Are We STILL On The Same Path?
When your organization is on the journey into self-organization you can be pretty sure that it will have an effect on your relationships with your co-workers.
Here’s the question one of my clients recently asked me: “My business partner and I have been very good friends for many years. We founded our organization together and initiated the journey into self-organization with great passion. For some time I have had the feeling that we are drifting apart. With everything going on and things changing so quickly, I’m not sure how to get back our meaningful connection. I am losing the sense of whether or not we are still on the same path. What can I do?” This question triggered an intense and beautiful conversation, which opened the space to explore the bigger underlying tension.
The underlying tension
I have been asked similar questions many times. It is safe to say that every client I have worked with over the past decade has had the same experience one way or the other - the journey into self-organization shifts the relationships with our co-workers in a very fundamental way.
There is a larger underlying tension that leads to this shift. Evolving the way we work into a self-organized model requires the highest possible level of transparency. And this type of transparency doesn’t stop around the boundaries of the work we do. It requires a higher level of honest trust.
Processing our tensions is crucial for both work and relationships. It requires different processes, but one doesn’t work without the other.
Leaving the power hierarchy behind creates the opportunity for each of us to step into our authentic power. This leads to very different types of encounters. Encounters where we are can communicate with honesty, transparency, and at eye level, wether it is about the work we do or the personal aspects of our interactions. It is a capacity that requires a new level of consciousness around our interactions both with ourselves and with others. It’s not easy to learn, but it certainly is worth it.
Relationships as never before
As a result of collaborating in this new way of working you reach a clarity in relationships as never before in the work place. I have experienced it personally, and many of my clients have confirmed it. Collaborating in this new way leads to developing relationships with new depth and meaning. Moreover, you will have a new sense of clarity about when a relationship changes…possibly becomes more distant than you previously assumed. Whatever the relationship becomes, it will be based on a new clarity of what we can expect from one another.
And this is the beauty of it all: this learning ripples out across every aspect of our lives.
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