Welcome to the 14-day challenge on Engaging Stakeholders in a Developmental Process!
Read the following to get started with the challenge. You should also have received an email with this content for your convenience, if you plan to take a look later.
This challenge was designed to help you upgrade your Talent Development practice in a way that enables you to both create more strategic value in your current role, as well as grow into new value-adding roles over time.
It begins with shifting how we engage and interact with our stakeholders.
Take a moment to reflect on a recent interaction you had with one or more stakeholders that didn’t go as well as you were hoping.
What value were you aiming to create for them?
What do you think was restraining their ability to realize this potential and play their role effectively in the value-adding process?
What was restraining your ability to effectively engage them in this process and create this value?
One framework we use often in our work, which originates from the teachings of the philosopher G.I. Gurdjieff, is called the Law of Three:
This framework helps us consider that at the core of any developmental process, there are three forces at work: the activating, the restraining, and the reconciling forces.
Viewing this particular stakeholder interaction through the lens of this framework, what do you see as the potential reconciling force(s)?
In other words, what is required to reconcile the tension that is produced between your initial aim (the activating force) and the existing conditions (restraining forces) you’ve identified?
Common restraining forces include but are not limited to: current capabilities, mindsets, values, beliefs, assumptions, and cultural narratives.
For this challenge, we’ll introduce one more simple framework to help us consider how to reconcile this tension as we develop our capacity for creating more value for our stakeholders.
This second framework is call Levels of Communication, which we first learned through our work with Regenesis Institute (drawing also from the teachings of G.I. Gurdjieff and others).
Here we’ll provide a brief summary of each level to facilitate your reflection:
On the level of telling, we aim to transfer knowledge by providing information, solutions or recommendations directly.
On the level of sharing, we aim to illustrate experiences that facilitate new connections and insights through storytelling.
On the level of engaging, we aim to build conviction and ownership through asking questions that nurture new thinking and creativity.
On the level of developing, we aim to evolve the understanding of unique context and build the capacity to create unique value by elevating the level of will, function and being for all stakeholders involved (including ourselves).
Take a few minutes to reflect more deeply on how you typically engage your stakeholders, using this framework as a lens. What is coming up for you? What new potential are you beginning to see?
Note that as with all of the frameworks we use, there is a lot of depth that will take time and practice to uncover. This is just the beginning.
Over the next 14 days, aim to keep this framework in mind as you interact with your stakeholders. Where are there opportunities to communicate on higher levels? What effect does this produce?
You can download this practice aid to support your practice. Consider keeping it somewhere visible over the course of this challenge.
We’ll follow up in a week to help refresh this aim and provide a few more insights to support you on this emerging journey.
In the meantime, enjoy the challenge and may your interactions with stakeholders be ever more engaging and valuable for everyone involved!
Toward potential,
Tom Palmer