Optimising relationships

SUPPORT IN ALL ASPECTS OF THE RELATIONSHIP

Our core business is relationships. Relationships with oneself, with others, with one’s team, one’s mission, one’s organisation, but also with society and the meaning one wants to give to one’s life.

Breadth: from the individual to the collective

Our approach is based on the joint development of individual responsibility and collective performance, around 3 fundamental principles:

[1] Connection, related to the sense of belonging

The number of quality relationships that each of us has with our colleagues and our ecosystem (customer partners, stakeholders) is a key factor in our ability to feel part of a system. The more we have this feeling of belonging, the better and more naturally we will be able to put our energy into serving it.

Disengagement, even contempt, disinterest and quiet quitting are a form of reaction or even protection against our instinctive fear of not belonging (“I don’t belong, it’s normal because I don’t do anything about it”). Conversely, it can also cause provocative and exaggerated behaviour (“look at me, I exist!”).

Improving mutual knowledge and recognition, feedback quality and time structuring (rituals and governance) typically addresses this subject matter.

[2] Competence, related to the ability to make decisions and solve problems

Most workplace dysfunctions take the form of struggles for power, influence and authority. Being recognised for what we know and can do is a fundamental need,

which generally remains tacit in organisations. It is worth making explicit, because as soon as we have some doubt as to the recognition of our expertise, we cannot defend ourselves against our natural fear of being humiliated or rejected.

This leads to disengagement or disinterest (“obviously, it’s not my responsibility”), or causes us to over-affirm ourselves at inappropriate moments (inappropriate interventions in meetings, for example), or even to put our energy into seeking excessive external attributes of power.

The work focuses is on both:

  • recognising each person’s potential: skills that are useful, that can be used or passed on, but also skills that are accessible as part of a development plan,
  • the conditions for collective intelligence, which requires everyone to dare to assume the limits of their skills

[3] Psychological safety, the main factor in performance and resilience

Psychological safety or openness characterises the ability of each of us to express ourselves in the least comfortable, and paradoxically often the most creative situations: asking a question, saying when we doubt, disagreeing, or putting forward an idea that is not yet complete.

“Nobody gets up in the morning and jumps out of bed because they can’t wait to go to work and come across as ignorant, incompetent, intrusive or negative”, says Amy Edmondson, a specialist in this field. So our fear of making a mistake or disappointing others often pushes us individually into silence, and collectively into a stifling passivity for organisations.

The consequences are many: not telling people, avoiding friends, taking a wait-and-see attitude, red tape, not taking responsibility. They do not prevent teams from achieving honourable results, but they represent the last lever for team performance.

At the other end of the spectrum, a blatant lack of psychological security is accompanied by excessive tension and conflict. Ultimately, this contributes to prolonged intense stress and suffering at work, leading to disengagement, psychological distress, increased sick leave and staff turnover.

Working on managerial courage, responsibility, delegation and dealing with mistakes will change the situation in a team where there is already a good level of connection and skills recognition.

What do high-performance teams have in common?

Many researchers have looked into this. Will Schutz, in particular, establishes a link between self-esteem, confidence and performance in his systemic approach to the “Human Element ©”.

“At first I thought that a high-performance team was one with a good leader.

Then I thought a high-performance team was one with clear goals.

Then I thought a high-performance team was one with few conflicts.

Then I thought a high-performance team was one whose members weren’t too different.

Today I’ve come to the conclusion that for a team to be successful, its members must dare to express their fears and needs to each other, and give up the idea of being right a priori.

Will Schutz

Height: anchoring and meaning, through the body

We use pragmatic anchoring points that are as close as possible to your reality. We focus on highlighting the meaning of your actions, in line with your driving values.

Between the two, we work across the spectrum of intelligences:

  • Rational, with simple, customisable tools and concepts to help you theorise your practice and make more informed decisions. This can include a consultancy component.
  • Emotional, such as empathy, communication, stress and emotion management and conflict resolution using practical tools.
  • Relational, enabling effective communication and teamwork. An important aspect of leadership, relational intelligence includes collaboration, active listening, negotiation and conflict resolution.
  • Situational, which is the ability to adapt to different situations and contexts. Situational skills include adaptability, creativity and strategic thinking.

This is why we strongly believe in experiential learning.

Indeed, according to Varela's principle of enaction, our organism learns mainly by trial and error, actively exploring and experimenting with different strategies for solving problems encountered in our environment. This allows us to develop effective patterns of action, which are then stored in our memory and can be used to solve similar problems in the future.

In addition to individual coaching, we have developed:

  • leadership journeys rather than training courses, in which participants actively construct their own reference system
  • supervision programmes, in which managers’ day-to-day life is at the heart of every conversation
  • training courses using virtual reality, enabling participants to immerse themselves instantly in a complex and emotionally challenging situation
  • training courses, seminars or expeditions in the great outdoors to work on specific themes with the body in motion: leadership, responsibility, language, cohesion, stress management, etc.

“What you learn by listening to what other people say, you will soon forget.

What you understand with your whole body, you will remember for the rest of your life”.

Master Guichin Funakoshi

Funakoshi

Depth: We deploy leadership by intention at all levels of the organisation

We take an interest in each and every one, in their individuality: management and executives, as well as all employees, including support staff and assistants. 

For us, leadership is not a quality, but a skill that can be acquired and developed.   

It concerns everyone in the organisation who takes the initiative, acts proactively, inspires others and contributes to its success.

We focus on each and every one of them, each and every one of them in his or her own way: management and executives, of course, but also all employees, including support staff and assistants.

This helps to create a culture of commitment and shared responsibility, which is the foundation of  "intention-based leadership":   a practice that is accessible to everyone, pragmatically challenging the hierarchical "leader-followers" model in favour of a "leader-leader" organisation and "team leadership".  

The leader, by refusing to give orders and clearly sharing his or her intention, vision and mission, creates an environment where team members are encouraged to make informed decisions and actively contribute to achieving common goals.

Intention-based leadership is based on trust, subsidiarity and shared responsibility. By adopting this approach, leaders can inspire and motivate their team to excel, while fostering innovation, creativity and individual and collective growth.

This approach is inspired in particular by:

  • the experience of David Marquet, former US nuclear submarine commander and author of “Turn The Ship Around!™”
  • Will Schutz’s Human Element™ approach
  • Vincent Lenhardt’s principles of integrative coaching.

View the opposite animated video illustrating the intention-based leadership put in place by Commander David Marquet on his nuclear submarine “Santa Fe”, and discover the practise he was led to standardise under the name of “Intent Based Leadership”.     

Our solutions, depending on your profile