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26 Apr 2006
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The Spiral Way: An Aspect of the CGC Approach
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The spiral is a symbol that is centrally featured in our logo and images throughout our website. It’s an ancient symbol used with many meanings by many people. The Anasazi’s used it in petroglyphs. Possible interpretations are about where to find water, the way in or around, or emergence. There are spiral galaxies, spiral ways, and spiral mazes.
For us, it is a dynamic symbol for managing change. One meaning is about keeping the end in mind and being able to deliver at any point in time, with a given level of effort. Managing change is not linear. It is a spiral way. Our spiral symbol is about the effort it takes to emerge successfully.
Examine the figure on our blog page. I’ve superimposed a timeline on a spiral. We start in the center with the client, imagining the end in mind, co-designing a series of change events or implementation steps, and perhaps making an early intervention, such as conducting an executive retreat. Conducting the executive retreat takes us to t1. This cycle took a relatively limited amount of time and effort for each party (i.e. me, my client, and his/her staff). Yet, the end-in-mind is previewed, shared, and co-designed at that event, and in and of itself, begins the change (in Appreciative Inquiry this is called the Principle of Simultaneity).
The first intervention – or half cycle – to the first deliverable opportunity with an organization takes relatively little effort and has a relatively little sustaining result on the ultimate desired result. Yet, it contains the kernel of the end-in-mind. Recursively, or holographically or fractally speaking, it is the end if it is played out fully. This is why with Appreciative Inquiry (AI), the first question we ask is fateful—because it contains the first intention, kernel, or imagination of the end-in-mind. It has been said that change comes from changed minds. That’s why identifying “high point experience” stories are so powerful--they move us toward what’s possible.
At this point, the change may be just “talk.” To move from t1 to t2 along the timeline is not a linear movement of equal units of time. Rather, to move from talk to action takes much more effort. Collectively, we have to begin to expend energy. The leader has to communicate like crazy. Helpful mechanisms in the system have to be developed and fielded. A guiding coalition has to come together. Stakeholders have to be aligned. This t1 to t2 cycle takes exponentially more time, energy, and gumption than the beginning at the center to t1. On the other hand, if we’ve done our work right, we’ve increased the involvement of a larger group of people in creating the change (level of effort goes up…or in AI parlance, our investment is appreciating). The area below the curving full spiral cycle from t1 to t2 shows the ever increasing level of effort it takes to get to t2.
In our favorite engagements, we’re a full partner for the long haul. We want to be along for the hard work and implementation ride in which this simple whirling dervish turns into a chaortic, self-organizing system (like the way a storm becomes a spiraling tornado or hurricane, or at a greater level of effort - a galaxy) that ultimately organizes at a much higher level of power/performance and which creates a massive return on investment.
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| posted by Kevin Coray
at 17:23 | trackbacks [211] |
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