magnus

Corona has changed a lot and brought with it very special burdens, especially for school life.
The district of Heinsberg took this as an opportunity to invite pupils, teachers, school administrators, school psychologists and social workers from the district’s schools to a joint dialogue at eye level in Erkelenz on 14 March. In addition to all the impositions that this difficult time has demanded of many, the aim of this event was above all to recognise needs and potentials for shaping schools in the future: Were there also valuable experiences, experiences from the Corona time? What did we learn about ourselves and others? And what possibilities and opportunities can we make fruitful for future school development – with and without Corona – and how? I had the pleasure of co-designing this all-day interactive dialogue event with the group “Back to life” (an initiative of committed school psychologists and school social workers from the Heinsberg district). In the run-up to the planning, we had hoped to be able to hold the event in happier times. However, having already been postponed once, the sad events of the Ukraine war and the continuing high Corona numbers make it clear how urgent and important it is to draw our lessons from times of crisis in order to shape a more liveable, crisis-proof future.

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Functioning feedback processes perform like oxygen on the vitality of organisations. Agile organisations in particular need cooperative leadership and sustainable team structures. Yet many teams and leaders shy away from feedback, especially if they think they have to convey or receive “difficult messages”. Deficit-oriented evaluation standards often contribute to the fact that feedback conversations and 360° feedback processes are missed, avoided or even feared in the practice of many institutions and companies. The Positive Leadership approach shows evidence-based ways to increase satisfaction, motivation and thus productivity of teams with the appreciative principles of PERMA Lead.We want to get to the bottom of the beliefs of good leadership:

• Why is leadership via “Facts, Force, Fear” a discontinued model, even though it is still part of the sad practice in many organisations?
• Is it not the task of leadership to clearly address problems and to say what is not going well?
• Doesn’t positive leadership run the risk of fostering an atmosphere of harmony sauce, where nothing critical is allowed to be addressed and every failure is dressed up as a success?
• And how can 360° feedback contribute to making it more difficult for narcissists to rise in organisations?

I would be happy to give a short introduction to working with Positive Leadership and share practical experiences with the PERMA-Lead model: How can the principles of Positive Leadership be made tangible? How can behavioural changes in the sense of Positive Leadership be promoted and measured with the PERMA-Lead Model? What added value can tools such as the PERMA-Lead Profiler and the PERMA-Lead 360° Feedback bring? And where are the limits of this approach?

ZURÜCK

Especially in times of crisis, it becomes clear how much pressure there is on people in politics and administration to take responsibility for difficult decisions. In such situations, organizations often tend to consult experts. But complex tasks cannot be solved by the expertise of individuals alone. Participatory dialog formats offer a variety of ways to design agile processes that integrate not only expertise but also the experiences and perspectives of those affected. This not only enhances the quality of decisions, but also promotes identification and sustainability in the implementation of decisions. In the discussion paper “Democracy is more than a method – competence development for more democracy in everyday work” for the Progressive Center, I took a closer look at what competence development is needed to be able to shape these processes.

Let me know if you are interested in the English version of the article.

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In cooperation with zukunftsfähig e.V., I offer you a team action that has an even more lasting effect than mere reflection and talking about ourselves and is therefore doubly meaningful: We plant trees as a team action and let ourselves get inspired by the holistic design principles of permaculture for the development process as a team. Team spirit is created when everyone is united behind a common task. By planting trees together, we create something that will stay and flourish, as a significant contribution to our ecosystem and as a unifying, insightful experience for the common everyday work: corridor enrichment in the literal sense of the word. Action and accompanying dialogue remain in a healthy relationship, because the green thumb replaces the moral index finger. Holistic thinking, planning and acting strengthens the resilience of your team and organization. Strengthen your community and ecosystem!

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Rituals? For some, this sounds like a boring ceremonial speech or a tiresome obligatory event: a birthday drink, a Christmas event or an anniversary celebration. But what distinguishes a meaningful ritual from a meaningless, ritualistic routine? How can it contribute to the dramaturgical design of your daily work routine? What potential does a dramaturgical design of your daily work routine offer? Rhythmization and rituals help to bring your processes into flow and to promote potentials in your organization. Counteract the stress of deadlines with rhythm! Personal and organizational routines can be large or small, formal, ceremonial or informal. As a coach and keynote speaker, I see many opportunities to promote the development of potential in your organization with coherent rituals and a rhythmization of your process flows. Rhythm replaces power. Use these possibilities to make implicit knowledge more fruitful in your organization.

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