This is an invitation to meet your organisation's objectives and help develop the Tensions Management approach. I need to test and share it so organisations that are struggling can benefit, level-up, thrive and prosper.
Collaborators will apply Tensions Management techniques to solve real issues in their organisations as part of a global action learning research study. See Manage Tensions not people for a quick overview.
Who is invited
Partners that can bring specific techniques to the table, especially group facilitation.
Managers and leaders who bring problems that can be framed as organisational tensions getting in the way of improving performance. Their organisations must directly benefit from resolving these tensions.
We will come together to collaborate in a practice-based activity involving problem-solving and studying the process of problem-solving, also known as ‘action research’.
What we will be doing together
We will work together to resolve a real tension that you, as a manager, are experiencing in your organisation. The tension will be something you recognise as getting in the way of your team or department’s ability to perform effectively. It could be strategic (eg. head office targets not aligned with regional priorities), interdepartmental (eg. internal demands on the team are unreasonable), hierarchical (eg. conflicting priorities cascaded), technical (eg. operations policy preventing automated deployment), or something quite different from these examples.
In the first instance, we will discuss the tension(s) you want to resolve, in order to clarify:
- What are the sources of each side of the tension (eg. senior manager wants xyz solution, but product team believes customers want something different).
- How the tension is currently managed / not (eg. accepted as a ‘them and us’ division).
- What has / has not been done to resolve the tension (eg. team is building both solutions).
- Why this tension is getting in the way (eg. waste of time / money and causing frustration).
- How you, as an embedded participant, imagine the tension being resolved (eg. question escalated for authoritative decision).
This is just a made-up example, whereas yours will be based on an on-going situation, whose resolution will improve performance for your organisation.
Pros and cons of participating
You and your organisation will benefit from working with industry’s leading consultants and researchers without needing to pay for their time and expertise. You will have the opportunity to learn powerful new techniques at first hand and will help to formulate a framework for improvement that others can use. The experience will enable you to lead improvement interventions by using the tensions management approach.
If you are familiar with Lencioni’s (2002) concept of ‘smart and healthy’, you will recognise that behaviours within leadership teams are cascaded throughout an organisation. Therefore, this work may involve a level of self-reflection which can lead to uncomfortable discoveries (eg. recognising that what I often say is not always consistent with what I just did). However, framing this as a tension between saying and doing, depersonalises this as an observation, rather than a criticism, making it easier to accept and resolve.
Next steps
Read the research summary and the executive summary.
Express your interest through the Contact page. Include a brief description of your situation and the tensions you want to explore or the facilitation skills you bring. You will receive an information sheet explaining the research and a consent form.
If you are based in Bengaluru, I may ask you to set up an in-person meeting for the week of 23rd to 30th March 2025. Either at your place of work (24th or 28th) or at the Agile India Conference (25th to 27th).
