Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord’s four box model
Unless you’re a military historian, you probably haven’t heard of General Kurt Von Hammerstein-Equord. He rose to become commander-in-chief of the German army between the wars, and is remembered for being a staunch opponent of the Nazi regime. That is, unless you’ve read widely in organisational behaviour, in which case you probably only know him for the following, slightly un-PC remark:
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!
The quote comes from a manual on military command written in 1933. If Hammerstein-Equord was a modern day consultant he would have immediately sensed a two-by-two matrix, so we have indulged ourselves and mapped it out. We’ve found this picture generates some very interesting conversations!
If this diagram tickles you, you might want to follow up by reading Venkat Rao’s trail of posts on “The Gervais Principle” (starting here), which follows a similar idea. This series has attracted a lot of attention and for good reason. Be warned – as with all Venkat’s writing, it’s more like reading chapters in a book than reading blog posts. Worth the effort though.
All the unsaid things between us …
This was inspired by a comment from a client recently about the meeting culture they were experiencing at work. They were frustrated: When this sort of pattern persists it can cause significant personal and financial costs.
The defensive cycle
This picture represents a collection of comments that we heard in one organisation that was pushing through budget cuts. Employees felt their jobs were under threat, so were unwilling to speak up about the pressure they were coming under. Unable to prioritise or say no, they become less productive, inviting further pressure, and so the cycle continued. When everyone’s feeling under threat our natural defensive inclination is to hide our fears and avoid challenging the status quo.
Back to the office …
This montage of experiences was captured from conversation with a client who had just spent several days at a leadership development programme. They felt totally reenergized and refreshed, “a new and more authentic me!” Yet they were dreading going back into a “toxic culture” that would destroy their new found confidence and force them to don the armour of pretence and resume their “office persona”.
Marvin Weisbord – Quality and Equality lecture
These two pictures were inspired by an excellent Quality and Equality lecture I attended a few weeks ago.
Marvin Weisbord, an elder statesman in the Organisational Development field, gave a fascinating talk about its history over more than a century. Building on the contributions of Taylor, Bion and Lewin, he took us through the stages of self-managed teams, systems thinking, group dynamics and lean working, up to his current focus on participative leadership and whole systems interventions.
Marvin shared so many great ideas that I found it difficult to chose which ones to visualize first (which is my favourite way of learning!). Nonetheless, here are two pictures that seemed to me to be the most interesting and relevant. The first was inspired by Marvin’s idea that the key building block of all change is the meeting that you’re in right now. This is a core principle for us at Delta7 and it was good to hear it expressed so succinctly.
The second shows his thoughts on the type of leadership we need in the current complex environment. In our “hurry up!” technological culture of “faster, cheaper, better”, the quality and rigour of leadership thinking can often go out the window. As our ancient human psyche is being pushed to its limits, we need everyone thinking and leading together in a more democratic way if we are going to survive and create a better world.
Programme communications: The loose cannon
Every change/comms manager we’ve shown this picture to seems to roll over laughing … it’s obviously hit a bit of a nerve!
We are currently in the process of creating a new pre-packaged Visual Dialogue “session-in-a-box” to help programme teams discuss and resolve common issues. This picture is one of several we’ve created to help get people talking. They draw on our own experiences of difficult situations as well as those of our associates and clients. If this is something you’d be interested in contributing to, please do get in touch.
Employee engagement: Getting on board the runaway train
This is a vote of sympathy for all of the beleaguered change managers out there working with unsympathetic programme managers!
Voicing – what’s not spoken about in your organisation?
This picture was originally one of a series we have produced to visualise the key themes from Bill Isaacs’ Dialogue model, one of several dialogue models we’ve played with over the years. This picture speaks to the theme of “Voicing”. Here’s Isaacs’ description:
To speak to your voice is perhaps one of the most challenging aspects of genuine dialogue. Speaking your voice has to do with revealing what is true for you regardless of other influences that might be brought to bear.
To say it’s challenging strikes us as a massive understatement! Most organisational cultures seem to conspire to ensure that the really difficult issues remain unspoken. This helps preserve the safety of the status quo, but creates an enormous barrier to change.
The Change Curve
Honest conversation in organisations: a Delta7 visual dialogue
Ho
w does honest conversation sit with business? The Delta 7 team sat down to discuss…
A regular feature of life in the Delta 7 office is the monthly Visual Dialogue where we get together to discuss something that interests us. We do this because it’s fun – but also because it’s an opportunity to experience and practice the process we create for our clients.
Our pictures are tools to engage people in organisations in conversations about difficult issues. These facilitated dialogues enable people to gain powerful insights about the changes and challenges they face – and come up with responsible and creative solutions.
The starting point for our dialogue was familiar to everyone in the team. “How do I look?”
To begin with, the conversation focused on that uncomfortable conundrum: when is ‘honest’ too honest? Is the truth always the right thing in all situations? We all recognised the experience of holding back on what we said based on what we thought another person wanted to hear. We also all agreed that even though it made things easier at the time, it left us feeling uneasy.
In the end, we concluded that what really mattered to us was for there to be alignment between what we think on the inside and what we say (or do) on the outside. It was clear that congruence was more important a quality than protecting our, or someone else’s feelings.
What do you think? Is the honesty important in your organisation?
