Mtg Rprt - London & SE Deming Network, 4 July - Trust Matters

[Colston Sanger <colston@shotters.dircon.co.uk>]

Dear all,

Here is a brief write-up of the joint London & SE Deming Network/ Centre 
for Tomorrows' Company/New Intermediaries meeting on 4 July, hosted by the 
Human Potential Research Group at the University of Surrey.

Warm regards,

Colston Sanger

----------------------------
London and South-East Deming Network, 4 July 2002

This was a joint meeting with several other like-minded networks
to re-inaugurate the UK OD Network as an 'inter-network'
  - a loosely-connected set of networks and communities of practice.
Included were: New Intermediaries,the Centre for Tomorrow's Company
Individual Members' Network and the Ministry of Change. It was
generously hosted by the Human Potential Research Group at the
University of Surrey.

Our topic for the evening was 'Trust Matters: The Crucial Link between
Authentic Trust and Business Risk,' presented by Aidan Ward of Antelope
Projects - www.antelopes.com . Aidan is the author of Trust and Risk:
The Use and Abuse of Power in Business (forthcoming, John Wiley, 2003).

The meeting explored the link between stereotyping and trust: how we often
deal with the new, the uncertain and the risky by pushing it into patterns
we already know and games we can already play. When we do this, we get
caught up in stereotypes and the underlying business risk becomes
unmanageable.

As a warm-up we looked at whether schools are trusting places, and then at
whether schools trust their pupils. We made the point that trust is
relative to strategic intent and that an education system that does not
trust pupils to learn is going to be seriously hamstrung.

Of Poor Maidens, Dragons and Princes

We took a business scenario of a project where things were evidently not going
well and then worked through a simple two-stage process based on the classic
drama triangle model.

First we acted out the scenario having assigned each of its three main roles
as a stereotypical poor maiden in distress, a dragon or a prince who springs
to the rescue. We did this in three groups, with a different permutation of
scenario-based role and stereotype in each group. Owing to some extraordinary
able improvisation - assisted by various props (I remember a wooden sword and
a splendid dragon mask) - each permutation of role and stereotype was entirely
convincing.

Secondly, we fast-forwarded to the crunch-point at the end of the scenario when
everything finally came unstuck. We worked in our three groups to reinterpret
the scenario - this time concentrating on the humanity of the responses and on
building trust between the different characters. There were some imaginative
interventions and we seemed to take responsibility for a much wider range of
concerns than previously. The learning here was that while we may have roles
assigned to us in organisations, it is up to us as to how we inhabit those 
roles.

In the wrap-up we looked at how typically we make business risk an external
'dragon' - thus making 'poor maidens' of ourselves. We become virtuous, but
helpless. The fairy story, we concluded, was as real as real could be.

Thanks to everyone who came for some wonderfully laconic performances and some
terrific insights. If you'd like to add your own reflections here, please feel
free to do so.

Next meeting

This boundary-crossing between different networks and meeting together as an
'inter-network' seemed like a good idea, we decided, and worth doing again.

Our next meeting will therefore be in late September/early October, hosted by
Royal Mail at Mount Pleasant, central London, when our topic will be systemic
leadership presented by Bill Tate.

Watch this space for details nearer the time!

----------------------------------------------------

The Human Potential Research Group - 
www.surrey.ac.uk/Education/hprg/index.htm -
has been a recognised centre of excellence in experiential learning, 
facilitation
skills and holistic personal development for over thirty years. Located in the
School of Educational Studies, University of Surrey, HPRG engages in teaching,
research and consultancy in higher education and other organisational and
community settings.

New Intermediaries - www.newintermediaries.co.uk - is a community of practice
of internal and external change agents.

The Centre for Tomorrow's Company - www.tomorrowscompany.com - is a think-tank
and catalyst, researching and stimulating the development of a new agenda for
business. It works to create a future for business that makes equal sense to
staff, shareholders and society.

/s/ CS



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