Unpublished manuscript
_______________
Freeing
Our Voices
_______________
A
Facilitator's
Way
of
Leading
_______________
Tony Page
November 2001
Foreword
Hi. This is Tony. I say so
because the book you are about to read could be pretty confusing. I’m the one
who starts and ends the book. I am the narrator, and there are lots of other
voices in it, and different pieces – prose poems, plain prose and exercises.
It’s a workbook of sorts with things for you to read, reflect on and do.
I wrote a book before. Eight
years ago in fact. I find it’s a pretty absorbing experience that takes you
over. Writing the first book took me over during the quiet time in 1995 at the
end of a major project when I had nothing else in my order book. I’m
self-employed you see and only work when clients give me projects to do… so
when I write a book I’m making work for myself. Hoping for a reaction, voices
to come back in response… you could call that a return.
The last time round the book
didn’t really work as a piece of marketing for my business. Arguably it helped
my colleagues (competitors?) more than it helped me. They are the people who
bought it, not my clients. But it was wonderfully fulfilling and helped me to
grow a bit.
This time I was writing to
fill another void. Things sort of went quiet on me after the twin towers went
down in
Please read and enjoy this if
you are a person who wants to find your voice.
But the people I’m really
writing this for are people who want to make a further step into the mysteries
of how people create success together. It’s not so much for people who feel
stifled themselves, but for leaders who need to figure out how to contribute
the best of themselves while getting the best from others.
As a facilitator this is what
I help leaders to do. This is a facilitator telling his secrets… and once again
hoping for a reaction and a return. I have not found a publisher yet and for
now I have decided to publish it on my website. The indications are this is
once again going to be enjoyed more by facilitators and than leaders. Time will
tell.
Tony Page
Imagine…
… there's a cork
down your throat…
… that stops you…
… saying…
… exactly what you feel
in your heart.
The words you speak…
… miss their mark…
…
sometimes getting ignored…
…
and occasionally upsetting people.
Or the words you want…
…just don't arrive…
…so you cover up.
Either way
you didn't
"get through"
properly…
… as if you speak
a foreign language
called
phoney baloney.
And other people
are speaking nonsense
back to you.
But you've learned
to live like this.
Then a day
arrives when…
… the cork is drawn out…
… and your way of speaking
shifts…
… as you realise that…
…you better serve yourself
and others…
… by stepping up a level.
Instead of phoney baloney…
… you start
speaking out
what is true
for you…
… exactly as you FEEL it
personally…
… in the present moment…
… knowing this is a gift…
… that both unburdens you…
… and liberates other
people…
… to speak back their
heartfelt truth…
… bringing new energy to
your team…
… bigger contributions from
each individual…
… and raising the
intelligence,
performance
and possibility
for your organisation.
What then?
Who cares?
Maybe
you don't care? I do. Why?
Well
there are professional reasons and personal reasons. As a facilitator and
organisation consultant I'm making a professional judgement that if you take a
bold step, asking people to pop their corks, or if you prefer, to crawl out
from underneath an invisible inherited ten ton weight, it will benefit them and
the organisation they work for. Cutting through the confusion about leading and
facilitating a team today, then it is about this: being uncorked. I hope to
show you both why and how.
Personally,
I have very strong feelings about the way we often fail to engage people in
their work. I won't go right into it yet, but I'll just say that through my own
upbringing I find myself noticing and identifying strongly with those who lack
a voice. I find myself feeling angry on their behalf. I find myself empathising
deeply with their fear that saying something wrong and unacceptable will be
following by the most damning act of all: rejection.
When
Helen tells me it's hard being married to someone who is snappy, irritable and
moody, I find it coincides with times I am trying to get something out,
expressed, voiced. I'm know I'm not alone in this, and it happens at work too.
What is the
business case for a dream?
This
is a compelling (to me) dream about the benefits of being uncorked, and of
letting others be uncorked. We all know a dream can give inspiration, direction
and meaning. But this is more than a dream: it is already starting to happen,
in pockets, in diverse organisations, from time to time, albeit only in a
rather muddled and awkward sort of way so far.
How
it works is that through uncorking we create a special attitude in an
organisation, like a hand knocking on each person's front door, inviting them,
making them WANT to participate, to include more, to give more. When you
encourage this, instead of the noisy disorder you might expect with everyone
shouting at once, something remarkable happens: a new order emerges, with
higher levels of energy and responsibility.
With
this special attitude an organisation rarely needs change programmes because it
has become change capable in the moment: adaptive, alive, creative, proactive
in its evolving environment.
Few
people have come to realise that their job is to uncork: to voice the unspoken
truths that hang behind and drive each conversation. Few attend to how they
tactically claim, share and surrender space during the flow of conversation to
support this sense-making aim, to leave all present feeling included and heard.
This
is why leaders like you need facilitators like me to help them work with their
teams.
Increasingly
leaders are realising that they want to be more like facilitators to their
people, but
have
not yet found out the magic facilitators use to spark the more intelligent and
committed "take" that is possible from a fully wired-up team.
The
practical key to this is that any person - you included, any team, any kind of
organisation, a bank branch, hamburger chain, hotel, or a government
department, can start from a single, simple question "Where's Your
Voice?", and the answers unfold from there.
How to use
this book
In every mythical tale from Jack and the Beanstalk to Star Wars, there is a hero who receives a Call To Adventure (my theatre director colleague Andy Harmon taught me this as we researched how people lead change in organisations). Sometimes the Call comes from deep within. Sometimes from God. Sometimes from a mentor figure.
In
this book, you are the hero, and the first section is your Call To Adventure.
If it has the desired effect it will, at the very least, prick your conscience.
As you read, I invite you to consider a simple question: Where's Your Voice?,
asking this of yourself and others around you. Not once, but time and time
again from different angles.
I
invite you to examine how you are using your own voice: are you one who tends
to dominate and drown out others? Are you one who is more likely to be drowned?
Whether you talk more or less than others, behind this is a further question:
What truth are you holding onto that is so far unvoiced?
You
can ask the "Where's Your Voice?" question in at least three useful
ways in any everyday work situation:
1. Ask it of yourself ie. what are you experiencing right now and
how are you giving voice to this?
2. Ask it of another person ie.
what are they experiencing and how are they giving voice to this?
3. Step back and explore the
voicing pattern ie who is contributing, how are the voices moving in your
conversation, team or organisation?
The
answers may start to be illuminating. Unless you're in a truly exceptional
organisation, you'll be unearthing new sources of potential that you can pursue
in part two.
Rarely
in mythical tales is the Call responded to immediately by the hero. More often
it is ignored, misunderstood, denied, avoided time and again. An inner struggle
ensues with the hero asking shall I/shan't I?, can I/can't I?, am I OK as I
am?, going round in circles for a time.
This
might happen to you.
Once
the potential of Voice is clear in your mind then, you could say, you have
"received the Call" and you have a purpose for crossing the threshold
into the unknown and more challenging realms of part two.
This
means embarking on an active adventure: a series of tests and ordeals, applying
the Voice Proposition, finding your own voice and other voices, developing your
own proposition. Through your struggles in this "workout" section you
might uncover a special leadership wisdom, to bring back and use.
Finally,
in part three, you gain the reward, or "payback" by applying and
passing on the wisdom you have gained, to develop your team's performance to a
new level, and as you do this "Calling" other people "to
Adventure". Your three part cycle is then completed and through the Call
you have given to others, the cycle can repeat, endlessly, giving added impetus
to a civilising force in your team, your organisation and the world, that has
been emerging in fits and starts since the beginning of time.
My
role, when you look at this longer timescale, is small and temporary, just as
ultimately yours may be. I will try to engage you, give you some activities,
examples, readings and challenges. I will guide you as best I can. But
ultimately, you are on your own, to do, to grapple, to discover, to gain or
lose from the Voice principle.
Are
you ready? Then let's get started.
________________________
Contents
That's
your belly voice!
Read
this and notice the voice
What
was all that about?
Bringing
out your voice
You
and I both know that…
Creating
a clearing
The Voice Proposition part
one - the BIG CHOICE part
Listening
to the wake-up call
Stopping
people being small
Facing
up to strong reactions
Noticing
your flight into "business speak"
The Voice Proposition part
two - the CONSEQUENCES part
Learning
the second language
Creating
good conditions for directness
Crossing
the threshold
Test
1 Checking out your reactions
Test
2: Now I am aware of…
Test
3: Finding the gap
Test
4: Spotting stuck conversations
Test
5: Awakening your voice
Test
6: Drawing out the other voices
Test
7: Proposition erupting
Test
8: Confronting the bad guys
Test
9: The spontaneous shift
The Dance of the Blind
Reflex (Oshry)
Test
10: Awakening your team
Returning
Losing
the plot…
Recovering
the plot… uncovering the self-organising principle
Growing
your Third Order team
Freeing
up your organisation
Getting
well connected
Reframing
your role as a leader
Rebuilding
from ground zero
Getting
to grips with the change thing - the reality principle
Becoming
partners in a larger team
Figuring it out for yourself