How to Create Positive Organizations

robertequinn–Uncategorized–

In the last blog entry, I wrote of a friend in a high position contemplating a move to a more positive organization. She was feeling “drawn” away. Shortly after our conversation, a former student contacted me. She is in a low-level position and she is feeling the need to leave her conventional organization. She is feeling “pushed” away.
We explored many alternatives. Then the conversation went in a surprising direction. I asked how she, in her relatively low position, might turn her present, conventional organization into a positive organization. To her great credit, she did not run from the question. She shared a vision of calling together a “coalition of the willing.” I usually speak of this as “gathering the positive energizers.”
She shared some ideas of what she could say to such a group and what she could invite them to do. As she did, she considered the danger of being seen as a rebel leading a mutiny.
I kept asking questions. We explored things the coalition of the willing might do that were innocent, cumulative, and unassailable. The list grew. As we ended our time together, she was in a different frame of mind. She was seeing her conventional organization as place wherein she could experiment and learn how to build a positive organization from the bottom up. She was feeling excitement about the possibility of become a positive leader.
Reflection

  • How often do you consider changing the organization from the bottom up?
  • If you were gathering a coalition of the willing, who would be in the room?
  • What would your coalition do that was innocent, cumulative, and unassailable?
  • How could we use this passage to create a more positive organization?

2 comments on “How to Create Positive Organizations”

  1. I love the idea of looking at your current organization as an “experiment” in learning how to build a positive organization from the ground up. That way, it puts you in a learning organization headspace and it doesn’t matter if a certain practice doesn’t work. You just learn from it and move on to the next, and the next…

    1. I loved this comment: “That way, it puts you in a learning organization headspace and it doesn’t matter if a certain practice doesn’t work. You just learn from it and move on to the next, and the next..”
      This is what researcher call the growth mindset. It predicts good things happening to you and to the people around you. Thanks so much.

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