Sustainable Working Experiences in Organizations
How can we use examples from sports and nature as new ways of sustainable working experiences in organizations?
In 30 stakeholder interviews conducted as part of a University project during the lockdown in conjunction with the business group, we found that there is a fundamental question driving businesses: How can we learn from the crisis? And how can we do it in a sustainable way, so that there are no consultants telling us what to do? Managers and employees want to experiment and learn at their own pace and wherever they are, independent of home office or on campus. At the same time, the one health group identified growing health challenges at work:
Burnout prevention by dealing with overload
Wholeness and psychological safety
Generally low rates of engagement among employees
Our prototype: Flow Connection – Train to be fit for complexity
Our motto is “Train to be fit for complexity”. We see a huge potential for employees to discover and experience in nature and from various experiments in individual and team sports (e.g. yoga, cycling, hiking…) what “learning from the crisis” can mean in very practical terms. The task for us is to be hosts for employees to experiment with new ways of working based on the sports and nature metaphors.
Our model of skills and practices that are necessary to thrive in complexity is derived from:
Frederic Laloux - Re-inventing organizations
Ken Wilber - Quadrants of development
Otto Scharmer - Theory U as process for transformation
The impact will be to continuously practice skills that are relevant for the future of business - in the context of work, but not formally in the work structure. Instead, we bring people together outdoors in nature, both physically and virtually. We allow intrinsic engagement to evolve by:
Allowing flow (rather than pressure and overload) to become the overarching pattern for action
Creating resilience that allows to easily navigate through complexities
Providing a ground for grassroot activities to emerge and grow (ripple effects)
Creating cases for sustainable business in harmony with nature
Providing a natural way for overcoming silos and business as usual
Resulting in a healthy organizational culture
Improving employer’s health and mindfulness.
We would like to set up an action prototype that is realistic, covering all four quadrants of personal development by Ken Wilber and can be hosted by ourselves, based on our experiences, training and degrees in organizational development, yoga and cycling.
Outputs
Design of the 3 months Flow Connection program for companies, including weekly coaching calls for the team, body work (yoga, cycling, walks) and time in nature (see presentation below)
A concept presentation for companies to present the program and show its relevance
Development of the shorter practice units Yoga@FlowConnection and Cycling@FlowConnection
Testing of the tools and the concept with participants, evaluation and inclusion of the learnings into the offering
Contribution to a book project on integral communication: Kommunikation neu gedacht
Outcomes
The participants reported that they looked forward to the class every week, felt a feeling of connection and trust in the group, to open up, to be heard, to feel better, to take suggestions for their own work life with them, to listen more to their inner voice and their own purpose, to integrate more physical movement into their work, and to feel physically and mentally better overall. They would like to pass on what they have learned and try to use some of the tools in their own companies.
Would you like to test the Flow Connection program for your own company? Contact Diana and Hartmut: team@flowconnection.ch
Have a look at our presentation:
