Penny Pullan

I think we are up against it.... though there is hope, possibility and opportunity, not doom and gloom! But I do think that us 'Improvement' people.... of all flavours .... CI/lean/Agile/Design Thinking/Critical Thinking/Systems Change/Change Mgmt/Transformation etc....... are up against a system where making things better is not the name of the game! At the same time so many of the people working in this space want to do just that - make the world of our work, our mahi, what we do a better place - for everyone...... ..... I ask then ..... What do we do???? We are not (generally) the money holders, the ones with the major resources or in the first instance the decision makers...... So .... Team..... What are we going to do???? What are we going to do??? [P.s. I do have a poster that says this | The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free, that your very existence is an act of rebellion, Albert Camus ... 😉 ] Working on it!

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Today I took a look inside the book I wrote on #teamresilience way back in 2016. It's been a while since I read it... It was written just before we published our Resilience at Work Team Scale in Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (JOEM) What struck me most was how the challenges that prompted the text are increasing rather than easing. The back cover promotes the content as useful for teams: - Rebuilding after a major restructure or changes in staffing or organisational direction - Regularly dealing with difficult tasks or demanding customers - Working in constant change and uncertainty - Experiencing difficult group dynamics - Time pressured or having to do more with less - Trying to meet unrealistic or competing demands - On track but looking for an extra boost to team effectiveness. Sound familiar? When I started this work it was of most value to those in emotionally demanding work such as health and community services. Now it's #teams in all occupations. Of course, these factors are now being tackled under WH&S as #psychosocialhazards. Hopefully this need for compliance will mean my book is obsolete when I look at it again in another eight years ...

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This post continues a series that explore the nature of deliberately transformative and developmental learning environments (see comment below for links to those earlier posts). In 1989, in a large group transformation course, I stood with a microphone in my hand interacting with the course leader. My voice quivered as I spoke of my being in love with a woman who was already in a relationship with someone else. After pouring my heart out for some time, the course leader rudely interrupted me, and with apparently harsh words, pointed out that I was over-indulging and that it was time for me to move on from that relationship. He then asked me to sit down. I stewed for hours, shocked and incensed at the indelicacy and insensitivity of that interaction. But after some time, I started to see something. Through a series of subsequent conversations (as that course unfolded), I realized that I was stuck in a self-limiting pattern in my relationships with women. That realization was life-altering… It was #transformative. But what really struck me is that it was the very edginess of that interaction which jump-started the #transformation. ‘Niceness’ would not have done it. This is the nature of what I call a 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐓 experience. Within the context of transformative learning and development, a HEAT experience presents a ‘disorienting dilemma’--an experience in which some deeply held belief or assumption is challenged. One in which one can no longer resolve a given situation without altering some fundamental way in which one views that situation, and others like it. For me, what got challenged is the underlying assumption that informed my romantic relationships: that there had to be a “one and only one”. Once I was freed from this, a whole new realm of possibilities for relationship opened up for me. The disorienting dilemma of a Heat experience is ‘disorienting’ in that it brings one just slightly beyond the edge of one’s current meaning-making. Such an experience is necessarily an emotional one. It isn’t just cognitive. Hence the edge. Hence the discomfort. The possibility for a potentially developmentally activating insight arises when we choose to step into that discomfort. But doing so is not a given. 𝐕𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐅𝐚𝐜𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 is about engineering Heat experiences, for individuals and groups, in such a way that people are supported and challenged to step into that discomfort. To learn from it, and to be grown (developed) by it. Such a manner of facilitation requires artfulness and skill, radical empathy and presence. To learn more about some of the key qualities and kinds of Heat experience, check out the short introductory video: https://lnkd.in/dUDeGKMj. To learn more about vertical facilitation more generally, visit https://lnkd.in/d3_58sGM.   #transformativelearning #learninganddevelopment #innerdevelopment

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In this article we take a look at systems thinking - an approach, set of methodologies, tools and techniques to help with complex problem solving and decision-making. Read more- https://lnkd.in/detZup_x #pmo #lovepmo

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It is not too late to grab your seat for the 360Learning webinar today. David James and I will dig in on the practicalities of #skillsbasedlearning and we would love to see you there. Link in David's post.

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Thank you, Dr Martin Egan, for highlighting the importance of 🌟 Mastering Behavioural Patterns for Success 🌟. This is crucial for building a strong organisational culture that drives business growth, team collaboration, and employee development. Embedding these behaviours is an art that every organisation should master. Don't miss this insightful podcast! #OrganisationalCulture #SuccessPatterns #Teamwork #Innovation #Integrity #Learning#creativity

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Really interesting read from SessionLab - Their 'State of Facilitation' Report: https://lnkd.in/euYXvrYp Love a good data set and this is packed full of plenty of that. As a relatively recent convert to the world of 'professional facilitation', I would also love to hear more individual origin stories. I'm fascinated to learn how people find their way into this world and know that there is so much I could learn from others' formative experiences - warts and all! #facilitation

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⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Celebrating and Appreciating! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Last week I was privileged to deliver a workshop to the Senior and Extended Leadership Team at the University of South Wales. The topic? Breathtaking Communication for Information Technology 30 minutes of presenting was followed by 30 minutes of great questions. What presentation/Q&A ratio do you appreciate in a workshop? Here are some questions I used to guide me:       Who is my audience?       How many are in the room?       What is their relationship to and knowledge of each other?       How much common ground do they share?       What is their level range? Since writing Breathtaking Communication – Tools and Techniques for Everyday Leaders my confidence in my subject-matter expertise has grown enough for me to allow as much time as possible for questions. However, if the audience is large and doesn’t know each other well, if they are from multiple industries and a range of levels is represented, I will present for longer and allow less time for questions. I always invite people to get in touch afterwards if they want to know more. Of course, they could always just read or listen to Breathtaking Communication, book me for training at their company or have 121 coaching. Isn’t it exciting that no one needs to be ill-equipped to engage their audience with power, clarity and confidence? No audience needs to suffer through a poor presentation or tedious meeting! Thanks to Sue Smith for a wonderful 5* review on Google and a recommendation here on #LlinkedIn.

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Another excellent blog from Jenny Lord - the idea was triggered when we co-taught a human factors/non-technical skills class to a media company last week. The question was posed to the team: How do you do a risk assessment if you don't know what things to consider? If you are filling in a grid with labels, then you can tick those boxes, but do you understand how such events or hazards can develop? We should be conscious of the situation developing, not the outcome itself. If you've never encountered the situation, how do you know what to look for? Competence and relevant experience are, therefore, important. You get relevant experience by reflecting on the activity, not by completing the activity. I have used the risk assessment as an example, and I am sure people will immediately look for differences rather than similarities (as is human nature!). Consider where you have novices on your team: - how do they know WHAT questions to ask? - how do they know WHAT to speak up about? - how do they know WHEN to speak up? Other points to consider - have you created a curious culture within the team or a compliant one? - have you built time into your plans to allow curiosity and learning to happen? e.g., effective briefs and then post-execution debriefs. As with pretty much anything put into The Human Diver blog, there is value to other industries if you can abstract up to the concept, and then flow back down to your own environment. That takes effort, and if you're willing to put that effort in, you're going to learn more. THD Blog: https://lnkd.in/ec-7didu Blogs from John Flach about abstraction: https://lnkd.in/eQvJ_hKi and https://lnkd.in/eHJKK7ZD #notjustdiving #nontechnicalskills #sensemaking #humanfactors The Human Diver Human in the System

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The importance of psychological safety (and the value of making mistakes) can be seen from the results of a study carried out by Prof. Amy Edmondson, who found that high-performing teams were actually prone to more mistakes than average teams — or, at least, that’s what the data seemed to suggest. Digging a little deeper she found that better teams don’t make more mistakes: they’re simply more able and willing to discuss them. They create a climate of openness, which allows them to report on mistakes, get to the bottom of problems and streamline processes. https://lnkd.in/gA2AmH9

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Enterprise L&D: I discovered a long time ago that Speaking Truth to Power works much better when speaking with a Project Steering Team of Stakeholders than with just one client, as you just might find a voice of reason and sanity within a larger group. https://lnkd.in/eg-tDVCe

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How will the discipline, tools and approaches of #changemanagement evolve in the era of #ai? It’s a good question and one that doesn’t have easy and obvious answers. Paul Gibbons, FRSA will share his view on this and other subjects in this online event which promises to be both interesting and informative. I was involved in an AI event yesterday at the House of Lords where the impact of digitalisation and artificial intelligence on the energy industry was explored. Perhaps the dominant theme that emerged was that the key to deployment of the technology was people, leadership and culture. This won’t be a huge surprise to the change management community- it was ever thus with new technologies. But what are the special challenges posed by AI solutions? And how does AI offer to help in making effective change happen. I’ll share some of my thoughts on this separately along with an article I have written with Shelley Copsey, CEO of #fyld on how AI can make a difference to some of the emerging workforce issues in the sector.

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I was asked to write about some of the key features of a Syntropic Enterprise for a book chapter I am contributing to. You may enjoy this. The Trust Manifesto is a simple, plain English enterprise agreement and threshold-crossing template, outlining the purpose, Pattern Integrity and Source Idea of the enterprise, plus the conditions of engagement that ensure ecologies of synergy become normal. This might include how people respond and behave with each other, how conflict is managed, who controls or decides what, when, where and how, how the money is handled, and what leadership look like. Each Trust manifesto is bespoke to the enterprise. It is a living document, as all things in Syntropic Enterprises are living systems. A healthy Trust Manifesto means the ecology of the enterprise is healthy. A diverse group of people collaborate synergistically.  Without a Trust Manifesto, there is no threshold crossing boundary, and people will behave and respond as they like, when they like. The usual consequence is this is a messy human heap - where the dysfunction of humans becomes more energetically demanding than the ability to attend to the purpose around which the humans have gathered. The Synergistic Audit is a process of accounting for multiple domains of value existing in dynamic polarity. It ensures that one domain of value, for example, money, never holds primacy over all of the other domains of value.  When the Synergistic Audit is used in all relational dynamics, it enables an all-in-accounting of both measurable and immeasurable qualities, values and inputs and outputs. The Synergistic Audit, therefore, is recommended to be used as the threshold crossing of all relationships. Recruitment, project work, provisioning and funding, partnering agreements, community engagements. The Steward Leader takes the role of steward or guardian (even gestating parent) of the Source Idea and its Pattern Integrity. Their role is to ensure the Pattern Integrity is never violated. They are responsible for attunement to the inner and outer ecology and environment of the enterprise, making adjustments as needed based on changing and emergent conditions. They have an intimate and communing relationship to the Source Idea and Pattern Integrity, seeking to enable its fullest and healthiest expression. (As a parent to a child and their unique expression.) https://lnkd.in/g4TazdvU #syntropicenterprise #syntropicworld #beautyofbeginnings

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Do you see a problem with using dots like this for facilitation activities such as #dotmocracy? When using dotmocracy or similar activities, it’s easy to overlook how colour choices - and those ubiquitous dot packages that are found at all office supply stores - can impact accessibility. For those with colour blindness, distinguishing between different coloured dots can be a challenge. To make sure everyone can participate equally, consider adding more visual variety—like different shapes or patterns—so the activity is clear for everyone. This approach aligns with the principle of not relying on colour alone to convey information, as outlined in accessibility guidelines like the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Small changes can create a more inclusive experience. #accessibility #inclusivedesign #facilitation #learningdesign

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Book now, last chance - live Q&A about any aspect of managing change today at 11am UK time https://lnkd.in/d4rPgQiT I will share highlights from a trends and themes workshop with amazing senior leaders in change from Wednesday of this week. These sessions are great for finding solutions to your immediate change challenges and for ideas about how to build your career in change. #changemanagement #changecoaching

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Today at the Living and Leading Change certificate course we explored one of the most common questions I am asked: How do we get buy-in for the change? This question assumes buy-in (agreement) is enough to enable change, it's not. To enable change you need commitment. What's an easy way to differentiate between buy-in or commitment to change? Buy-in is demonstrated in language. Commitment is demonstrated in action. #employeeengagement #BuyIn #ChangeLeadership

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Excellent reflections from Buki here. What would you add to her list?

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The fact that we all interpret and apply good practices in different ways seems obvious. But it is an aspect of effective project delivery that is often overlooked.

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