We do it in our daily lives every day but somehow we fail to take that mindset to work. 

I am getting to know the way of working very well by doing it in our preparation.We make sharp and fast decisions, we take responsibility, we do what is needed without anyone telling anyone what to do. It is fun.We all have the lead over meetings and we are transparent. To the bone.

And it comes with inspiring moments of deep learning. Mine was about “the money thing"We have a budget. And we divided it. We put it in a spreadsheet, each of us putting 2 numbers. 1. for what we think we should get minimum. 2. for what we think we should get maximum. And boy, that was hard.

To be so honest about what we feel we should get. Together. To be trustful that nobody will feel better that the other. To function as equals and at the same time not getting the same amount of money. I got triggered. I could not put in any number without having a conversation about it. I judged people, I was annoyed and worried. When money is shared there is a lot of things involved. A lot of times inequality rises, hierarchy shows its face. Transparency and trust is of immense importance.

It was a big lesson for me personally ( I found out that I was way more distrustful than I thought I was ) and a big lesson on Going Horizontal. The key to getting past these triggers was an honest conversation on all the feelings that came up for everyone. And then it was ok. When you succeed in being transparent, cooperative and in making safe space for hard conversations you can do it all. Horizontal does not mean you all just get the same amount. It is not flat. It is about being equal partners in the conversation on how it is shared. You need all of the domains to work like this and yes, you can learn to be able to truly and fully share money as equals.

We will be dividing the money again when we know what we will get exactly at the training. And with all the participants present. After all transparency is only transparency if it is a 100 procent.

If you decide to join our training I hope you’ll start going horizontal. And after that start being horizontal. Because, I found out that besides a Toolkit and behaviour it is a mindset. And it's the mindset that makes change possible and sustainable. The thing is, in most trainings you get inspired. And then you get to your Monday morning meeting. And then it is usually very hard to start doing. To take a first step. To change your behaviour and to do some of the things differently. What inspires me in the work of Samantha Slade is that it is about that first step. About how you actually start practising new things to get to the change of behaviour and after that to get a changed mindset. So if it was you I wrote about in the first part of this blog:

"there's no need to wait for permission from hierarchy to start practising non hierarchical ways"

You can start. On Monday mornings. Or on Wednesdays. And on Fridays.

Come join this community that opens up a new field in the future of work on the 28th of May 2019. Come learn and experience that going horizontal mindset. 

P.s: The link to our training is in the comments :-)