Head and Heart at work

Conversations is about connecting with the heart not head. The heart is superior to the head. What ever is known to the head is available to those who connect with the heart and more.

The head has knowledge. That knowledge is gathered from the world of manifest. It is ordered and patterned through modeling and algorithms. It is designed for input, process and output. This knowledge is functional, purposive and supports manifest outcomes.

The head solves for problems around the physical laws. Maths, Physics, logic serves well when trying to solve for complex design issues that lend itself to this.

Here, problem definition, root cause analysis, determining possible options and arriving at criteria’s to for best solution and implementation plans and contingency plans. Are critical to success. Be it a marketing campaign or a war campaign, strategy and tactical execution is critical. 

Professionally, we have to be good at Head. That is what the workplace is about: solving business problems. Competition, product placements, pricing, distribution, logistics and manufacturing at optimized costs. The head is all about functional and business competencies and we have to be good at it.

At the level of the heart, lies leadership of people, who make the head happen more effectively. The head requires management, while people require Leadership. Leadership is about the softer aspects of business. Interestingly, the harder problem is to the ‘softer’ side of enterprise.

Knowledge when fused with heart becomes wisdom. Head gives you data, analytics, insights even, but heart takes you further: it provides forsight.

When you operate at the level of the Heart, Head is already there.

The head can never trust, the heart can never doubt.

Organisation Workshop - Exploration in Systems Thinking

Most explorative work usually is around the individual. I am often asked if there are effective designs around exploring Organisation dynamics. Yes there is, and it is the Organisation Workshop introduced by Barry Oshry.

In this workshop, participants are randomly selected to play the roles of Tops, Middle, Bottoms, and Customer(s). Each day in the organization is of 15 minutes with reflection time built in between each day (Time out of time).

Instructions are few and simple. Tops have wide powers around organization and direction. Each day costs are clarified by way of expenses and variable costs: some fixed and some discretionary. The task is relatively simple and explained by the Customer to the Tops, who then go about communicating and executing through the Middle and to the Bottom. The ensuring drama provides rich data on how people communicate, collaborate, and act. A classic for reviewing systems thinking.

Several days are played out before the simulation ends. Then de-brief begins.

The whole simulation is not role playing but real play.

I have used this often in my work and it is a treasure house to reflect on Organisation.

“The nature of system is certainty; the nature of structure is security; the nature of beauty is order. These define the ‘oughts’ of a good society. When the ‘oughts’ become ‘musts’, they become tools of oppression and unleash great sorrow. When that sad day arrives, the way to regenerate the society is not to defy or to deny but to define; not to resist or to desist but to persist.”~ Pulin K. Garg