To spark a conversation about diversity in your organization, facilitate an activity or process that can raise issues of diversity, and that activity must involve the mutual creation of a new reality. One such activity is the “message exercise” in which a brief instance of massaging the point where the neck and shoulder meet enables you to experience a new reality on a firsthand basis.
What involves a management behavior that’s highly committed to synergy? Well, it’s a management that encourages informal interactions, resolves conflicts, balances opposites, embraces debriefing and appoints a synergy trustee.
Increasingly, it’s necessary to leave the practice of defining job roles without involving employees in the process. It’s out of date, and serves only to do more harm than good. Absence of interaction and invasion may result, and they are much more destructive than obscurity. Involve your employees in direct and open dialogues to draw up a job description.
When employees feel that the management doesn’t involve them in decision-making processes, they would feel that the organization doesn’t listen to them. It can be difficult to assimilate a new procedure, order, command or technology if employees perceive it as unfair, unsuitable, harmful or incorrect. If nothing is done to correct one-way communication, these feelings can change in invasion or obscurity interactions. Consequently, the organization has to bear the consequences of low motivation and low productivity.
When two parties conflict in an organization, it can be difficult to differentiate the invader from the invaded without the seven forms of interactions questionnaire. With the latter, you can measure the perception of a mix of interactions for each party. This perception usually varies. After you analyze the responses of the questionnaire, the next step is to reach out to the invader. The intention of the meeting is to make the invader understand the consequences of their actions. Afterwards, you can arrange for a hearing, which involves both airing their grievances. Listen carefully to both sides, and come up with a tailored solution that solves the problem of each party.
In an organization, there are usually deep-rooted issues. Figuring out how to bring these deep issues to the surface effectively can contribute to the health and value of your organization. However, it’s easier said than done. People aren’t usually comfortable to open up about emotional issues. Moreover, a management style that’s mostly masculine can prevent a meaningful discourse from taking place in the first place. A “massage exercise” has been shown to be one of the effective ways to start a conversation about diversity in an organization.
The senior management keeps secrets -- for a good reason. It could be that an organization is facing a difficult financial period – cash flow problems or lack of capital. In this instance, the senior management can decide to make major decisions without involving the employees and board. The consequence is that employees can develop feelings of obscurity and invasion, which can affect quality of interactions and synergy. This can be necessary if the benefits outweigh the risks.
As a manager, you can leverage three important communication tools to start a conversation about any topic in your organization: the Johari Window, the Listening Circle and the “Massage Exercise”. These tools make it easy for your employees to open up.
When you hand out a questionnaire to your employees, and the perception index for invasion or obscurity in boundaries falls outside the acceptable range of 2% to 3%, you must act. At worst, invasion perception should be 7%. Otherwise, your organization is sick, and requires a tailored solution to a specific perception.
Once you diagnose your organization’s problems and recommend necessary actions, it’s time to implement the changes. However, your steering committee can’t execute the changes alone. Create an improvement team consisting of members drawn from across all hierarchical levels in your organization. Membership is voluntary, and members must have a genuine interest in and attraction to the team’s activity. Allocate them an annual budget and authorize team’s activity – and you’ve started a change implementation process.