| The initial steps in building
effective human teams vary, depending upon the nature of the initial group dynamics,
the culture(s) of the members, and the skills of the facilitator(s) and team members.
There are certain principles that apply, however, regardless of the way that they are
implemented. The objectives of facilitation are:
- Bring people's attention to one another as individuals, not
as "representatives" of a cause or organization.
- Encourage the individuals to discover what they share in
values and emotions, and begin forming a holistic
goal.
- Bring into focus the points of
disagreement/differences to be examined for understanding, not for
debate.
- As understanding increases, search for and note the common
bases of many issues that previously differentiated the "sides".
- With respect to "problems" look for common causes;
where common "causes" are not found, identify how one can determine if a
procedure to solve any of the problems is beneficial or not in early stages of the
response (monitoring for early responses).
- Begin examining options
for moving to the holistic goal, and evaluate their expected and possible effects without
regard to "who's idea they were".
- Encourage new ideas and options to be brought to the forum,
particularly as a result of "brainstorming" when presently recognized options
have significant limitations or undesirable side effects.
- Select the best procedure including considerations of
"reversibility" or ability to change approaches if the expected effects are not
realized. If the actual results were "bad," is it possible to
"reverse" them? This is an alternative way of changing movement away from the
goal to moving toward the holistic goal.
- Take action, and immediately and continuously monitor the results achieved.
- Re-examine and re-analyze when the results are straying from
the expectations that lead to the holistic goal.
There are several ways that people have learned to use
management objectives. In this class one is taught in an elementary form that illustrates
the processes, but also which is highly effective in "real world" circumstances.
Holistic management is not a "system" with fixed procedure to follow, but
requires learning to effectively work with processes of relationships -- human (personal,
economic, cultural, technological) and ecological (processes and interspecific
relationships) -- as a single "whole" where changes in any one part affect the
entire system, observed in a variety or responses. |