“Practise, practise, practise!” My teacher is convinced that based on our years of experience and through our own inspiration, ongoing exercise will lead us to developing our own style and our own practice.
Fabulous invitation, a little scary too. And yet, it totally fits the journey I embarked upon when I set up The Butterfly Effect – strategies for transformation. I knew I wanted to use my years of experience as a change agent, combine it with my communications expertise to guide companies and organisations in their change processes. When I started this journey, I did not exactly know where it would take me. I just knew I did not necessarily wanted to continue to do the things that I had always done. I wanted to build on my experience as a communications professional and where appropriate use that, but I wanted to concentrate on change.
I got introduced to the philosophy and (Lewis Method of) Deep Democracy, which looks for the wisdom that lives with the group, that invites the ‘no’ and aims to bring what lives in the subconscious into the conscious. My training and certification in Deep Democracy has led me to approach people, processes, conflict and resistance differently. Tough issues are an invitation, the infamous ‘no in the room’ by definition a ‘role’ that is present in any organisation. Taking time to start a meeting and doing so in a non-traditional way are examples that can lead to a better outcome. In the past I heard the suggestion to ‘be vulnerable’, observing that it was merely a ‘buzz-word’. Nowadays I experience true vulnerable ways of working and see how it leads to real cooperation.
New ways of systemic constellations – coaching in an intuitive way
Deep Democracy is pretty cognitive and ‘word heavy’, even though it uses the ‘energy’ in a system (a group, a team, a gathering). I felt motivated to practise more intuitive methods that would use words even more sensitively. That led me to start my new course ‘New ways of systemic constellations – coaching in an intuitive way’. This course teaches us to work systemically. You get trained to discover what lives within a system and to use this. Furthermore, it addresses the micro and macro. It looks at guiding the individual perspective as well as dealing with issues at an organisational and societal level. I’m hooked. I am looking forward to the third module, of the seven that mark the training, which will be taught in ten days. In between the modules we practise in small groups. Our teacher emphasises that we should apply what we have learned so far, into our current work.
Recently I was triggered to do exactly that. I had been invited to conduct an evening’s session, introducing people to Deep Democracy. The group present consisted of people happily challenging one another, who enjoy resistance and have curiosity as one of their values. During the session I felt I had to be true to the Deep Democracy way of working, but realised that I could have suggested doing a constellation. I did not think we had sufficient time to do this prudently and yet, it was a worthy revelation.
It felt like an invitation to myself to further develop my ‘Butterfly Effect-approach’, combining Deep Democracy, new constellations and communications. My method uses understanding to reach meaning and action. Through a combination of working cognitively and intuitively, we will get to insights that lead to new solutions. Additionally, when working with my clients, I aim for connection (at individual level as well as between people). After all, good cooperation leads to action.
Is your organisation or company going through a change process? Are you dealing with resistance or are you dealing with dilemma’s yourself? I would love to work (practise) with you. Are you looking for someone to guide the change process, a retreat or a ceremony and would you like to do this through the Butterfly Effect approach, then do let me know. I am a strong convert of co-creation, so we can create something together, that might fit you or your organisation. Last, but certainly not least, I plan to organise workshops from spring onwards.
Change is coming, plenty ahead. Good start of 2020! I look forward to hearing from you.