Inclusive Life Leadership

LIFE LEADERSHIP DIGEST – Article by Steve Trivett – 19/03/2023

[ Charles Darwin’s “root brain hypothesis” explains how the intelligence that enables growth and learning exists in the “roots” of a living system, capable of sensing, thinking, feeling, communicating and acting together with a common purpose. When the conditions are conducive, those interconnected and diverse interactions become the system’s “brain”.]

For example, many inclusion and diversity programmes in organisations only involve training for compliance. Training programmes have been used to tackle institutional racism, homophobia and misogyny, but few it would appear have achieved systemic change. It’s a “nice to have” in leadership and management development programmes, but they often fail to secure active engagement in promoting personal responsibility for change or a caring commitment to new behaviours.

“Without a coherent storyline, complex situations are often narrowed down into a bipolar storyline: good or bad; for or against, either/or. By narrowing the perception of complexity, we calm our anxiety and get a false sense of control. The cost is – inadequate inquiry and ineffective solutions.”  Tova Averbuch

My experience in facilitating Open Space and Future Search events and 15 years as an Ontological Coach has taught me that conversation can be invaluable and fruitful in any situation where people are facing resistance to change. Telling and selling seldom work when multiple stakeholders and perspectives get polarised. It’s then difficult to find common ground for coordinated action to address that burning issue. 

Many excuses can be found for this lack of commitment because it requires a serious investment in people’s development. The first stage has to be a series of future search events to get at what the various stakeholders see as the problem and its implications for the future viability and success of the organisation. When the prime constraints and common concerns have been identified, a coaching programme needs to be cascaded across the organisation to embed a coaching mindset.

The core ingredients then exist for meaningful conversations to take place so that everyone can take accountable action to value, respect and take responsibility for the commitments they make. 

“When the importance of responsibility is understood it provides a powerful “way of seeing” how shared accountability is needed to deliver results that matter. It’s critical to taking care of what YOU [and your team] care about”. Bob Dunham

A mission for inclusive life leadership involves a deeper awareness and capability of all stakeholders to reflect on how they can grow their innate capacity for personal responsibility – one conversation at a time. This is needed to continuously improve the viability and adaptability of whole systems in a rapidly changing VUCA environment.

Defining the Problem

What and where is the evidence of a lack of inter-connectedness and exclusion being a problem for the future of organisations?

Is it in a team’s collective effectiveness or an individual’s capacity to collaborate and continuously improve their performance? Is it in slow formal communication structures or the lack of quality conversations to increase awareness of individual qualities and biases?

• What form does the problem take? i.e. Discrimination? Performance? Exclusion? Disengagement? Recruitment? Unappreciation? Inequality?
• What impact is this problem having on service users, employee satisfaction, stakeholder engagement and the organisation’s performance? i.e. Capacity for listening and learning? Recruitment? Workforce planning? Poor attendance and commitment? Lack of stakeholder engagement and personal development? Managers lacking humility, and empathy, or using language that shows bias in their attitudes and decisions?
• Why is solving the problem important for the future success and sustainability of the organisation? i,e. Complexity demands greater collaboration and equality to sustain partnership working. Technology demands more virtual and cross-boundary communication skills. Cultural change demands practices that value diversity, equality and creativity in the workforce that reflect the partners and community being served. Employees are demanding a change in attitudes to working hours and structures, caring responsibilities and personal well-being.

Exploring these questions will help leaders at all levels connect with the bigger picture, and give context to the need for change and where energy and priorities need to be focused and why.

 The Context

Leadership is a performance art. It’s about connecting minds and fostering personal responsibility.

Leadership used to be just about role expertise and positional authority, but today it’s about understanding how living systems work, by following the energy source, working across boundaries, listening for connections, etc. What’s more, either/or thinking is generating resentment and anxiety, making relationships less stable,  more volatile, unpredictable, complex and ambiguous.

This change will demand deeper interpersonal skills and thinking tools that can stimulate curiosity, reflection and space for whole-system engagement. It requires an inclusive culture where everyone can be actively involved in setting the rules for engagement so they can be comfortable sharing responsibilities and knowledge with others. This level of openness and trust needs to be fostered and valued. 

This will require a deeper understanding and awareness of people’s personal qualities and blind spots, particularly when tackling personal concerns and work demands. This means valuing everyone’s contribution to creating a sense of belonging in a safe space where identity, diversity and humanity are respected.

The resulting insights will help to generate a happier and more fulfilling work environment that values personal responsibility and caring relationships – both inside and outside the organisation. The team’s task is to coach each other’s self-leadership skills through shared reflections and action learning.

NB: Tools such as MindSonar can provide the data to explore the benefits of diversity in the workplace and where to foster greater inter-connectedness.

Coaching conversations are the best way of engaging everyone on a personal journey to change their mindset and way of being to be a better performer. Cooperation can no longer be demanded. It must be requested, negotiated, and prepared for before a commitment can be relied upon.

 One-to-One Coaching

Coaching seeks to explore past experiences, present concerns and future expectations to improve performance and well-being.

• What will be the purpose of individual coaching conversations?
• Will it provide clarity on how to embed the behaviours that will support coordinated action and create the conditions necessary to support greater inclusion in decision-making and creative thinking activities?
• How will the coaching experience enhance genuine feelings of satisfaction from supporting each other’s contribution, as everyone takes care of what they care about?
• What self-leadership skills will be needed to make coaching conversations more effective at fostering inclusive behaviours?
• What exactly are the behaviours that will deliver more productive and happier working lives?
• What conditions will drive personal responsibility and self-motivation to enhance the team’s effectiveness?

Everyone must be engaged in practising self-leadership skills if meaningful change for themselves and the people they profess to care about is achieved. Creating new possibilities and positive attitudes, capable of delivering more effective action must start with honest, respectful and challenging conversations. For example, to:

• Take personal responsibility for one’s own language, mood, attitude and body state
• Know how to assess and accept different perspectives and explore their consequences
• Listen for an assumption to challenge a perceived bias with care and respect
• Be humble enough to question your own assumptions and review your choices
• Negotiate requests and seek clarity with partners and colleagues to get a commitment to deliver as promised
• Always be present, attentive, open and connected in relationships
• Show your commitment to trustworthiness, authenticity and integrity
• Use compassionate and simple language to avoid confusion, dissatisfaction, blame or a relationship breakdown
• Be aware of possible conflict and dissatisfaction that will require additional conversations
• Show humility, empathy and care when dealing with overwhelm, frustration, complaints, and distrust.
• Look for ways to coordinate and align diverse ideas and qualities
• Offer coaching to develop leadership responsibilities in others
• Explain your thinking, and responsibilities and seek feedback

Team Coaching

Help to help a group commit to their shared purpose and align their shared values and beliefs. Create a safe space for expressing ideas, encouraging curiosity, and respect for continuous learning.

In addition to the one-to-one inclusive coaching practices suggested above, team coaching must have a strong focus on linking actions to results. There must be clarity in the minds of team members about what actions are producing what results and why they should care about their contribution to each other’s performance. Team leaders need to be aware of the triggers that can both disrupt or drive commitment and the impact their choices can have on the whole team’s capacity to deliver the inclusive leadership that they say they care about.

Coaching in this context involves embedding leadership skills that balance advocacy and inquiry so that team members learn by questioning their thinking and experience. For example:

• Knowing how to make proper requests of each other so that the commitment and criteria for satisfaction are clearly communicated and negotiated. Without this, the team and its members cannot reflect on and be held accountable for their performance.
• Learning what actions and thoughts can undermine commitment. For example, saying yes and then failing to listen or seek understanding. An inauthentic presence can lead to a loss of trust and connectedness within the team.
• Maintaining a climate that values honest feedback, mutual care personal responsibility and positivity can impact the way team members feel about themselves and their willingness to tell their truth to each other.
• Cooperate in the development of clear processes, rules and routines that will embed the habits needed to foster inclusive behaviours and to speak up for those whose views are missing from the conversation.
• Understand the principles of regeneration and its place in improving the capacity of diverse identities and cultural backgrounds to shape the organisation’s relationship with its environment and the community it exists to serve.

References

The Power of Owning Up by Bob Dunham & Sameer Dua. Generative Leadership Publishing 2022

The Inclusion Imperative by Stephen Frost. Kogan Page 2014

Initiating and Inviting Generative Change by Tova Averbuch. BMI Publishing 2021

Become by Sameer Dua. Harper Collins India 2017

The Innovator’s Way by Robert Dunham &Peter Denning. MIT Press 2010

How to Create a Coaching Culture by Gillian Jones and Ro Gorell. Kogan Page 2018

Declaring Breakdowns by Sameer Dua. Notion Press 2022