Narrative assemblages and small boats

Narrative assemblages and small boats
thank you for such an interesting meet-up Barbara Frontera, Jocko Selberg Anna Panagiotou Beth Smith Eleanor Snowden, I found it so inspiring. I particularly liked the metaphor of the “small boat”,and was inspired to draw it out... it really helps me ground these New Materialist concepts in something concrete I can grasp and learn with. Visual metaphors have a part to play in research assemblages, helping in exploring ideas like intra-action from within.

I love how the The “small boat” metaphor of Deleuze and Guattari contrasts the difference between "Major" and "minor" science. For them doing Major science, that stands outside of the events being observed and measured, is like watching a river’s flow from standing above its banks to abstract fixed laws and universal truths. In contrast, practicing minors science is to join with the river’s meandering and embrace the emergence and unpredictability of the world and the flux of our experiences within it. For them this is like getting into a small boat to become part of the river, immersing oneself in the affective flow of events as they unfold in each moment.

Diffractive practices is another useful metaphor I really like. Karen Barad uses it as a metaphor to describe how phenomena interact and overlap to produce patterns of difference. Instead of seeing knowledge a mirror that reflects reality, a diffractive approach acknowledges that different elements are entangled and influence each other in complex, unpredictable and often unfathomable ways.

Thanks again! I think there needs to be more launching of these experimental assemblages, and see where our small boats take us!  🙏

“Culture change is so hard to grasp, and far away, likes its on a different planet”

“Culture change is so hard to grasp, and far away, likes its on a different planet”

I heard some one use this metaphor the other day, and it got me wondering. Doesn’t “Another planet” highlight the vast distance between how people often use the words “culture change” and the reality of what it actually means in practice? 

Nominalisation and why the term “Toxic Culture” can bottle up feelings

Nominalisation and why the term “Toxic Culture” can bottle up our feelings

The term “toxic culture” is often thrown around in workplaces to describe environments that feel negative, unproductive, or harmful. yet we can silence ourselves for fear of conflict.

Labelling a culture as "toxic" can sometimes be an unhelpful abstraction—a shortcut that avoids getting to the root of the real problem. When we label something as "toxic," we're using  a nominalisation- turning a process or experience into a fixed thing. This can be a way of sidestepping the discomfort of talking about what’s really happening. Often, what's labelled as "toxic" is actually a collection of individual experiences and feelings. It's not an objective reality; it's a perception, a feeling inside us, that we can project outwards an sometimes other people.

 The problem is, calling a culture “toxic” can mask the very real and specific emotional patterns we’re experiencing, such as frustration, fear, or a sense of powerlessness. By abstracting it into an impersonal label, we avoid addressing what we, individually, are feeling. It can prevent us from sharing our own experience: “I feel undervalued when my ideas aren’t heard” is much more vulnerable, but also more constructive, than saying “This place is toxic.”

 I might hide behind the term “toxic,” avoiding a courageous conversation that could lead to small shift in my perspective or a work relationship. Instead of pointing fingers at an undefined “culture,” we need to bring our own perspectives to the surface. 

 What if we could move past the term "toxic culture" and notice what is going on inside in a moment at work,  unpack what’s happening,  address the feelings we're often afraid to confront. Real change starts when we stop hiding behind abstractions and start sharing our authentic experiences.

Building bridges; What can we accomplish together that we couldn’t achieve alone?

To foster more relational working practices in public services will need a rethink of  conventional leadership development thinking. When we think about leadership development, it’s often framed around the individual. But what if we shifted the focus? What if we looked at it through the lens of relationships?

The quality of interpersonal relationships at work is central to the performance and success of every organisation. Most leaders are experiencing more complexity and uncertainty about  their role in leading culture change. The focus of culture change seems to becoming more personal; there is a requirement for leaders to role model stepping into new, more collaborative ways of being in meetings. For many of us this may involve some degree of personal growth and for others, a significant transformation.

There seems to be a growing need for more relational ways of leading and managing. The dominant view of management is that work is done transactionally by individuals; yet the collaborative, interactive nature of organising and coordinating mutually interdependent tasks and roles means that effective working relationships are what gets things done. We are not machines, we are human beings with needs and feelings. We are not individuals, we are all connected, we need each other and our relationships are what matter most in life. 

More and more, we’re seeing the need for relational approaches to leadership. While traditional management has focused on transactional tasks, the reality is that much of the important work happens through the relationships we build and nurture. After all, we’re not just individuals working in silos—we’re interconnected human beings. 

At the end of the day, our relationships are what matter most, both in life and at work. If we want to foster real change, we can’t afford to overlook the power of relationships. Leadership and culture development must place relationships at the heart of the conversation.

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"To radically transform public service delivery, we need more relational ways of working!”

I've recently read several papers and listened to numerous podcasts, all advocating for this cultural shift. From central government and local leaders to policy think tanks, researchers, and community leaders, there’s a growing call for changing the way we interact; from transactional to relational.

However, translating the idea of "culture change" into actions requires more than just words. It starts with changing the way we interact within our own networks and reference groups, our meetings. This takes commitment and courage—especially to move beyond our own "performative contradictions" (When our actions and values are contradicted by the words we are advocating, usually the actions that others need to do) and take feedback graciously when we do it. It’s all about taking risks, trying something new in your next meeting to disrupt old patterns, create fresh connections, and spark small but meaningful changes in relationships, slowly growing together.

Here's a visual metaphor for relationship-building that was created a few years ago for a public sector client for just this developmental task.

Where do you see yourself in this picture? How did your last meeting go?

[This is best viewed on a larger screen, and if possible, ask a colleague to take a look as well!]

“CULTURE CHANGE!” easy to say, hard to do.

Just two simple nouns, Just say them out loud. Easily said but to actually putting it into practice can be incredibly difficult, just ask the people who are being asked to change. To disrupt and challenge values, behaviours, "mindsets", and making visible the messy, invisible relational dynamics that everyone experiences in their own organisation take a lot of courage. That’s why many struggle to define what it truly means or what it looks like in action.

Perhaps the the first challenge is how to change the way we talk about it to start with. Not just to understanding it conceptually in Powerpoint or on paper, but then translating it into learning new micro-actions that might make small tangible shifts[ easy to say very hard to do!]. Incrementally having an impact on how people work, collaborate and interact in every meeting they have, every day.

Trapped in your own prison of cognitive rationalisation?

Thinking too hard and feeling trapped in a prison of your own over-thinking?

Wheree does your mind go to as you see this image?

I was in a coaching conversation recently, supporting a client to explore their learning edges through eliciting developmental metaphors, and this metaphor came tumbling out:

“I’ve been thinking too hard about improving performance, and just feel numb…it feels like I’m in a cul-de-sac, trapped in my own prison of cognitive rationalising.”

As we deepened into this theme, they breathed a sigh of relief, which seemed to signal a clear shift into a more regulated, grounded state, from where some new insights and options emerged that were worth experimenting with.

“…minimising the energy cost of decision making”

I was fascinated and curious about this phrase I heard on a Cynefin webinar on managing complex systems with David Snowden this morning. He was talking about different types of leadership and the different domains of the Cynefin Framework. 

It really got me thinking… and found these quotes about energy gradients on  his blog post - https://www.cognitive-edge.com/on-energy-gradients/

“To create order, or maintain chaos requires energy while complexity is a natural state…The dominant, lowest energy cost domain is complex, but that requires comfort with uncertainty and a degree of self-organisation”

I’m not sure what it all means, and am busy making sense of it. David’s post did remind me of an image we created in 2010 for a blog post on leadership styles, inspired by this quote we found by General Kurt Von Hammerstein-Equord. he was the commander-in-chief of the German army between the wars, and is remembered for being a staunch opponent of the Nazi regime.  

I divide my officers into four classes; the clever, the lazy, the industrious, and the stupid. Most often two of these qualities come together. The officers who are clever and industrious are fitted for the highest staff appointments. Those who are stupid and lazy make up around 90% of every army in the world, and they can be used for routine work. The man who is clever and lazy however is for the very highest command; he has the temperament and nerves to deal with all situations. But whoever is stupid and industrious is a menace and must be removed immediately! 1933 

What do you make of it? If you are curious too, and would like a chat Id like more opportunities to make sense of this energy gradients concept and what it might mean for leadership practice in public service systems change - julian@delta7.com

Why visual metaphors are a powerful way to connect people and build more effective relationships

When you have brilliant colleagues working in silos, it can be really hard for them to learn from one another. Eliciting their visual metaphors can bridge the gap between different people and cultures and allows them to create a shared or common language.

Here are two examples of personal metaphors that Caitlin Walker and I created for a whole team that helped them understand what is most important for each other in their work, and in doing so brought them together in ways that enhanced team performance.

The metaphors we use at work help us to connect the words we use to the meanings we make of our experience. Metaphor in greek means “to transfer, or connect”. A good metaphor is a bridge of meaning, helping us to understanding one thing, or experience, in terms of another. Metaphors can  influence, and sometimes limit, how we see and understand the world. Once created they can drop below our radar and become unconscious and habitual, implicit assumptions that influence our thinking and behaviour. When organisations are in crisis mode and under pressure to change, we often hear a cry of "we need to change mindsets!" Generating new metaphors can be one way of opening up new possibilities and give us new ways of seeing things.

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What visual metaphors could we create to open up new possibilities in how we work together? 

Uncovering the BS

Calling out the BS - Guest blog by John Higgins

What does this image say to you?

 In his cracking new book, Radical OD, Mark Cole says he is ‘personally moved to observe that the harsh overseer is more honest about their intent than the duplicitous humanistic manager’.

 In a world addicted to growth, forever wanting to squeeze more from less, the denial of this brute contract creates an Alice in Wonderland world where nothing is as it seems – and everyone pretends, prisoners of an undiscussable ideology.

 To be nice to people has to have a business case. To be ethical, upstanding, a decent colleague, friend or lover has to have a business case. Everything gets sucked into a morass of instrumentalism, where we all become tools to each other – and people wonder why loyalty, collegiality and mutuality have evaporated.

 To overcome this, but without challenging the basic extractive nature of workplace relations, the consulting and business school world ramp up the wall of bullshit, featuring any number of nonsense words that apply fake perfumes to this stinking reality.

 Meanwhile those who benefit most from this extraction of performance from people, hold fast to the fantasy that everything is for the best in this the best of all possible worlds. And so the collapse in trust across the hierarchies of life grows – hierarchies which those at the top desperately try to deny are there. Silence and play acting become the norm.

 In the old Soviet bloc the saying went: ‘We pretend to work and you pretend to pay us’. This can now be reworked to apply to modern Western work life: ‘We pretend to buy-in and you pretend to care’.

Contact John at https://www.speakinguplisteningup.com/

"The hero effect"

I was at a diversity and inclusion event recently, and overheard this story that happened to someone at work .

Where does this image take you to?

Power and privilege; how do these effect relationships at work?

I’ve been wondering about how power effects people in meetings and what is the impact on health and performance…What do you see in this picture? How does it feel? What are some consequences for each person and their organisation?

How do we move from Hierarchy to self managing teams? ODNE south east gathering session 27/9/19