Insight is the Alchemy that Creates Change-Able™ Organizations
Insight is like magic. It turns challenges into learning and the sense of being stuck into engagement. It’s the elixir that transforms stodgy command and control cultures into networks of learning. What we, at Cylient, call Change-Able™ organizations.
Insight is the engine that drives the transformational power of coaching. When someone has an insight that “aha” experience literally releases chemicals that engage the learner to take action. When coaching-based leadership is a way of life, igniting insight becomes the focus of conversations. People work together to discover what’s stuck, what others don’t see, or what concerns are getting in the way. Then they explore new options, knowing that deeper insights will be harvested from the experiences, whether things work out as planned or not. That’s what Change-Ability looks like in action.
By contrast, command and control cultures are founded on the control and dissemination of knowledge and information. The old adage, “knowledge is power” hails from the time when information was easily controlled and evolved at a much slower pace than it does today. When knowledge is held as power people argue and maneuver to determine who or what is “right,” because being right equates to winning. Leadership teams getting mired in tedious debates without moving into action, colleagues withholding information that would be helpful to others, and divisions battle each other rather than collaborating to serve the customer.
Striving to be the one with the right answer creates separation as people, teams and divisions are cleaved into winners and losers. There’s little motivation to collaborate and even less support for people or ideas that challenge the status quo. “Fight to be right” cultures bully creativity and innovation into silent acquiescence.
The question is, what’s “right” in a world where new information is born every nanosecond? What works in the current situation may not be the best choice next month or next year when the playing pieces have shifted in significant ways. In our current fluid reality “right” is a relative, time-limited concept at best.
Change-Able cultures understand this. That’s why they value collaboratively learning together over duels and debates, and learning from experience over waiting for the “right answer.” Making coaching-based leadership a way of life is the alchemy that will transform your organization into a Change-Able network of learning and innovation. That’s golden.
How has shifting from arguing about what’s right to creating insight, changed your experience of conversations?
