Discussing the Undiscussable: A Guide to Overcoming Defensive Routines in the Workplace (Jossey-Bass Business & Management) - Softcover

Noonan, William R.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0787986321 ISBN 13: 9780787986322

Verlag: Jossey-Bass, 2007

Inhaltsangabe

Since his 1990 landmark book Overcoming Organizational Defenses, Chris Argyris has extensively researched and written about how well-meaning, smart people create vicious cycles of defensive behavior to protect themselves from embarrassment and threat. In Discussing the Undiscussable, Bill Noonan enlivens the scholarly work of Chris Argyris through the use of reflective exercises and easy-to-read chapters that illuminate the basic human experience endemic to the creation of defensive routines. This book offers hope for altering organizational defensive routines by leveraging the greatest opportunity for change―the way we think and act.

Discussing the Undiscussable provides a set of practical “how to do” exercises for detecting, surfacing, and discussing organizational defensive routines in a safe and productive way. The combination of text, business fable, and interactive and reflective exercises is versatile in its application to both individuals and groups. The companion DVD contains video vignettes of the book’s business fable where the actors model both defensive routines and virtuous cycles of behavior. Readers will instantly recognize what has long been going on in the workplace, and will be able to develop the skills to talk about it productively. 

 

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The Author

BILL NOONAN is an educator and consultant with an international practice that includes facilitation, conducting workshops, and designing web-based learning programs. He has consulted to leading learning organizations such as Federal Express, Hewlett-Packard, Shell Oil Company, and Herman Miller.

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DISCUSSING THE UNDISCUSSABLE

Since his 1990 landmark book Overcoming Organizational Defenses, Chris Argyris has extensively researched and written about how well-meaning, smart people create vicious cycles of defensive behavior to protect themselves from embarrassment and threat. In Discussing the Undiscussable, Bill Noonan enlivens the scholarly work of Chris Argyris through the use of reflective exercises and easy-to-read chapters that illuminate the basic human experience endemic to the creation of defensive routines. This book offers hope for altering organizational defensive routines by leveraging the greatest opportunity for change—the way we think and act.

Discussing the Undiscussable provides a set of practical “how to do” exercises for detecting, surfacing, and discussing organizational defensive routines in a safe and productive way. The combination of text, business fable, and interactive and reflective exercises is versatile in its application to both individuals and groups. The companion website contains video vignettes of the book’s business fable where the actors model both defensive routines and virtuous cycles of behavior. Readers will instantly recognize what has long been going on in the workplace, and will be able to develop the skills to talk about it productively.

Praise for Discussing the Undiscussable

“I highly recommend this book to leaders, consultants, and anyone else who wants to help teams and organizations learn to address their most challenging issues. Bill Noonan’s insights, stories, and practical methods make this an important book to read.”
—Roger Schwarz, author, The Skilled Facilitator, and coauthor, The Skilled Facilitator Fieldbook

“Noonan makes Chris Argyris’s pathbreaking work on organizational defensive routines accessible, and even entertaining.”
—Bruce Patton, coauthor, Getting to YES and Difficult Conversations

“Whether at work or home we can use Bill Noonan’s work to improve our lives and those of the people we interact with.”
—Robb E. Van Cleave, treasurer, International Board of Directors, Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM)

“In a world of increasing complexity where multiple perspectives are required for addressing work issues, the ability to guide groups in having honest discussions where both intuition and data are given full and fair consideration is more and more important.”
—Ralph Biggadike, professor, management division, Columbia Business School

"Discussing the Undiscussable" provides a set of practical " how to do" exercises for detecting, surfacing, and discussing organizational defensive routines in a safe and productive way. The combination of text, business fable, and interactive and reflective exercises is versatile in its application to both individuals and groups. The companion DVD contains video vignettes of the book' s business fable where the actors model both defensive routines and virtuous cycles of behavior. Readers will instantly recognize what has long been going on in the workplace, and will be able to develop the skills to talk about it productively.

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Discussing the Undiscussable

A Guide to Overcoming Defensive Routines in the WorkplaceBy William R. Noonan

Jossey-Bass

Copyright © 2007 William R. Noonan
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-7879-8632-2

Chapter One

Framing the Issue

The Work of Chris Argyris

Innovation, ingenuity, and thinking outside the box are often cited as hallmarks of successful organizations, but in practice, their occurrence is rare. More likely, the "way things work around here" is a litany of missed deadlines, low morale, strained relationships, and inept problem solving. In fact, many organizations manage to operate far below the standards of excellence they strive for. Why is that the case?

No one sits down and says, "Okay, here's our plan for lowering morale in the company." No one asks, "What can we do to run this project into the ground?" We are human beings who desire to succeed, to foster creativity, to be competent, and to value the dignity of work. Yet we find ourselves being ineffective, settling for less, and caught in escalating cycles of unproductive behavior toward each other. We also tend to cover up inefficiency to protect ourselves, and come to see those actions as necessary, realistic, and even caring. How does this happen?

I have written this book to help people and their companies sort out these puzzles of human behavior. My inspiration and the foundation for this book is the work of Chris Argyris. Professor Argyris has dedicated his life's work to the topic of human behavior in organizations. His research has shown that our reactions to conditions of threat and embarrassment create patterns of behavior that he refers to as organizational defensive routines. These routines are predictable and ubiquitous in the world of work, and ultimately they do not serve the best interests of an organization. Understanding how each one of us participates in these dynamics is an important step toward creating a productive workplace. Learning how to mitigate or even avoid the resulting discord and loss of productivity is another. My goal is to help you accomplish both. This book, along with its accompanying interactive materials, attempts to make Chris Argyris's work more accessible and practical.

WHAT IS AN ORGANIZATIONAL DEFENSIVE ROUTINE?

Organizational defensive routines arise when we find ourselves under the conditions of threat or embarrassment. In reaction to these conditions, we engage in a characteristic mode of defensive reasoning and behavior. We think, "The problem is not me, but you." If both parties are thinking in the same defensive mode about each other, then the stage is set for some nasty behavior.

Although we would not think of ourselves as being unreasonable or ill intended, we readily concoct private explanations about why others do what they do. We make attributions about each other's motives and intentions and hold other parties accountable for the difficulty when we find ourselves at odds with one another. In the privacy of our own minds, we hold our positions with a high degree of certainty. It is hard to listen when you think the other person is dead wrong. Yet we will be the first to call "Unfair!" if we don't think the other person is listening to us.

None of what we are thinking is spoken directly to the person involved. In fact, when and if we share our emotionally charged assessments, theories, and explanations, we generally do so only with those individuals who we feel will be sympathetic to our views. These private conversations are held behind closed doors, in the hallways and break rooms. Nothing is discussed in public meetings, and rarely, if ever, do the targets of those third-party conversations ever find out what we really think. The result is "open secrets," "undiscussables," or the "elephant in the room." Most everyone can think of some example of this, often accompanied by a juicy story. What is often left out of the story is the teller's complicit participation in it. There is no awareness of how he or she might be involved in creating the open secret, the undiscussable, or the elephant in the room.

These dynamics become a routine part of the workplace culture. Whole departments become encased in assumptions and expectations that feed predictable, vicious cycles of human behavior. As organizational defensive routines take hold of a company's culture, the consequences are increasingly troubling. I have observed companies in which defensive routines proliferate to the point where the organizational culture becomes so toxic to working relationships that the organization's productivity suffers dramatically.

Defensive routines become so ingrained in our social behavior that they become an accepted part of the "way things work around here." What becomes apparent is that the organization, project, or team isn't all that it's cracked up to be. No one is walking the talk, and everyone knows it. When this realization dawns on us, our first reaction is usually sadness, disappointment, or a physical sensation of being let down. People talk of being deflated and dispirited. There is a loss of animation. Animation, by the way, derives from the Latin word animus (m.) or anima (f.), "soul." That definition holds true here. There is a loss of soul.

But even that isn't the whole story. Along with that loss comes a sense of helplessness. Organizational defensive routines are experienced and reported as being external to anyone's control or influence. We distance ourselves from any sense of personal responsibility. We don't realize that we might be as much a part of the problem as the next person. No one knows how to break the cycle and start afresh. This self-fueling, counterproductive process exists in all organizations and plays out in one-to-one interactions, in groups, and across organizational divisions, time and again, to the detriment of all.

These situations are depressing, to put it mildly. They are also much more common than we'd like to think, in organizations of all sizes, shapes, and geographies. But there is a way to break the cycle. And although the process is difficult, it is doable and very much worth the effort.

HOW I CAME TO WRITE THIS BOOK

I came to know Chris Argyris's work and to write this book through an untraditional route. My academic background is steeped in the liberal arts fields of philosophy, psychology, religious studies, and folklore. Prior to my career as an educator and consultant, I made the rounds in a variety of health care professions, mainly in care of the sick and dying.

I never thought I would be writing a business book. Fortunately, my background, particularly in the study of philosophy, has served me well in this line of work. In the study of philosophy, reflection is a requirement, and critical thinking is an essential tool, just as it is in the field of organizational learning. I have never been attracted to a philosophy that is disconnected from living, nor do I desire to ponder thoughts without understanding their practical implications. I follow the precepts of the philosopher Epicurus, who said, "Empty is the argument of the philosopher which does not relieve any human suffering." Translated into the language of action science, knowledge must be actionable if it is to be at all useful.

I recognized in Chris Argyris's work a program of attraction for those with an appetite for reflection. He prescribes a different way of thinking and acting that holds the promise of greater learning, reduction of error, and a fair exchange between conflicting views. Simply said, he offers us a better, more excellent way of behaving in the workplace. In my world of philosophy, demonstrations of the best of human action are called virtues. The word virtue comes from the Latin virtus, which is a translation of its Greek counterpart, arte, "excellence." The antidote to the vicious cycle of human behavior exhibited in defensive routines is a virtuous one in which we act well or most excellent with each other.

I made the connection between virtues and Chris Argyris's work one night when he spoke to a small group of us gathered at a friend's house. Argyris said, "People think that because I am a social scientist, I am interested in the truth. I am not interested in the truth as much as I am in justice: how to treat people with respect and dignity in the workplace." And at that moment, my heart was won over to his work. From my youthful days to adulthood, I was always involved in issues of justice. My generation acted to correct injustices and instilled in me a firm belief that things could change and that I could be part of that effort.

My confidence in my ability, as one individual, to change the world has tempered over the years, but I still believe in the pursuit of justice. Instead of trying to change the world, I now focus closer to home. Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk who lived and died during the turbulent 1960s, once said, "Social justice is how you treat the person next to you." Every encounter I have has become an opportunity to act justly. That evening, Argyris's statement confirmed a connection between his work and the passion I felt for the cardinal virtue of justice.

Acquiring the mind-set and skill set proposed by Argyris for a more just workplace is a matter of learning new behavior through practice. When watching Argyris interact with workshop participants, I would always hear him say, "So, how would you do it? What would you say?" He was interested in seeing if people could produce the behavior they thought would be effective and well intended. He, like other practitioners of action science, was also offering the person a chance to practice.

We learn to do something well by doing it. Practice involves the repeated necessary actions for perfecting a craft. It is the cultivation of good habits. There are good "habits of practice," a definition for virtues used by Thomas Aquinas, to be found in Argyris's work. Like any virtuous activity, these habits of practice don't come naturally, but come about only by doing them. Practice is something we can do, and if we do it well, we can alter the destructive path of defensive routines.

FROM WORKSHOP TO BOOK

In 1998, I had a chance to engage in a full-time practice by working an entire year as an external consultant to Shell Oil Company's Learning and Transformation Services. As part of my work there, I developed a two-day workshop called "Unlocking Organizational Defensive Routines," designed to focus on the interpersonal nature of organizational defensive routines and the practical skill set needed to unlock them. I conducted the workshops while at Shell Oil and, beyond my tenure there, for other companies both nationally and internationally.

On a visit to Shell Oil, Chris Argyris came across my workshop manual and contacted me with the idea of transforming the workshop into a book format. And that is what I have done. Sample lectures have become chapters. The exercises and video scenario, "Fix It Now or Fix It Later," are incorporated into the book in order to facilitate the same aim of the workshop: to help you understand your role in organizational defensive routines.

My intentions in this book are to render the work of Chris Argyris into the everyday language of personal interactions. I hope to faithfully represent his work at a conceptual level and, more important, make it come alive for those who wish to put into practice the skill set and concepts based on his research. In this endeavor, I hope to fulfill what I believe is his true desire for his work: to make it actionable.

I should note, however, that although the concepts and skill set found in this book are Chris Argyris's intellectual property, I do bring to his work my own experience. As of this writing, I have been a practitioner of his work for more than fourteen years. I have striven to put into practice the thinking and actions prescribed by his research. In this book, I offer up my own mistakes, practical suggestions, and way of thinking about his work so as to help you practice it better.

THE STYLE OF THE BOOK

Organizational defensive routines have been the subject of many scholarly articles and books, but this is not one of them. This book contains no longitudinal studies, empirically based research, or extensive quotations from the field's literature. Although these methodologies of academia are valuable, they run the risk of objectifying organizational defensive routines as a phenomenon to be studied apart from our own involvement. I want to avoid creating any further distance from this human reality that is already designed to remove us from any accountability for its existence.

For this reason, I am not writing in an academic voice, but a personal one. I will rely on examples of my own thinking and acting to demonstrate the qualities of defensive reasoning. I will share case studies and stories from my consulting practice to illustrate this fundamental human dynamic we have in common with each other. I hope that the use of my personal voice will evoke a sense of identification on your part. If it does, then you will stand a greater chance of altering the defensive routines in which you participate with the people in your daily life.

Use of Metaphors

My personal voice gravitates toward the use of metaphor. I like playing with metaphors. They appeal to more than just our intellect. They tickle the imagination, evoke emotions, and establish common meaning quickly. Metaphors help us grasp complex realities and apprehend their entirety in a single image. In the words of Paul Riceour, a French philosopher of linguistics, metaphors "yield a surplus of meaning." Imaginative metaphors can tutor our imaginations and thoughts in new directions.

I hope to expand the metaphorical vocabulary for how we think about organizational defensive routines. Currently our language is bound up in the mechanical imagery of controlling and fixing them. We need metaphors to help us dispel their "aura of externality" so that we can more easily discover our own complicity. The right metaphor can help us find a new direction for freeing ourselves from their destructive impact.

Use of Storytelling

In this book, I also use storytelling as a means of making sense of organizational defensive routines and as a teaching tool. Traditionally, business books have used case studies as a format for teaching business principles. They are a form of story, but objectified and removed from the reader. This approach is valuable to a cognitive comprehension of various business issues and challenges. In fact, a little distance helps the process of moving from the concrete to general principles.

In the case of organizational defensive routines, however, "a little distance" can only further reinforce the perception that they are an external reality existing outside our personal influence or involvement. As previously mentioned, I wish to avoid this message, so I am relying on a fictional narrative instead of an abstracted business case. Fictional narrative has a greater potential to draw you deeper into the complexities of human interactions. Identification with the characters opens up the possibility of introspection-to see how similar or dissimilar you are to them.

The Fictional Narrative

The fictional narrative is called "Fix It Now or Fix It Later." The business context is specific to the oil industry, but the problem is generic to anyone who has had to face the decision to fix a soon-to-be-failing piece of equipment. Have you ever heard a small squeak or, worse, a slight grinding sound when you hit the brake pedal in your car? If you have, you might have thought something like, "Oh no, not now. I don't have time this week to be without my car. Besides, this is a bad month for a repair bill. I wonder if I can wait two weeks." You might wait the two weeks, get the brakes fixed, and move on. But then again, you might find yourself at some point pushing the brake pedal to the floor, not stopping, and smashing into the car in front of you. When you hear that first squeak, do you fix it now or run the risk of failure? The fictional narrative in this book begins with the characters facing just such a "squeak."

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Discussing the Undiscussableby William R. Noonan Copyright © 2007 by William R. Noonan. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Jossey-Bass
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2007
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0787986321
• ISBN 13: 9780787986322
• Einband: Tapa blanda
• Auflage: 1
• Anzahl der Seiten: 290
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar