After having discovered in blog #3, the importance of listening in the workplace, I propose to go a step further and think about listening to one’s organization.
Frederic Laloux sees the organization as “a living system, an entity with its own energy, its own identity, its own creative potential and a sense of direction. We don’t need to tell it what to do; we just need to listen, partner with it, join it in its dance, and discover where it will take us”.
As an individual, an organization has (or should have) a sense of its own identity – a path, a purpose, a soul, transcending all stakeholders. It is not about a CEO coming on board and using the organization to satisfy his own vision or sense of purpose. It is about respecting the organization as a living entity. Always…
CEO’s come and go. An organization needs longevity. And by treating it as a living entity, and putting it first, coherent longevity can be found.
This does not mean that there is no movement or evolution, or that the organization stagnates. It just means that every action, every evolution, every innovation, every marketing campaign, every recruitment etc., is done in complete alignment with the values of the organization.
But how to discover the values and purpose of an organization? How to discover what the organization wants or needs? How to align with where the organization wants to go and not demand the organization to align with the values of another? How to hear its voice?
The answer is again listening. Actively listening as to who the organization is, what is its mission, its raison d’être, its core values…
Listening with the ears, with the eyes and with the senses.
Laloux invites the reader to imagine allocating an empty chair at every meeting to represent the organization and its purpose. At any one time, participants can either take the chair to become the voice of the organization or take another to listen. Questions for the person in the chair of the organization could be:
- What do you (as the organization), think about this or that proposal?
- In which direction do you want to go in?
- How fast do you want to move?
- Could we do things differently?
He sees us as being “stewards” of the organization – we don’t run it. “We are the vehicle that listens in to the organization’s deep creative potential to help it do its work in the world”1
1 Frederic Laloux, Réinventer Organisations