Organisational Perspectives

It is important to consider and attend to all four quadrants of the Organisational Perspectives and to the interactions and interdependencies between them.

Attending to these perspectives in planning, leading, organising, reviewing, and decision-making is critical to your success.

Ken Wilber’s Integral Framework was a starting point for our approach with Organisational Perspectives.
Wilber created a grid with two axes: individual - collective (top to bottom) and interior/ subjective - exterior/ objective (left to right).

Used as an integrated whole, this creates a powerful systemic approach to organising and transformation.

Considering a situation or problem from each of the four Organisational Perspectives and then considering the systemic interdependencies between those perspectives - because they are all occurring in every organisational situation, always, whether we like it or not - assists us to take a comprehensive and coherent view of organisational situations and the possibilities and risks inherent in them.

It is the powerful integration of the individual and the collective, the tangible and the intangible, that differentiates our approach to organisational work and organisational transformations.

Why consider intangible perspectives?

We all have an inner-world that is mostly invisible from the outside. Yet this inner-world drives our thoughts, feelings and actions. (behaviours).

Inner work is about increasing self-awareness so you can more consciously chose your behaviour (move from reactive to creative living). Greater mastery of this inner-world, helps you to contribute more fully to the outside world.

This intangible work is also about the collective, the group, the team. Often called 'culture', this is the realm of language, meaning, status, belonging, relationships, identity, and security.

We focus on these intangible aspects of organisations:

Increasing self-awareness which helps improve self-regulation - becoming less reactive and more creative in interactions with others.
Helping people clarify values and operate with integrity - articulating what you stand for in the world, and aligning your thinking, decision-making, and behaviour.
Increasing emotional acuity and emotional intelligence; helping people make better decisions, integrating feeling with thinking.
Complexifying thinking to match the complexity of the problem being solved.
The creation and development of robust and high-contact professional relationships for organisational resilience.
Equipping teams to explore what they want and do not want in their interactions and working together; (re)defining behavioural norms.
Assisting to surface and resolve tensions, conflicts, and unhelpful power and political dynamics.
Helping teams to craft more generative and compelling stories, symbols, and narratives about what it means to be a part of this team and a part of an organisation.

What are the tangible perspectives?

With greater self- and other-awareness, people still need to develop skills to better collaborate with each other and to solve the complex problems.

Our more tangibly-focused work supports individuals and teams to move from conventional, socialised, fear-based reactivity to constructive, interdependent, and strategic creativity.

We focus on these tangible perspectives:

Teaching and supporting practice of interpersonal, relational skills and providing the knowledge and social processes to support collaborative decision-making.
Knowledge of organising principles and practices: teaching models, concepts, and practices about the principles of structuring and systematising work.
Organising 360-degree behavioural feedback and individual debriefs and action planning to address limiting behavioural patterns and enhance constructive and creative behaving.

We facilitate teams to

Clarify the purpose/ intent, the strategy/ positioning, and the performance/ governance frameworks and processes that teams need to deliver the outcomes of their organisaion
Review and develop the structure/ functions to deliver their strategy and the organisational and operational systems, ways of working, and roles needed to deliver the organisation's purpose
Understand the capability required to address their work-complexity, and lead, work together, and collaborate most effectively.