The final week of the year often produces a hyper-awareness of time and transition — when the past and the future converge in the moment of one year ending and the next beginning. Denise calls this a magical moment offering wisdom and hope, strength and courage. This is the moment you can declare your current “stance.”
Stance embraces the potential for integrating a full range of experiences and ideas when developing a new and robust perspective.
From the dictionary definition:
1. The attitude or position of a standing person or animal, especially the position assumed by an athlete preparatory to action.2. Mental posture; point of view.
In Complexity Works! the Navigation Process serves as a guide for both understanding past patterns of actions and engaging with current and new patterns for change. Each phase of the Navigation Process is highlighted by questions — recognizing the emerging nature of the process that drives assessment, prioritization, action and learning.
We encourage clients to use the Navigation Process to help frame a team’s stance before ending one project and embarking on a new project. Like the ending of one year and the beginning of the next, this critical process of reflection offers collective insight into the influence(s) of past and future actions on the organization.
So we offer the following suggestion — use the Navigation Process as your team’s year end review.
- Have each member of the team answer the questions for themselves individually.
- Discuss the questions as a group from the overall team’s perspective.
- Keep track of the overall outcomes of the discussion.
- Repeat during the first two weeks of the year.
We contend that the practice of reflection and action is the real power of developing a stance. At Complexity Space Consulting we wish all the insight, innovation and change needed to make a positive difference in your organization.
