Читать книгу Approaching Change One Story At a Time: 20 Stories and Insights for Coaches, Facilitators, Trainers and Change Leaders - Bob Dick - Страница 6

When I first joined the staff at Queensland University, my closest colleague was John Damm. He used to tell the story about another staff member, Joan, of the agriculture faculty. Both interested in change, he and Joan were friends.

Joan was known internationally for her reputation as an academic. She was also well regarded as a practitioner. Her field was agricultural extension: how innovations spread through rural communities.

This is a story I heard from John, about meeting Joan on campus one day. Being friends, they stopped to talk. In the course of conversation Joan mentioned that on the following Wednesday she planned to facilitate a field day with banana growers at Gympie, about 170 km north of Brisbane. That’s one of the approaches agricultural extension people use. One farmer offers to host the day and invites other local farmers to attend.

John had an interest in the field of agricultural extension, as I have. It has some theories and processes that are relevant to our field of community and organisational change. So John evinced some interest in what Joan was planning. She suggested that, if he were free, he would be welcome to attend. They could drive together to the farm where the field day was to be held. It would give them a good chance to talk. So they did.

As they drove, John asked Joan what she planned to do. She explained that she intended to start the field day with a “problem census”. She would ask those present to make a list of the most important problems that they faced in growing bananas. They would then decide the problems most deserving of attention.

She said that she expected “root rot” to be mentioned early. She also expected, with some confidence, that “root rot” would be the highest priority problem.

She explained that many growers lost fruit because the banana trees fell over in wet weather. Their roots were not strong enough to hold them in the soil. The roots, when inspected, appeared damaged. Understandably, the farmers assumed that the banana roots rotted in the moist soil.

“Actually”, Joan said, “it’s not root rot. It’s nematodes — roundworms that eat the banana roots.” Nematodes breed in wet weather and feed on banana roots. Unknown to the farmers, the roots were damaged by nematodes rather than by moisture-induced rot.

Arriving at the field day, Joan greeted the farmer hosting the activity. She introduced John, and thumbtacked up a couple of sheets of butcher paper to the side of a suitable barn. When the other farmers arrived she conducted the problem census as planned.

“Root rot” was the first problem contributed. Joan used a multi-voting technique — allowing each farmer a number of votes to spread over their choice of topics — to determine priorities. It was as Joan had predicted. “Root rot” was the growers’ highest priority.

At this point John expected Joan to say that it was nematodes, not root rot. Instead she asked, “How much do you know about root rot?” She facilitated a discussion.

Did she consider the possibility of informing them about nematodes? John didn’t say. Perhaps he didn’t know. I don’t either, though my guess is that she did consider it. She was effective at what she did, so my guess is that she made a judgment. She decided that on this occasion it was better for the farmers to find out for themselves.

After some discussion it became evident that the farmers didn’t know enough to solve the problem.

“Now”, John thought, “she’ll say that it’s nematodes”.

She didn’t. She asked: “How might you find out more?” She facilitated a further discussion. The farmers decided it would be useful to do some research by examining the roots of fallen banana trees more closely.

For me, that vindicates Joan’s judgment. Already the farmers were viewing their problem differently and considering doing some research. One of the farmers remarked that it was a pity they hadn’t brought some healthy and unhealthy roots with them. Another suggested that they had already examined roots often enough. But a microscope might be helpful.

At that point Joan did speak up. “I have a suggestion”, she said. “How about we postpone this problem until our next meeting? I’m pretty sure I can organise a couple of microscopes if you can provide some healthy and unhealthy banana roots”.

The farmers agreed and moved to the next problem on their list.

___

The next field day duly took place. Joan arrived early. The farmer hosting the day provided two banana root samples. Joan set up the microscopes with the samples of banana roots.

As the growers arrived they queued up to inspect the healthy and unhealthy roots. They were surprised by their discovery: “What do you know. It’s not root rot. It’s some little worms that are chewing the roots.”

My guess is that Joan understood when to provide a solution to a problem ... and when to keep quiet.

I said the previous story was “sort of” third person. “Sort of”, because although I heard it from John, and it was about Joan, I knew them both.

It is also potentially a story with a concealed hazard. It may be seen as supporting a current ideology in facilitation circles that one shouldn’t ever provide solutions. Knowing a little about Joan, I don’t think that would have been her view.

I think it’s a matter of judgment. Sometimes the outcomes will be better if I provide solutions. Sometimes people will be more likely to use the solutions they themselves devise. I suspect that was Joan’s belief too.

The next story, too, may be hazardous for what it omits. I’ll revisit that thought later. It’s Dee Hock’s account of something he experienced. It’s an actually-happened story that you could call second person — someone else’s story, retold by me.

It’s drawn from his account of a planning wall, a dirty coffee cup, a length of string, and an energetic and engaged group of people planning how to set up the cooperative that later became Visa.

It works better as a first-person story. It, and the story following, are part of a longer story that Dee Hock tells. It’s well worth a read. As I said, he tells a good story and then reflects deeply on what occurs. One from many is the name of his book on the topic. I enjoyed it enormously, and I think you might too.