Being between trapezes

It is winter...

I have noticed in recent weeks that my body, and also my mind, needed first to enjoy the fact that the first year of our MSc has now been completed. I am actually pretty proud of the (interim) result. I remember how it felt the first time to get on a plane to England and my first cab to Roffey park Institute. A certain amount of tension and excitement about something new. How will it be, who are the other students, am I able to communicate well in English? In the meantime it has become normal and (when the planes are no longer flying because of snow) I can even cross the channel by train ....

In the second year, the emphasis will be even more on self-management. There are no mandatory interim deliverables for the coming year. It is up to me to indicate what will be delivered on a monthly basis. The pressure from Roffey was not always pleasant, but it did give structure and clarity to the program. In a way, that was easy to follow. The new phase assumes I have an idea for myself what I want to do in the coming year and when.... Only then I can make some sort of planning and divide the subject into smaller chunks.

From our last learning set I got some feedback on my Development Agreement: it seems really limited in scope (metaphors, narratives) and the concern was that “it will be all a bit ‘light’ and positive without challenging yourself critically”. So, the last weeks I have been thinking about how to make sure I actually stretch myself and get the most out of the MSc. This process was confusing, searching and a matter of trial and error.  I experienced that I find it hard to deal with that uncertainty. I feel happy again if I see some anchor points to support me and have a better view of what needs to be done. Important for me in this phase of the design process is to be able to spar with someone on a regular basis.

Not only in case of my study I have to challenge myself. At the moment Annelies and I are organizing everything to sell our house. A stressful and turbulent process (respect Simon!). We do not yet know the place we will going to live (temporarily) till our new house has been built.  Also in my job I am in a transition period. I just started at the UC Group, where the team is in a process of discovering “what and where we want to do something in the context of learning & development”.

I hope you understand that it is instructive but also quite difficult for me to struggle through this phase of transition. In this ‘winter-period’ many thoughts went endlessly through my head. It felt like being between trapezes. Last week somebody asked me the question: “When you get your degree and you look back over the course, what has given you the most satisfaction?”

In answer to this question I would answer that what makes me happy is to see the development and growth of people. I am also a visual thinker and I love creativity. Hence my urge for the 'Symbolic' frame. I was born with sensitivity but have a black-and-white father. Isn’t there a similar pattern in organisations? On the one hand organizations are looking for clarity and clear frameworks, but on the other hand (within these frameworks) there is a need for space to move and explore. I am happy to design interventions which guide and engage people to seek and utilize that space. It is my modest contribution to make organizations (and the world) a little better.

I am also happy when I get positive feedback and appreciation, such as the message (from the External Examiner, Sussex University) Suzanne sent a few weeks ago ("all students were producing work to Masters level standard").

I am happy with my curiosity and my hunger to try out new things. Have you ever heard of the Organic ScoreCard? In the UC Group consultancy we will use these cards to look at personal development and team development. I am going to see if I can also use this instrument to determine my own development...

Apart from all the expectations that others have of me, I have thought about what makes me happy. To choose the things I like is an important point of attention for me, because I am sensitive and I have the tendency to please others. So (learning to) listen to my own wishes is something that can help me to determine the right direction for year 2.

It becomes Spring …

After winter comes spring! There is (since last week) something beautiful blooming that I would like to share with you.

From UC learning & development we want to focus primarily on middle management of our clients. Our assumption is that empowering middle managers is key to effective change implementation, see for instance Johnson & Härtel’s (2014) interesting discussion paper on this subject. I have years of experience with the management of this ‘group’ in my period at PostNL, therefore, the choice to focus on middle management sounds logical to me.

So, my first idea to challenge myself further in year 2 (as an addition on my Development Agreement) was something with the development of middle management in a company. I had a conversation with the operational director of Montapacking, a fast growing e-commerce company that executes the logistics for 600 webshop-clients. In 2017 there was a 100% organic growth! To keep the implementation on the right track there is a need to develop the middle managers. What exactly is needed could be a good research question… but then there was my meeting with the Managing Director of UC Group.

I had already scheduled the appointment with her in February. But due to illness the appointment was rescheduled to the end of March. My goal was mainly to see if and how I could align my work in the second year of the MSc with the needs and work of the UC Group. But during the conversation we came to the conclusion that it would be challenging to look at the UC Group itself. It is challenging as the UC Group to look at clients, and conclude they have to change and strengthen themselves in all kinds of ways, but what about ourselves? How do we as an organization respond to the ‘tsunami of the new technology’ that will overwhelm us over the next few years? How can we grow as a network of professionals, in collaboration, in co-creation, in craftsmanship and in entrepreneurship? How can we deal with the tension between autonomy (of the individual professional) and the mutual coordination (as a network)? How do we create space for experimenting and learning?

What would it be like to brainstorm with clients about this, for example? Which way do they look at it? What are their stories? What do they think is necessary? And suddenly there was a challenging, interesting idea for research formed. It just popped out of nowhere. I think it’s a great opportunity! It becomes spring!