A few weeks ago, one of my clients, who works in one
of the most prominent organisations in the U.K. (and therefore a very high-pressure environment), beautifully articulated one of the differences that our work together had made.
"I've realised that when we started, I was
stuck in a mindset where I felt like I had no choices; but now I realise I have agency and that has totally changed the way I interact with people at work." How had this change come about? It had happened as he had grown in professional clarity and self-awareness and become a more perceptive observer of himself and his patterns of thinking and being at work. However succesful you are, and sometimes the more succesful you are, the easier it is to get caught up in the day-to-day
and to become blind to your recurring patterns at work - especially the less helpful and more negative patterns.
As I work with teams, organisations and leaders, one of the things that happens is that they
start to become more observant of their own patterns in healthy and often surprising ways.
It's worth noting that it's not so much that I point these patterns out* to clients and more that I help them to build the
skills and perspective to notice patterns for themselves at work when I'm not there. This level of clarity at work is key because there is no better precursor to meaningful, positive change than something you notice for yourself (sometimes with a little help).
The moment you hear for yourself the tone you use with a particular colleague in meetings or observe for yourselves patterns of team interaction or unhelpful organisational norms to which you've become blindly accustomed is the moment meaningful change becomes possible.
Someone once observed that "Either we break our patterns or our patterns break us!" And, while that might be a bit melodramatic, it is true that unhelpful and hitherto unobserved patterns are often a key obstacle to progress for us and others with whom we work.
We'll explore some ways to disrupt and change those patterns in another newsletter but, in the meantime, why not resolve to observe your patterns at work over the next couple of weeks? Perhaps a way of thinking to which you default
when things are challenging or a way of relating to someone you work with or a team or organisational behaviour which you've all just fallen into. Perhaps it served you well for a time but is worth re-evaluating now.
You can
do it on your own or as a team, perhaps observing recurring patterns in your meetings or the way you interact with external stakeholders.
In terms of how to do it, you might use a very simple Event -
Behaviour tool - "When X happens, I/ we tend to Y...". An example might be, "When we hit busy periods in the cycle (month end/ term end/ financial year end/ big client intakes, product and project delivery), we tend to stop communicating as a leadership team" or "When I feel under pressure, I take on even more work...." (counterintuitive but more common than you might think!)
The only other thing to bear in mind, is that, rather like the Ideas layer of ONION, you should remain open and without judgement as you do the noticing. Your observation should be just that - a simple observation - no solutions, no judgement.
Why not try asking over the next couple of weeks, "What recurring patterns do I/ we notice in my/ our practice at work?" and note them down. That should be enough to start with but, if you're keen to take things
further, you might ask (still without judgement), "Where and how might that pattern of thinking/ acting/ speaking/ coping have started?" A good example is a number of my clients who are only just noticing habits and patterns which they fell into during the COVID lockdowns which are maybe less relevant or helpful now.
Once you start to observe a pattern, maybe write down or discuss what you notice, using the Event - Behaviour tool or any other framework which works for you. As always, let me know how it goes.
Next up, a new word and a potentially new way of thinking about how you handle change at work.
