Interactions - Creative Strategies for Business

when is enough enough?

Sun, 11 May 2008 22:38:47 +0000

When is enough enough? San Francisco based Psychoanalyst Dr Owen Renik says

The profession is in a great decline, and I predict the decline will continue. The reason for it, and the reason a corrective is needed now, is that although psychoanalysis began in a spirit of open-ended inquiry, with an orientation above all to be helpful to the patient, it took on a self-perpetuating guild mentality that was its ruin. The possibility is still open to reverse the decline, but it will be necessary to escape the clutches of an establishment that, unhappily, has increasingly gotten away from the original scientific enterprise.

He goes on to say

There is a tendency among psychoanalysts to pursue self-awareness as a goal in itself, rather than a means to an end. Originally, the idea was that the self-understanding that arose as a result of psychoanalysis was unique and impressive and valid because it afforded relief from symptoms that were otherwise impossible to treat. If you don’t require that self-awareness be validated by symptom relief, there are two destructive consequences. The first is scientific. You have no independent variable to track; you set up a circular situation in which it’s the analyst’s theory that determines what is found in analysis. Many critics of psychoanalysis have recognized this.

The points he raises are interesting in themselves, but they also relate to any kind of inter-personal and professional relationship – when is enough enough? And what kind of methodologies do you use to determine if you your intervention is (a) appropriate? (b) working? or (c) past its sell by date? There is always the temptation to keep clients wanting more. I don’t see coaching in particular as an endless process. There comes a time when you have to say goodbye – often times it’s the coach who has to determine that if a client appears to be too reliant on their coaching process and reluctant to move on and it's sometimes the case that a client is ready to move on long before a coach or consultant is willing to let go. Renik goes on to say

You should have a criterion for judging whether the outcome is satisfactory, which leaves you free to judge by trial and error. If the treatment seems sufficient, you stop. You can always resume the therapy when and if there’s a need. What might also happen along the way, you might become aware of other things that then you define as symptoms, and you want to address those. Let’s say you have trouble dating, for example. We discover when we look into it that you have trouble asserting yourself, and that applies in a number of areas, including your work life. So we go on, until you are able to make progress there. If you’re not having symptom trouble after that, there’s no reason to keep analyzing stuff. That’s it. You’re done.

I think the same is true of any kind of coaching or consulting, particularly if it’s a one to one relationship and where the identity of the consultant gets tied up with the assignment. If the job is done, it’s done and it’s time to move on – dealing with the personal nature of ending and rejection is something that consultants need to integrate into their practice. I know when I was working as a therapist I had regular supervision where I addressed endings and beginnings on a regular basis. Now that I’m consulting I try to build in some kind of formal ending process with clients – be that a review or other – to mark the transition. But as Renik says –

there’s no reason to keep analyzing stuff. That’s it. You’re done.

Can social networking kill your business?

Thu, 08 May 2008 09:14:58 +0000

I'm a fan of social media and I have found blogging a great way of building my business and brand. Blogging has been a fantastic networking tool and a great way of translating that networking into real contact with real people. But there's also a dark side to social networking and Frank Marafiote picks up this issue in his post How Social Networking Can Kill a Business. In reputation based businesses bad word of mouth can have a devastating impact and social media is virtual word of mouth. Frank republishes a not too flattering review of a restaurant that appeared in an online forum (without naming the restaurant) and offers some suggestions for how such an incident might be managed for those of us in a similar situation.

First, we need to stay alert to what is being written about us. Just as you might check your credit report on a regular basis, you need to do a “reputation report” on your name and your business. You can purchase services that will monitor your business name and alert you whenever it is mentioned on the Web. You should also do your own frequent searches using the major search engines. By “frequent,” I mean at least twice a month. Second, be proactive. That means staying in touch with your market and providing positive and helpful information via your blogs, press releases, Web forums, trade and business Web sites, etc. Stinging negative comments are less credible when they are read in the context of a positive news environment. Third, react. In the case of this restaurant “review,” there’s a chance that by complaining to the webmaster the comment might be removed. If that is not possible, get third party endorsements — and your own — on the site as soon as possible. Don’t let the mud hang there on the wall with no counter-response. Otherwise, readers will assume it is true.

Damien also has a great post about how to monitor what people are saying about your company online using free online tools such as Google's Blog Search, Google alerts, Youtube, Twitter etc. Social media is a conversation - isn't dialogue better than monologue? And what are our responsibilities in terms of managing those conversations? We can't control what people think and feel about us and social media makes it even more difficult to have a balanced conversation - too many blog posts are rants about what doesn't work - there aren't enough constructive inputs on what does. So part of the social networking process has to be casting a critical eye over who's saying what about whom - there are lots of free tools out there that can help. But perhaps the best way of managing reputation is to take charge of the message by writing and leading rather than commenting and defending. Hat tip Rakes Progress

5.75 questions

Wed, 07 May 2008 12:53:45 +0000

Check out this short film from Box of Crayons called The 5.75 questions you've been avoiding. 1 What's going well for you? 2 What are you trying to ignore? 3 What's boring you? 4 How do you want to be remembered? 5 Who do you love? I particularly liked this observation:

Comfort is just boredom with good PR

Hat tip: Chief Happiness Officer

'Professional' 'Arts' 'Organisations'

Fri, 02 May 2008 03:18:36 +0000

Very thoughtful post from Andrew Taylor on the way in which our taken for granted stance in relation to professional arts organisations is changing. He says

Consider, for example, the three-word phrase that often crops up at such conferences: ''professional arts organization.'' This phrase captures, in shorthand, the specific category of cultural endeavor we tend to be discussing. Professional arts organizations require professional management, aesthetic integrity, curatorial control, and stable but responsive structures to hold them together while moving their mission forward. These are the standards that drive our teaching and learning about the field. But each of those three words -- ''professional,'' ''arts,'' and ''organization'' -- is in radical flux at the moment. That suggests that a phrase (and an assumption) combining all three could mean less and less in shorthand form.

He goes on to deconstruct each of the three words and also says

what happens to the word ''professional'' when works of comparable quality and skill can be conceived, produced, and distributed without expensive or centralized means of production? Flickr has millions of exceptional images, many shot by individuals with no formal training, expecting no pay, and unfiltered by a traditional gatekeeper (curator, publisher, agent)

This is a critically important dialogue that is going to blur the edges of practice. It's going to have profound implications for stated funded organisations (particularly in countries like Ireland where the aspiration to secure Arts Council funding is both fiscal and a mark of integrity. If anybody can make great work then how do we decide who to distribute the funds to? Read the full post here

thinking out loud about disappointment

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 20:44:13 +0000

I spent a great evening at the White Institute last night where I shared some of my research on disappointment with a fantastic group of people who in turn, shared their experiences of disappointment in organisational settings. This was the first time I’d spoken about my work and I was very nervous and also very excited to see how my thinking would be received. As ever with psychodynamically informed practitioners, the conversations were rich, pregnant and enormously satisfying – I took away more than I contributed and I’m grateful to everyone who participated in the conversation for their generosity and indeed for the welcome I received. Apart from the rich learning around my research topic I learned (again) that I speak too quickly when I am nervous and I really need to address this for future presentations. I get in my own way sometimes in my rush to get out of my own way (if that makes sense) and I’m much more comfortable in conversational spaces than I am in formal presentation ones – but perhaps that’s just another thing to think about and add to the mix. So thanks to everyone who contributed to my thinking and thanks to the White organisation programme for the invitation to share some of that thinking in such welcoming surroundings.

home is where the heart is

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 04:22:05 +0000

Sometimes being in a familiar place can be an unfamiliar experience. I’ve been in New York for the past ten days and the place should technically look and feel the same as it always does. But it doesn’t. Perhaps it’s the fact that I’m a regular visitor to the city now (at least twice a year) or maybe it’s that I’m taking it for granted – but I think it’s probably the people and relationships I am building here that makes the difference. I’ve always felt that I make more sense to myself in this city. The grass is always greener I know, but there’s a constellation of people, places and feelings that are evoked in me when I’m here that’s unlike anywhere else I’ve travelled. New York is the city that never disappoints – and technically it should. I know the city very well, the ride from the airport should be passé – but the Manhattan skyline takes my breath away every time, each time anew, each time a renewed beginning. I’m thinking about this in terms of organisations and what would make going to work a renewing experience every day. With so much energy going into staff retention; work/life balance and work related satisfaction I wonder is it as simple as the relationships we build while we’re there? Work is a social place and organisations are networks of human systems. If, like me, you’re driven by curiosity and a need for conversation then the quality of those relationships make or break an environment. I can’t imagine not having my imagination fed through my work. I can’t imagine not having my heart stimulated by relationships. I know I’ll look back on this trip and see it as pivotal in the relationship I’m having with myself – I look in the mirror each morning and see a difference - the difference is down to the people I know here. If the old cliché that home is where the heart is, is true then the fact that I’m feeling at home here and within myself has to do with that heart connection. I wonder how many of us can say the same of our work lives?

New York, New York

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 08:21:30 +0000

It will be quiet here for the next week or so as I'm flying to New York on Friday. I'm looking forward to catching up with friends, bloggers and soon to be friends alike so please get in touch if you have time for a coffee. I'll be speaking about my current research into the organisation of disappointment at the William Alanson White Institute on Monday 28th April at 7pm. If you'd like a ticket you can book by emailing Carlos Acha or phone 212-873-0725, ext. 10. This will be the first time I've spoken about my work to anyone other than my academic supervisors so I'll be nervous, excited and hopefully not too disappointing. Looking forward to seeing some of you there.

Nuala O'Faolain

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 22:40:41 +0000

I cried on Saturday listening to Nuala O'Faolain talk, in a raw and emotional interview, with Marian Finnucane, about her recent diagnosis of terminal cancer. Her shock and anger was palpable and as with so much of her writing, she spoke from a deep place full of honesty and grace. When asked about having more time she said

Yeah, I was just reading about some best-selling man who says 'Live your dream to the end' and so on and I don't despise anyone who does, but I don't see it that way. Even if I gained time through the chemotherapy it isn't time I want. Because as soon as I knew I was going to die soon, the goodness went out of life.

O'Faolain's memoir Are You Somebody resonated so strongly with me. The depth of her emotion was breathtaking, just as it was on Saturday morning. The raw, real experience of one woman's journey which in its total emotional honesty becomes universal in its meaning. It's hard not to project a set of feelings onto someone else's tragedy - to make it about me and not them particularly when I never had the pleasure of meeting her in the flesh. I hope that however she plans to spend her remaining days she'll find some solace and meaning and be surrounded by a lot of love and I also hope she knows that she is somebody. The full transcript of her interview is here and the podcast of the interview can be listened to here.

Adam Phillips podcasts

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 21:26:52 +0000

Wandering around cyberspace this week looking for interesting podcasts to take with me on the flight to New York at the end of the week brought me to these conversations with Adam Phillips. In BBC Radio 4's Open Book Phillips talks about his most recent book Side Effects and in this shorter clip he talks about Going Sane. There's a longer interview with Phillips recorded at the New York Public Library in May of last year here.

Who am I being that my players' eyes are not shining

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 09:54:43 +0000

Benjamin Zander, conductor and author of The Art of Possibility speaks about leadership in this podcast. One of my favourite quotes is:

Who am I being that my players' eyes are not shining?

Click here to listen Hat tip to Chris

seduction and desire

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 21:14:59 +0000

Recognizing the deep-seated need of the world public to see the Queen mum seated at the toilet, Elton John getting a colonic, and Keith Richards ironing his knickers, Alison Jackson set out to create the images that we really want paparazzi to capture. Armed with cheap photographic equipment, celebrity look-alikes, and a canny sense of what we think people are doing when we're not looking, she creates images that are equal parts belly laughs and pure scandal.

Artist Alison Jackson's TED talk on why we can't rely on our own perception and how what we thing is real may not in fact be is fascinating..Her work is about how photography removes us from reality and the real subject matter through substitution - the role of the image in seduction and desire- fascinating talk..

Email - knowing its place

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 09:00:11 +0000

If E-mail is e-mail then instant messaging is e-whispering or epassinganoteatthebackoftheclass

Check out Matt Moore's simple and very sophisticated presentation on email and where it fits in the landscape of web 2.0 in Peak Email - A Fairy Story.

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Podcast: Confidentiality at work

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 18:35:09 +0000

How important is confidentiality at work? and how much of my product offering as a consultant is the guarantee that whatever is told to me will be held in confidence? Are consultants professional secret keepers? and how much of our work is containing and sanitising misdemeanours offering them back as palatable organisational learnings? What or whom are we minding? Following my previous post on confidentiality I invited Johnnie Moore and Matt Moore to talk about these and other confidential matters via Skype this morning and here's the resulting podcast. Show notes follow and thanks to Johnnie for being the sound engineer on the project. Download the podcast by clicking HERE. This is a 9MB file lasting just under 29 minutes. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Show Notes Disclaimer: These are a rough summary of the conversation accompanied by flexible/rough timings. 0.0 Annette How important is confidentiality at work? and how much of my product offering as a consultant is the guarantee that whatever is told to me will be held in confidence? Are consultants professional secret keepers? and how much of our work is containing and sanitising misdemeanours offering them back as palatable organisational learnings? What or whom are we minding? Introductions How important is confidentiality at work? 0.50 Johnnie It’s ‘very important’. It means different things to different people at different times – is it a way of addressing status – I had to sign an NDA etc. Sometimes it’s a status play. It is a way of entrapping the other person in something – am I doing you a favour or am I inviting you into a trap? It’s complex isn’t it? 2.08 Annette How much of the conversation around confidentiality is in fact a seduction – around secrets? 2.18 Matt One way of taking someone into your confidence is to offer them a secret and that has all kinds of levels and layers – does it happen once? Several times? And what happens when you break that trust? Matt talks about his role as an internal consultant and how people entrust him with their secrets and the complexity of the messages and seductions contained within those secrets. 5.18 Annette Annette notes that both Matt and Johnnie are talking about ‘intimacy’ and asks how we set up the conditions for that to take place. Psychoanalyst Adam Phillips talks about how we can set up the conditions for romance but there’s no guarantee that romance will happen – what kinds of ploys do Matt and Johnnie use to set up the romantic conditions for intimacy in the workplace? 6.32 Johnnie Johnnie professes his interest in intimacy and his interest in web tools which foster intimacy. Johnnie talks about the shift from confidentiality as control to a more open sharing of information via Open Space and other similar processes. He talks about relinquishing his role as ‘consultant confessor’ which has become an uncomfortable role. Am I getting in the way by holding a secret? 9.19 Annette What burden is placed on someone designated as ‘knowledge manager’ to manage hidden knowledge – how does Matt manage the externalised ‘known knowledge’ with the internalised ‘unknown’? 9.41 Matt Matt admits to being a hypocrite! The official versus the ‘real’ version of events often conflict. Matt then goes on to say how hypocrisy works in practice – including sanitising stories; the pleasure of being taken into someone’s confidence; the manufacture of intimacy and how hypocrisy functions as a social lubrication. 13.13 Annette Consultants are also politicians in organisations and are we talking here about the context we create (or wish to create) rather than the content of what people are saying? 13.40 Johnnie Creating explicitly ‘confident’ scenarios aren’t particularly enjoyable and neither do they work. Johnnie talks about how this works in practice. 15.43 Annette There is often an assumption that the stories revealed in confidence have more truth than those revealed in public and also we are not capable of hearing or speaking truth in organisations. Does being an internal consultant add another layer to that mix? 16.23 Matt Openness versus closedness is an interesting concept – we need to keep some things private. Matt is often asked to take sides – to join a tribe - and secrets are a way of extending this invitation. Matt talks about respecting the invitation while not getting pulled in.. 19.15 Annette Scepticism is useful – our relationship with secrets and confidences is influenced by splits good/bad; useful/unhelpful – can we strike a balance between them? Respecting what this intervention has to offer for this system? 20.12 Johnnie Explicit confidentiality agreements can serve to shut down the sharing of confidences and sensitive information – the opposite is often the case. The paradox here is that less is shared when the discussion is explicit – when it becomes ritualised it becomes less effective. Johnnie talks about the difference between hard and soft trust. 22.07 Annette There is a dance in negotiating confidence – in removing that dance we give a message that there is apart of me or thoughts I want to share that are unacceptable. 22.48 Johnnie Johnnie asks about what that negotiation means – is it explicit? Is it implicit? What does it look like? 23.21 Annette Annette talks about unconscious and non verbal negotiations that invite revelation – seeking permission to inquire about someone’s personal story. 23.50 Matt We prefer to have soft trust – informal trust but we fall back on hard trust and the rules when that isn’t guaranteed and when there are issues of power and status at play. If you are genuinely sharing yourself you make yourself vulnerable and organisations are treacherous places… 25.07 Johnnie Perhaps it’s our job to be the ones who are willing to be vulnerable – it’s easy to revert to rules but it’s useful to talk about our own vulnerabilities as it gives permission to those we work with to talk about theirs. 26.16 Annette We have all kinds of things in our consultancy toolkits but feelings are the primary ones that I draw on 26.30 Johnnie Suggests pausing the conversation there for now.. 27.07 Annette Thanks to Matt and Johnnie for sharing their thoughts.

On being human

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 20:25:20 +0000

To be human is to try continually, though to be human means at the same time to fail continuously. We're the attempt, not the attainment.

Disappointment or the light of the common day Bruce Fleming, p. 9

Meaning and Motivation at Work ISPSO 2008

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 14:55:58 +0000

The annual meeting of ISPSO takes place in Philadelphia between 20 and 22 June this year. The title of this conference is Meaning and Motivation at work. If you are interested in how organisations 'really work'; and are curious about how emotion and unconscious processes influence how and what gets done then this gathering of consultants, managers and academics is the place to be. Before the main part of the proceedings there are four days of professional development workshops (16 - 19 June) open to anyone to attend. The questions being covered this year include:

How does one effectively market psychoanalytic work? How does photography introduce new power into understanding organizations? When consulting or coaching assignments involve working through impasse, what methods can encourage transformation? What can organizations do to build resistance to corruption in their work?

There are any more fascinating topics - so if you are in the Philadelphia area and are curious about a psychoanalytic approach to working and organising check out the full schedule here. There's more information about ISPSO here and the full conference schedule is available here.