FINAL WORD
Notice the implications here : even if you have a sense of who you are , you are ‘ authentic ’ – however you may define that – you are still going to be working in a context , namely culture change , where predictability and control are illusory . The need is for capabilities such as :
• Getting comfortable with not knowing – and working with the shame and anxiety that may arise
• Courage – to act in the face of not knowing
• Getting comfortable with nuance and ambivalence – organisational cultures are awash with this
• Experimentation – culture work is inherently experimental , and some will fail . So you need to test and learn
• Leadership practice – working on how you show up , to better understand the impact you have
• Dialogue and sense making skills – culture work is ultimately all about sensing and responding to patterns and stories
And so on .
But , but , but authenticity !
Becoming more authentic is , therefore , down to whether you are up for engaging in the useful discomfort that all deep personal learning may entail . Without that , you are probably not being authentic , or working with the reality of who you are or the realness of your context . To be clear , this work is not always easy , and it can be deeply revealing , rewarding , messy , uncomfortable , revelatory , joyous and more . If you are open to the possibility of all of these , you are probably in touch with some of your authentic realness and better placed to deal with cultural issues such as blaming or bullying behaviours . Without that ? Not so much .
Steve Hearsum is an experienced consultant , supervisor and developer of change practitioners , the founder of Edge + Stretch and the author of No Silver Bullet : Bursting the bubble of the organisational quick fix ( out now ). x
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