Author: fullspectrum

We are already getting more familiar with virtual meetings, connecting us remotely to each other. Discussions start becoming again more content focused, hence valuable. Large companies like Siemens are already considering the design and implementation globally of homework as common practice.

So, remote working has become a standard way of working. Where are the hurdles?We received tutorials for remote work. We can smartly work with images and a camera view and recognizing gestures are quickly being learned.

What does it all mean?

Studies in recent years have shown that ‘old school learning’, whether physically together or online, only contributes to 10% of the lifelong development of employees. We learn 70% ‘by doing’ and 20% by ‘copy and paste mode’.

But how do we design content for the new way we interact?

• How do we show ourselves beyond the lessons learned on ‘emotional intelligence’?
• Which linguistic formulas cause the transformation of the ‘new collaboration’?
• Is it possible in the present form of remote work?
• Which developments are caused in semantics?

Well, one question leads to the next..

How did I design creative, innovative work in the regular environment of physical presence, with sharply structured speech processes, school-like and interactive query modes and the usual silence comfort zone of some?

Since we at toccaverde have been operating also remotely for many years internationally (and multiculturally), we have been enriched by numerous earnings on how to rely on more than words to be able to respond empathically to our interlocutors.

Moreover, we experienced the need to develop some additional, perhaps even more unfamiliar skills.

Our personal experience

First, we gathered experience by attending remote meetings as a listener. Here we noticed exciting situations: moderators and speakers in strict control mode, highly mastering content, concentrated, but low-emotion and melody-free voices. Sometimes with limited speaking timeslots, agreed agendas that only serve to process technical content.

That may also fit the purpose. In any case, it is more efficient than those remote meetings in which the majority of the participants say goodbye to picture and sound and degenerate into bored consumers.

Creative meetings need more

They need a voice with a mood, a picture with emotions, space and time to laugh together, to get to know each other.

1. Voice with mood: give up control

Niklas Luhman and Paul Watzlawik have scientifically proven that the sender’s message is not the same as the information for the recipient.

Words alone are never enough, unconsciously we perceive the color of the voice, the accentuation and translate this – enriched with agreement or disagreement of facial expressions, gestures, own values, prior knowledge and much more into our own reality.
What would help? Talk to each other instead of about each other. Find each other. Show emotions – verbally and non-verbally.

2. Replace certain words

Let us elaborate a bit further on this one. You are already familiar with the essentials, such as avoiding the words ‘no’ and ‘but’.

There is also th challenge of the connotation: in times of change, mindfulness – mindfulness in the choice of words – is the order of the day. We learn that we do not control everything, that we are no longer in competition with others.

No more ‘higher, higher, faster’, but an agile, meaningful, collective approach to whatever possible future is announced.

Words like ‘challenges’ trigger untimely, competitive reflexes. The collaborative approach instead calls for opportunities.

Worries and considerations do not go away from now on – the semantic handling allows helpful perspectives and approaches to release the current stressy situation a bit.

3. Use an open word style and new levels of expression.

Invite your audience to ask ‘open-ended’ questions. Also let them ask others for support. Respond to moods and address them. Leave plenty of room for thought, induce a friendly change of level and perspective.

As a basic rule, appreciate and trust in the power of small steps.

We’ll tell you more about it in our next blog – or podcast. We look forward to your inspiring questions and inquiries about workshops, remotely or not.

Barbara & Michel

Admittedly: I lack the undivided attention, the focus that the quarantine – and not only the home office – allowed us. Which meant a lot of effort, the new digital communication, the concentration on the interlocutor at the screen, the discipline of conducting conversations, the calmness of letting thoughts develop: all this is reduced and the focus “dispersed”.

Instead: Expectable and unexpected (partly) emotional outbursts from people to whom I would never have ascribed such things: fighting for the preservation of imaginary free spaces, crossing red lines and claims to control as the last bastion and demonstration of supposed power. The return to normality is incomparably more demanding than the retreat into “modern Biedermeier” – at least for the privileged who were able to withdraw.

What an exciting experience, also for me, to be able to relate to reflected hearing, to keep my common sense and then sort out the essential findings.

Two insights and questions that come up accompany me since a digital meeting with colleagues:

How to offer reflective and appreciative resistance to persistence and preservation? How to simultaneously develop futures that integrate the wonderful knowledge and skills of the past? Today we know how to appreciate and use the achievements of our ancestors, be it in architecture, music, literature, precisely because we have developed ourselves further. And also in a new guise!

How future models think, focus on possibilities: “Energy flows where attention goes”. How do we create the ambiguous challenge of guiding the people entrusted to us towards independent thinking and acting and the handling and acceptance of multilevel conditions?

My assumption from many conversations and reflections in the past: 

• A “fight” for the preservation of structures and old power relations (e.g. between teachers and students) limits our resources. A nice example is known from the far eastern philosophers who define the “highest level of the master” as the ability to learn from his student.
• In our Western understanding of a “facilitator” it is the ability to draw innovation by changing perspectives, by reflecting on customer questions and needs – and to assign to all participants the mindful and appreciative status of enjoying new insights. The struggle to preserve knowledge and transform it into future challenges, the possibilities to let it reach a broad public for the benefit of society, the social economy and the environment multiplies our powers.
• TRUST is the key – to and about us and our own, reflecting, tested attitudes and abilities and the will of people to join the good.
• Attentiveness and awareness to the needs and positions of our fellow human beings and the ability to tune into an imponderable future.

We have learned that a priori nothing is good and nothing is bad, not right or wrong, but depends on the situation, the visions and the direction – regardless of our commitment to social, economic or political guidelines Let us remain curious!

Let us move along the signposts of a penta-lemma between 

• the familiar, the familiar, the comfortable the new, the alternative, the path from the previous
• the “as well as” – i.e. the interplay (integration) of the two opposing poles,
• the “neither of the two” as that of reviewing previous considerations, of searching for the overlooked.
• Only then – and with joy – does the fifth position open up as the “completely new”

(Format from the Systemic Structural Constellation according to Matthias Varga von Kibed and Insa Sparrer, @Syst)

So many chances – so many possibilities! Such a wonderful, large selection, which opens us up, if we follow our inner knowledge, to give even the unchosen a new view.

Let’s go for it and stay alert!

We are curious for your comments and a lively discussion and of course for you (on all channels and with many other methodical approaches, which we offer as security in change) there!

Yours

Barbara Schütze

I’m an avowed layman. Not even an “amateur” (derived from Latin for “lover”) – as far as epidemology or virology is concerned. What about you?

How do you deal with all this not knowing?

Aggressive and fearful – Marshall B Rosenberg would emphatically attribute this to the desire for security, for being understood, for much of the unfulfilled.

Selfish and egomaniacal – when no one else is paying attention to you or because you are not one of those at risk, because you have to work for others and because everyone else is generally so much better off than you?

Or reflects compassionately and carefully (self-)caring?

I found a text on posture in Nora Batson and I thank my teacher and friend Matthias Varga von Kibed for transfering to me:

„I don’t care if that mask you wear is really going to keep me from getting the virus. I care that you care. The wearing, and not wearing of protective bandanas, gloves, or whatever… is a message. You know that. I know that. What sort of a world is it that day to day life takes place within?

But no. Normal is beckoning. Normal is urgent. Normal is the survival of billions of people. Normal is a reboot of the inter-systemic death machine that got us here in the first place.

Normal is a double bind. Go back to normal and we all end up in more global catastrophes, but if we do not go back to normal, it is a global catastrophe. And to say this in writing… is to trigger a thousand blades of snickersnack comments to slice the writer into coleslaw.

“That things ‘just go on’ is the catastrophe.” — Walter Benjamin

This is the dystopia. Its counterpart is the vitality of caring and tending to each relationship in each moment. In the supermarket, in the living room, in the social media space.

It is also a small hint of a path.

It is not what is said, or unsaid, but the relationships in which the saying is taking place that give the meaning.“

From: Nora Bateson „My Health Is Not My Own“

Let’s make a decision. Now. And remember: we design.

In any case, we are here for you in Toccaverde. We care.
Please feel free to call us (+43 664 232 11 32) or write to us at toccaverde.eu@toccaverde.com

It`s time to start with creativity, optimism and agile co-shaping future !

During the last week I had many nice coaching and strategy talks.

I am enthusiastic about the spirit of those who knew how to rise above themselves for a common cause, to overcome their fears, to be there for others under difficult conditions.

You are the heroes of the new VUCA world.

You keep their attitude, when it comes to Vulnerability,  Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity in our “new” world, social, business, family values and vision wise.

And right now? 

just for minutes I had been appalled by self-promoters, who turn the self-evident into a PR show in order to supposedly increase the “brand” of the company. Honestly: that goes wrong, because it is “very old fashioned”! We have become more critical and aggressive, clearer in our perception.

I don’t want to dwell too long on disappointment. Because now it is time not only to allow the gradual ramp-up of our “frozen” everyday life, but also to accompany it. For the statements of sociologists, epidemiologists, ethicists, mathematicians and economists and many more are similar in the assumption that we will continue to feel the effects of Covid19 for a while.

So what remains of the beautiful? Let’s show the profile neurotics our friendliest smile and move on to the essentials. What have we learned?

* Clear communication and cooperation, even in a remote state, are the key to success:

This includes a structured approach to the people we want to address and move with our statements and a language that can give these people in the current situation a guideline for the next few years.

* Let us say goodbye to old structures and organizations – let us live VUCA attitudes:

The pandemic created a paradox, namely prescribed spatial freedom – “spatial distancing”. How flexible, how productive and how secure is cooperation in and outside of offices? All these considerations inevitably lead to different, reflective leadership attitudes, to a reduction of control and hierarchy, and to the need for trust and clear objectives.

Will we reorganize ourselves and our work in the future? 

Since the 2008 crashes, templates have made it from the military to management literature. Now – similar to the acceptance of digital structures – executives are being thrown back on skills, tested in a world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA).

Quick decisions, processing of enormous amounts of data, acceptance of new technological possibilities and adapted or completely new goals will determine success:

Let us learn quickly which tasks have been solved much more efficiently in the peace and quiet of a home office. How are those who are not in the office involved in the project, in the task? Will all former employees be involved in this new process? Have they all been able to acquire the necessary know-how to solve tasks flexibly and without strict work instructions, taking responsibility for themselves?

Does leadership in VUCA times give us a guideline?

Let us try it:

1. change our thinking patterns, our perspectives.

2. let’s speed up our change, let’s not cling to the “good old world” but accept the disruption, a new speed of thinking, deciding and implementing, let’s learn to fail and see this as a milestone of alternative learning, let’s be happy about the support of the Digitals.

3. forward and different: Let’s make the (maybe even small) difference. Let’s give a new perspective to those who may be tried and tested (I will gladly write about the change of perspective in the near future).

* Let’s say goodbye to “old-fashioned” communication. Let’s look at how who communicated with what success. Who actually mastered “remote leadership”. 

I am happy to report on “secret” heroes who showed surprisingly strong performances in the crisis, put their own ego aside and worked on the challenge.

Renouncing fair weather and personality statements and opening up to the abilities and needs of the “target group”.

The future of communication, of dialogue lies in the benefit of what is said/heard. And also in getting new perspectives from others through dialogue and developing or redesigning one’s own points of view.

* Let’s give ourselves a new vision together, values that go beyond words and inspire those involved.

A large number of scientifically based works on sociological and psychological topics have worked on methods of the “Future Perfect”, the meditative visualization of a future worth living, from which, in retrospect, process steps, attitudes and resources can be derived, starting from Gregory Batson, Virgina Satir and Milton Erickson, Steve de Shazer, Inso Kim Berg, Robert Dilts, Matthias Varga von Kibed, Insa Sparrer and many others. This in a complex, ambiguous time.

We create our new world.  Let us start today!

If you want to know more about it, call me or write me! I am looking forward to your digital and analogue feedback.

Sincerely yours
Barbara

Author: Dr. Barbara Schütze is known for crisis management, experienced executive coach and authorized expert in the fields of consulting

You will be connected easily with our Toccaverde coaching and consulting team  by toccaverde.eu@toccaverde.com

The blogs and articles are full of them. For once, let us stop talking about crisis management strategies. So, what instead? A “paradigm shift” is looming. Values are shifting – we are “for” each other instead of “against” everything. Will it stay that way? What can we do?

Appropriate for the moment: Step by step – because life is a dance!

In many distance coaching sessions, remote strategy moderation and distance teachings the Toccaverde team analysed the current status. Not unimportant to me seems to be the fact that many of our discussion partners work for companies that guarantee infrastructural security, network energy in material and immaterial form and make it available.

3 main topics of interest add up to new solutions.

Skepticism regarding the use of digital tools was seldom present, rather it was about building “new” security, dealing with oneself and the people entrusted to one’s care and then also for the company (the “brand”).

Taking experiences from human cohesion

Entirely in line with syntactic consulting work and our intention as coaches, we asked about the positive experiences from dealing with the crisis.

Spontaneously, all our interlocutors reported a renewed gain in confidence in the abilities and active attitudes of their employees and teams. What a wonderful insight and what a wonderful new challenge to take this team spirit, this cohesion into the future! And yes, this – cohesion and identification – also has something to do with the healthy survival of the company itself.

Maybe you now reply that with the dissolution of the CoVid19 virus, the cohesion would also “crumble”? I am incorrigibly optimistic. After many, many years we wanted to understand groups, teams and organizations as parts that defined themselves against other formations, among other things, the opposite is happening today: We are increasingly forming for one thing: for our own getting through, our togetherness, our economic and cultural roof, “our” company. Just think of politics which, instead of being guided by party-political considerations, has now (more or less skillfully and unfortunately not everywhere) turned its attention to decisions and measures for people.

The paradigm shift was already apparent in society before, but now the “for” instead of “against” seems to have reached many people’s awareness. Will it stay?

How can you, all of us, make sure that it stays?

Check your own attitude: I remember a sentence by Matthias Varga von Kibed: “Invite the attitude to your home like a good friend, entertain her so well that she forgets to be a guest and may stay! 

And please do not worry: If you go your own reflected way, others will follow. This is strenuous work that defines us as human beings. And which in its sum also constitutes the values and thus the value of the company.

Developing skills and attitudes for agile steering in the fog

Phew, how often have you scraped your will straight past the intentions and goals of the peers? Certainly, less in the past weeks than before. Concern and fear for the maintenance, provision of the bare necessities with reduced resources promotes cooperation – even with those whom we “actually” did not like to suffer at all, even rejected.

The result of this is that our emotions and commitments have reduced us to doing the essential, leaving space to appreciate (and sometimes perhaps painfully expose the opposite) the abilities and will of individuals.

So what? Or better how then?

Abilities to want to understand a common direction for different futures and to understand it better and better is a first step. The next step is “communalizing”, i.e. bringing together the most diverse perspectives and exchanging them respectfully. The active, operative, first step results from the new picture.

The attitude towards it is as simple as it is challenging: openness is required. And the realization that we can only solve complex challenges together, or even better, that we can often turn complex tasks in completely new directions together.

A hint from my attitude as a coach:
Nothing is right and nothing is wrong – everything is appropriate for the moment. 

Let us not question everything right now. There will be time for that later – please expect another blog from the Toccaverde workshop. A little hint: Tools for a systemic approach to work are available from our Toccaverde team 😉

 Let’s talk with each other instead of sending news around!

Surely you have already recognized the key to all existing and future successes. It’s very simple: let’s talk to each other – listen appropriately, speak clearly and make sure we are understood. Again exhausting work ;-).

The realization of this “simple” exercise and the repeated (explanation) of one’s own statements almost always leads to new perspectives and improvements. With a common level of knowledge and willingness, it will be possible to make the creeks run again and the “economy” buzz even after an ice age.

 Appropriate for the moment: go step by step – because life is a dance!

What moves you? What questions, worries are you dealing with right now? Let’s talk: write to me or call me – the professionals of Toccaverde are there for you!