What’s Your Worldview?

There are many ways to look at the world.
What kind of glasses are you using?

Many organizations are still using the same glasses that they got when they were founded. At that time their world might have looked like a machine or an assembly line where you easily could exchange parts – meaning people – that did not work. If they are still using their old glasses, their worldview will be the same despite knowing that the world has changed. Maybe it is time to find a new pair?

A worldview, the glasses you use to look at the world, has a big impact on how decisions are made and how work is performed to reach organizational goals. If you think that the organization does not perform as well as it should, the first step might be to think about changing its glasses. A highly controlled organization without balance could still achieve good results, but often at the cost of the health of its people. An organization that is attending to its healthy work climate could often get better results since everyone could work with their full potential. This is all impacted by how the organization perceives the world.

It is quite simple to change the glasses and by that change the organizational climate. What is needed is time to reflect and decide and some simple tools. This is how we do it:

1. Decide what we want and then begin to cleanse what needs to be removed and strengthen what works and should remain.
2. Do a diagnosis as a baseline to measure success.
3. Take one step at a time and continue to cleanse and create space, strengthen and balance.
4. Do the diagnosis again after a year to evaluate and decide on next steps.

The trick is to find meeting methods that are participative, such as Whole Person Process Facilitation and Open Space Technology and use them as tools to do the needed change. When you use them in all your meetings, they will support the change in a very practical way, allowing a healthy climate to emerge. If you want to know more, take a look at the Genuine Contact workshop Path to Organizational Health and Balance where the first steps are outlined.