Thanks Andrew MacDonald for your substack. Leo: "This is a time for risk-taking and rising to serious challenges. The greater the capacity of the individuals to serve the whole, the more the group consciousness is clarified and available to all." I have also had the opportunity and pleasure to participate in and lead Improvement Teams and Quality Circles at the University aimed primarily at achieving excellence. In fact staff involvement in quality improvement stemmed primarily from W. Z Ouchi Theory, an attempt to bring "management" to the Japanese American model.
Oriented organization model according to motivation theories, which conceived the organized system as a team in the spirit of cooperation, mutual trust and personal skills is essential. Some conditions that must be met to form an improvement team or quality circle are: ----1) The objectives and tasks must be explained so that they are understood by all. ----2) Commitment to the team members with the objectives. ----3) Communication between team members must be open, accurate and efficient, the exchange of ideas and feelings. ----4) trust, acceptance and support among team members must be achieved.
----5) The team must use the skills, knowledge, experience and abilities of each of its members. ----6) Participation in work must be equitable. ----7) Faced with possible confrontations, they have to know the situation and promote constructive behavioral solutions. --8) They must know and apply appropriate decision making and problem solving. Teamwork brings richness in approaches, encourages innovation, represents groups and legitimizes decisions. This training also allowed me to be a member of teacher evaluation teams, allowing for greater support and advice to my colleagues.
A thought, Gui. People often fail to understand what they're told because they have a "hidden loyalty" to another worldview. Hidden worldviews keep us tied to people we're deeply connected to - our religion or parents or country or our spouses. If we're told something that jeapordizes those connections we'll be unable to really hear them.
That's part of why "the truth" is so hard to see, because we're invisibly wedded to another truth. That need to safeguard our already understanding trumps reason. Meeting at the level of the human and ordinary, rather than ideological correctness, is important to lay a foundation.
Yes..what youve written really resonates..although i cant help wondering that this particular time..is kind of demanding a dissolution of this ..'mind..manufactured man we have been living and dying through..When one is at the bedside of a dying elder..as we are within ourselves and this systemic society..well....its little in the words and much in the hands..and heart..and the necessary grieving..that ...over time washes us of our identification...and rest us unto the pool of our interconnected nature ..humm..so many will benefit from..real and inviting encounters and the magically transformative consciousness that arises between our words...and broken open hearts..where we are children in the sandbox of life oce again..blessings to u old friend for your wise sharing..
Michael, I agree that there's a lot at stake. My challenge is to be simple, human and ordinary with it all or I lose people and myself. Some guy did a workshop years ago called "Dare to be Ordinary." I'm still working on it.
ANDREW, thank you for this clear and profound writing about small groups. I just left a zoom break-out group after the Quaker meeting fipor wirship, in which both despair and hope were voiced. The small grouo of 4 women spke of what themes were rising in our lives and in the meeting.
We shared our vulnerabilities but that did not take anyrhing away— it enabled our creativity to be grounded in our current lives.
One friend spoke of the power of our ability to bring buoyancy and light to enable the full presence of our sorrow… and of sharing each other’s sorrows and joys. Our friend from Columbia brought the hopeful political changes in Columbia and Brazil to our group… In Columbia, the war is a struggle between rich and poor, fueled by such forces as extractive (Canadian) mining, and the American military, which has lasted 60 years.
I introduced the others to my two new favourite singers, The Bengsons (“My Joy is Heavy,” & The Keep Going Song”) and Carsie Blanton(“Be Good,” “Buck Up,”& “Rich People.”). We all tried to imagine the shape and name of our Quaker meeting winter retreat for the end of January. it was a wonderful small group.
Thanks Andrew MacDonald for your substack. Leo: "This is a time for risk-taking and rising to serious challenges. The greater the capacity of the individuals to serve the whole, the more the group consciousness is clarified and available to all." I have also had the opportunity and pleasure to participate in and lead Improvement Teams and Quality Circles at the University aimed primarily at achieving excellence. In fact staff involvement in quality improvement stemmed primarily from W. Z Ouchi Theory, an attempt to bring "management" to the Japanese American model.
Oriented organization model according to motivation theories, which conceived the organized system as a team in the spirit of cooperation, mutual trust and personal skills is essential. Some conditions that must be met to form an improvement team or quality circle are: ----1) The objectives and tasks must be explained so that they are understood by all. ----2) Commitment to the team members with the objectives. ----3) Communication between team members must be open, accurate and efficient, the exchange of ideas and feelings. ----4) trust, acceptance and support among team members must be achieved.
----5) The team must use the skills, knowledge, experience and abilities of each of its members. ----6) Participation in work must be equitable. ----7) Faced with possible confrontations, they have to know the situation and promote constructive behavioral solutions. --8) They must know and apply appropriate decision making and problem solving. Teamwork brings richness in approaches, encourages innovation, represents groups and legitimizes decisions. This training also allowed me to be a member of teacher evaluation teams, allowing for greater support and advice to my colleagues.
A thought, Gui. People often fail to understand what they're told because they have a "hidden loyalty" to another worldview. Hidden worldviews keep us tied to people we're deeply connected to - our religion or parents or country or our spouses. If we're told something that jeapordizes those connections we'll be unable to really hear them.
That's part of why "the truth" is so hard to see, because we're invisibly wedded to another truth. That need to safeguard our already understanding trumps reason. Meeting at the level of the human and ordinary, rather than ideological correctness, is important to lay a foundation.
thank you for this wonderful list of criteria for group effectiveness!
Yes..what youve written really resonates..although i cant help wondering that this particular time..is kind of demanding a dissolution of this ..'mind..manufactured man we have been living and dying through..When one is at the bedside of a dying elder..as we are within ourselves and this systemic society..well....its little in the words and much in the hands..and heart..and the necessary grieving..that ...over time washes us of our identification...and rest us unto the pool of our interconnected nature ..humm..so many will benefit from..real and inviting encounters and the magically transformative consciousness that arises between our words...and broken open hearts..where we are children in the sandbox of life oce again..blessings to u old friend for your wise sharing..
Michael, I agree that there's a lot at stake. My challenge is to be simple, human and ordinary with it all or I lose people and myself. Some guy did a workshop years ago called "Dare to be Ordinary." I'm still working on it.
ANDREW, thank you for this clear and profound writing about small groups. I just left a zoom break-out group after the Quaker meeting fipor wirship, in which both despair and hope were voiced. The small grouo of 4 women spke of what themes were rising in our lives and in the meeting.
We shared our vulnerabilities but that did not take anyrhing away— it enabled our creativity to be grounded in our current lives.
One friend spoke of the power of our ability to bring buoyancy and light to enable the full presence of our sorrow… and of sharing each other’s sorrows and joys. Our friend from Columbia brought the hopeful political changes in Columbia and Brazil to our group… In Columbia, the war is a struggle between rich and poor, fueled by such forces as extractive (Canadian) mining, and the American military, which has lasted 60 years.
I introduced the others to my two new favourite singers, The Bengsons (“My Joy is Heavy,” & The Keep Going Song”) and Carsie Blanton(“Be Good,” “Buck Up,”& “Rich People.”). We all tried to imagine the shape and name of our Quaker meeting winter retreat for the end of January. it was a wonderful small group.