|
In previous blogs I have written about stages of innovation (Blog 7), of change (Blog 9) and, in my separate series of company blogs, about childhood (PIF Blog 1). Now I am capturing what I have written in the past about stages of organisations - and linking them to ego states.
In Hay (1990) I wrote that “Stewart & Maxon (1988) point out that organisations experience patterns of growth and transition; from small beginnings and innovation they progress to a size where they must introduce systems and structures, and then on to an integrated stage which is characterised by decentralisation and emphasis on personal leadership at all levels. I would argue that there is yet another stage that is beginning to take effect; that of community.” (p.163). I then added a list showing Stewart & Maxon’s descriptors of the three stages they had identified, with a fourth column containing my equivalents for the community stage.
Based on an original version by Stewart & Maxon, 1988: Community: added
In Hay (1993) I added a diagram and linked the stages to ego states, explaining that the pioneering stage attracts people who operate mostly from Child “with all the innate energy and creativity that each real child has and that only some of us seem to retain into adulthood. Leadership seems relatively easy, with most interactions being Natural Child-Natural Child.” (p.16).
It is hard for an organisation to grow without someone taking care of routine tasks, so the system stage means that people are brought in to add efficiency to the enthusiasm; these systems people are characterised by the use of Parent as they introduce rules and procedure manuals. “Leadership now tends to focus on Controlling Parent-Adapted Child interactions. In more paternalistic organisations, it may instead be Nurturing Parent-Natural Child.” (p.16). The systems may overwhelm the creativity so that innovation ceases, people leave, or spend their time finding their way around the system. To survive, more people are brought in to mediate between the pioneers and the systems people. I described these as typically Personnel, Human Resources or Employee Relations and wrote that they help managers recognise the emotional needs of the employees, and the employees to accept the wisdom and experience of the managers. At the time, I suggested that these would operate from mainly Adult ego state; nowadays I would be referring to that as Functional Adult to make the point that I am describing behaviours here and not whether someone is in the here-and-now. I am also tempted to point out nowadays that some HR professionals might come across as Nurturing Parent, telling the managerial Controlling Parent not to be so hard on the ‘children’. In terms of the additional stage that I added, I saw that as needing the shift from one ego state per person mode, creating a three-person symbiosis, into an organisational culture where everyone is enabled, and expected, to use all of their ego states. I pointed out that in my diagram the size of the organisation is shown as reducing at this stage. This is because people do not feel that they are in a true community if the numbers are too large – Gore-Tex work on the basis of no more than 200 people (Rhodes, 1982); Semco in Brazil reached a similar conclusion (Semler, 1993). 
Stages of an Organisation (Hay, 1993, P.16)
Finally, below is my latest version – published in Hay (2012) and renamed so that it provides two donkey bridges: 4 words beginning with C and 4 with E!
Stages of Organisation (Hay, 2012, p.59)
References Hay, Julie (1990) Managerial Competences or Managerial Characteristics? Management Education and Development 21:5 305-315 Hay, Julie (1993) Creating Community: The Task of Leadership Leadership and Organization Development Journal 14:7 12-17 Hay, Julie (2012) Donkey Bridges for Developmental TA 2nd edit Hertford: Sherwood Publishing Rhodes, Lucien (1982) The Un-Manager https://www.inc.com/magazine/19820801/5178.html accessed 24 April 2018 Semler, Ricardo (1993) Maverick, London: Century Stewart, Andrew & Maxon, Jim (1988) Management succession during organisational change. Paper presented at the Association of Management Education and Development.
© 2018 Julie Hay
Julie is a fan of open access publishing so feel free to reproduce any of these blogs as long as you still attribute it to her.
0 Comments
In Hay (1993) I had presented several ideas at the ITAA Conference in Minneapolis, including some prompts for analysing the stroking patterns within an organisation. In Hay (1996) I expanded some of this – below is the combination of the two publications with some more recent additions made when I have been running workshops. The following can also be applied without using TA jargon if you wish, by simply renaming it a recognition pattern. In that case, change all the reference to strokes in the following list of questions. How do people regarded as successful behave and how do they get stroked? How do people regarded as unsuccessful behave and how do they get stroked? These two questions give you information about the major stroking patterns, both positive and negative. Remember what you stroke is what you get, so the negative strokes usually given to poor performers generally tend to reinforce the very behaviour they are intended to stop. How do people regarded as average performers behave and how do they get stroked? Often the answer here is that average performers get very few strokes – they are taken for granted. This reinforces their ‘average-ness’. In a normal group the average performers are also the largest proportion, which means that the majority of employees are being ignored! Are different strokes applied to different groups? For example, to women/men, to professionals/non professionals, to specific departments or functions, to different ethnic groups, to trade union members/non members, different age groups, different educational backgrounds? Are particular styles stroked differently? Use any model of styles here, so TA frameworks such as working styles/drivers or ego states, or non-TA models such as Myers Briggs, Enneagram, or any other personality framework. For example (ego state behaviours): What happens to people who are: logical? firm? caring? friendly? courteous? creative Or consider working styles/drivers: Does the organisation reinforce: Hurry Up? Be Perfect? Please People? Try Hard? Be Strong? What strokes are given at key change points? For example, joining the organisation, transferring, getting promoted, getting demoted, being made redundant, retiring, leaving the organisation? If people were to be given a gold watch on leaving, what might the inscription say? What stroking systems exist within the organisation? Such as suggestion schemes, quality circles, staff appraisals, educational sponsorship, training and development activities, employee assistance programmes, mentoring schemes, interview after ill health absence? How do people spend their time? Consider the different intensities of stroking related to the ways of structuring time – no strokes when alone, low intensity from greeting rituals, a bit more during past-timing, more intensity during working or playing (Cowles-Boyd & Boyd’s 1980 extension of Berne’s 1961 goal directed activities). Is the nature of the work such that closeness/intimacy is appropriate (e.g. life threatening situations) or is it enough that employees work and play well together? How much are people engaging in psychological games to get intense negative strokes? To add a significant NLP dimension to this analysis, consider the following: How are the strokes conveyed? Visual – e.g. awards or congratulatory letters displayed on notice boards or social media; gifts given at ceremonies so that others observe; spoken with positive facial expressions and gestures – or being expected to work in windowless offices; being scowled at; being dismissed and having everyone watch you clear your desk and leave the building? Auditory – e.g. personal comments made face to face; at ceremonies with speeches that are heard by an audience; with positive tone of voice – or verbally with anger or coldly; being shouted at, especially in front of others; over the telephone with no real contact? Kinaesthetic – e.g. handshakes, pats on the back or hugs (provided people find this contact acceptable); certificates printed on paper that feels good to handle; gifts that feel good or can be worn (or eaten or drunk) – or though inappropriate touch; being expected to function with poorly designed equipment, uncomfortable uniforms; through long hours that lead to stress and ill health. If you are using this framework to consider your own organisation, you might also review how well the organisation stroking patterns fit your own preferences. What proportion of your strokes come: At work
Are you satisfied with the balance between the sources of strokes? For the strokes at work, how many come from:
How well do the organisational stroking patterns match your individual stroke preferences? How might you change your stroking sources to reinforce your positive attributes more? References Berne, Eric (1961) Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy New York: Grove Press Cowles-Boyd, Laura & Boyd, Harry (1980) Play as a Time Structure Transactional Analysis Journal 10:1 5-7 Hay, Julie (1993) Successful Workaholism The Minneapolis Papers ed. N .James Minneapolis: Omnipress 139-144 Hay, Julie (1996) Stroking Patterns INTAND Newsletter 4:3 1-2 © 2018 Julie Hay
Julie is a fan of open access publishing so feel free to reproduce any of these blogs as long as you still attribute it to her. In 1992 I showed symbiotic thinking using my own model of internal ego states (see Blog 13) using the way that TA authors typically showed it as Parent and Adult in one person and Child in the other, although I did point out that it involved “possibly Adult, although this ego state may be missing altogether” (Hay, 1992, p.108). In the second edition (Hay, 2009) I had amended my diagram to exclude Internal Adult, as shown below.  Symbiotic Thinking (Hay, 2009, p.119) In both the 1992 and 2009 editions of that book, I made it clear that ego states within an organisational hierarchy involve the use of Parent and Child only, bypassing Adult. I also pointed out that trainers often unwittingly reinforce similar unhelpful patterns.  A Hierarchy of Ego States (Hay, 1992, p.75 and Hay, 2009, p.85) This is in line with the way that Schiff & Contributors (1975) diagrammed ego states when they were illustrating the concept of Frame of Reference, showing that Adult, like Parent and Adapted Child, was an adaptation in the service of the Natural Child. For some reason, they did not use this convention for their diagrams about symbiosis elsewhere in the book; presumably they switched ego state models.  Structure and Dynamics of Frame of Reference (Schiff & Contribs, 1975, p.51) With this version of Adult, it makes sense to include it within symbiosis. It also makes sense if we are describing a healthy symbiosis, if we assume that the baby has only Child ego state and the caregiver puts their own Child needs aside temporarily. However, if we are using a model of ego states in which Adult is regarded as being in the here-and-now, it makes no sense to suggest it would take part in an unhealthy symbiosis. References Hay, Julie (1996) Transactional Analysis for Trainers Watford: Sherwood Publishing Hay, Julie (2009) Transactional Analysis for Trainers 2nd edition Hertford: Sherwood Publishing Schiff, Jacqui & Contributors (1975), Cathexis Reader: Transactional Analysis Treatment of Psychosis, New York: Harper & Row Publishers Inc © 2018 Julie Hay
Julie is a fan of open access publishing so feel free to reproduce any of these blogs as long as you still attribute it to her. In Part 1 of this blog I showed how contracts range from bilateral to quite complex multi-party versions. Somewhere in the middle of that process is of course Fanita English’s (1975) three-cornered contract. In this Part I show you the complexity involved when coaching a teacher – which also illustrates why teaching can be so stressful, especially as we could add in more stakeholders – the government, the teacher’s professional association, the Parent-Teacher Committee, the media. The more triangles, the more pressures on the person at the centre – and the harder it becomes to ensure the psychological distances (Micholt, 1992) are balanced.  Multi-party contracting – educational content (Hay 2007, p.117 – diagram corrected) An even more complex version existed when I was a volunteer psychotherapist within prisons. You can click on the diagram below to see a larger version of it, and you can go to the IDTA Newsletter December 2012 for an explanation of the content.  Multi-party contracting (Hay 2012, p.11) References English, Fanita (1975) The Three Cornered Contract Transactional Analysis Journal 5:4 383-384 Hay, Julie (1993) What is Special Fields TA? The Script XXIII:8 Nov Hay, Julie (1995/1999) Transformational Mentoring Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill, republished Watford: Sherwood Publishing Hay, Julie (2007) Reflective Practice and Supervision for Coaches Milton Keynes: Open University Press Hay, Julie (2012) Multi-Party Contracting: A Prison Environment Example IDTA News 7:4 10-14 Micholt, Nelly (1992) Psychological Distance and Group Intervention Transactional Analysis Journal 22:4 228-233 © 2018 Julie Hay
Julie is a fan of open access publishing so feel free to reproduce any of these blogs as long as you still attribute it to her. |
Categories
All
Archives
August 2019
|
RSS Feed
