Organizational Change Based On Arnold Beisser's Paradoxical Theory Of Change

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

To begin with, it is important to say a few words about A. Beisser's theory of change. In the original language, it reads as follows: change occurs when someone becomes who he is, but not when he tries to become who he is not … Change does not occur as a result of forced attempts by an individual to change or another person to change him, it occurs if the individual spends time and effort to be who he is - i.e. be fully involved in your current position.

Beisser's theory fully reflects the life cycle of an organization. What is the life of the organization? What are the changes for? How to carry them out? These and many similar questions are asked by progressive leaders around the world.

Let's try to consider an organization as a living human organism, which has a head, arms, internal organs, etc. The organization also includes the departments of sales, marketing, personnel, etc.

Each department, like a human organ, performs only its inherent function. For example: of course, you can walk on the floor with your hands, and the HR department can also come up with advertising slogans. But the effectiveness of such actions will be at least low, if not destructive. Just like the human psyche, the organization functions according to a certain principle: mental function Id (responsible for energy, impulse, excitement) -corresponds to the activities of the marketing and finance departments.

Function Personality (responsible for structuring experience, security, clarity in actions) - the work of the personnel department, legal, service, security service.

Function Ego (responsible for making decisions, actions) - carried out by the sales and fitness departments.

Finally, the function Self (integration, integrity, unity) is the task of the CEO, personnel training and development department.

With an ideal picture, a person with a certain dominant mental function will work in the appropriate department. In this case, with good internal motivation and proper stimulation, we get a complementary team leading to overall success.

In its development, any organization goes through various stages, and every day it is faced with changes (structural, production, personnel, etc.). They cannot be avoided because the environment, the market for goods and services, the needs of consumers are changing. A. Einstein said: “life is like riding a bicycle, in order to maintain balance, you need to move”.

Real change occurs when an organization realizes who it is now, at this stage, and not when it tries to become what it is not now. You can draw a parallel to organizational changes, for example, with the preparation of a professional squash player.

For example, a squash player, being at some stage of his development, let's say his level corresponds to the M1 category, he already knows something on the court. He can hold the racket correctly, move around, make precise strikes of various strengths and lengths, and read the opponent's actions. But still, his skill is clearly not enough to fully compete with top-level players. Their shots are more accurate and stronger, they see what is happening on the court better, they approach the ball faster and more correctly.

We can imagine such a young organization, which already has or does not yet have a clear structure, vision and mission. It is already something, a functioning organism.

Naturally, for its development and adaptation to a changing environment, it is necessary to introduce changes. So the player, in order to improve his class, needs constant training. A player who has a great desire to win against a more eminent counterpart can act on the court in two ways: try to play in a way that he still does not know how (try to hit the ball accurately and strongly at the same time, send the ball to the nickname with a technically difficult shot from an awkward position, complete the rally very quickly, etc.). The problem with this player is that he is trying to become a winner without yet possessing the same qualities as his opponent, i.e. to become what you are not yet. And as a rule, it loses. It is important for him to realize at what point in his development he is now.

A well-known Ukrainian player and coach, Viktor Kovalchuk in his trainings: “Play what is convenient for you, approach the ball correctly, control the length and accuracy of the shot. Only gradually can you add strength, perform technically difficult strikes."

Change does not happen through violence, directives, attempts to persuade employees. Any structure is ambivalent about change, on the one hand, wanting to change something, but on the other, often reacting with resistance to the new. It is important to consider any resistance as an absolutely normal phenomenon, as the body's desire to preserve itself in more familiar conditions of existence. If a player has a pain in some part of the body, he may not pay attention to it, he may temporarily anesthetize or perform other manipulations. Of course, the result will be achieved in the short term. But further consequences of inattention to a sick body can lead to the appearance of chronic injuries, fatigue, and as a result, a general decrease in working capacity. So in the organization, the main condition for making changes is an open clarification of all points of view of employees "for" and "against". Carrying out holistic diagnostics, correlation of the desired results with the current reality. Creation of the possibility of direct access to information about changes, to reduce the level of anxiety and resistance to the unknown. A separate nuance may be the lack of resistance as such. After all, resistance can be called differently - the reality of the client.

In squash, there are many racket grips and striking techniques. And each variation can have its own effectiveness. Someone intercepts the racket when hitting the right or left, others twist the wrist, etc. if a given technique allows a player to be productive, then as a rule his reality will be that it will be right to play “like this”. An organization is composed of many of the visions of its employees. And often they differ, even directly contradict each other. To begin with, it is important to understand and perceive the vision of another person here and now, no matter how absurd it may seem to us. And only after that it is necessary to begin to negotiate and coordinate the actions of all participants in the changes. The absence of any resistance will be an alarming marker - what is going on? Energy still exists and will find a way out in the form of layoffs, bureaucratization, or abuse of office.

By putting into practice the Gestalt contact cycle, we can explore the field step by step and implement changes in the organization's work or the athlete's training:

Conclusions:

The aim of the work was to show that the most effective way of making changes in the organization, the actions of an individual, will be full awareness of his current position, acceptance of himself as he is at this stage of life. Only when we feel ourselves as an integral and free organism, we (organization, structure, person) can change and become effective.