DEBRIEFING ON GLOBAL VISION INSTITUTE WORKSHOP:

OPTIMIZING OPPORTUNITY IN A CHANGING ENVIRONMENT

14 October 2010, 1:00-2:15pm, UN Foundation premises

Facilitators: Craig Coble and MaryJane Bullen

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Global Vision Institute (GVI) Vice President Dr. Joni Carley welcomed participants and provided a background of GVI’s mission, history and programming.  She introduced the facilitators, noting their work for the World Bank and NASA among other public and private sector organizations. The participants were drawn from UN staff and representatives of UN-accredited non-governmental organizations (NGOs). 

Craig Coble opened the workshop by outlining the agreement for conduct during the workshop and noting that a power point handout would accompany the interactive exercises. 


He invited participants to identify the Challenges that they feel to change, first sharing their ideas in pairs and then with the larger group for plenary discussion.  Among the challenges were:
  • Workplace culture
  • Level of bureaucratic resistance
  • Uncertainty as to one’s role vis-à-vis change
  • Fear
  • Unmet needs behind the fear
  • People making decisions on change do so without consulting the persons who do the related work
  • A sense of unease about not being able to control the process or know the outcome
  • Increased workload associated with the change, especially as an NGO
Craig asked the group to consider “What if control is an illusion?” He further proposed that the definition of an adult was to have a choice and that to come from a place of no choice was not mature.  He said that one can choose to be a victim, lamenting one’s challenges, or one could choose to be a navigator, taking control of one’s behavior in response to change.  The capacity to be objective was important in being a navigator, notably if one defined emotion as the body’s response to a thought. In order to empower oneself in an environment of change it is key to know oneself and to know one’s values.

Drivers of Change

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Craig invited the participants to identify the Drivers of Change in the United Nations, in pairs and in plenary. These were:
  • Staying relevant
  • Finances
  • Changing self-perception
  • The enthusiasm of youth, especially from outside the UN
  • Political situations
  • Emerging trends in the global climate
  • Visionaries attracting and enrolling early adapters
  • Getting grassroots support
  • Change in management
  • Utter failure
  • Technology, with both positive and negative effects
  • Spread of the middle class sensibility, with positive impact in the sense of increased awareness, and negative influence with respect to promoting a litigative mentality
  • Media as a source of accountability, even if it may be superficial
  • Seeking gender balance, notably in recruitment and appointment practices   

Change Model

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MaryJane noted that there were many models of change, and the one they found most useful for their purposes was Lewin’s Change Model which plotted performance against stages of change, from the Status Quo, to Uncertainty, to Growth and Acceptance, to Improved Performance. 

She asked the group: “Where is the UN in terms of this model?”

Participants commented that to a significant degree performance in the UN was intangible and difficult to measure, making application of the model difficult.  However, to the extent that there are units with discrete quantifiable outputs such as number of books distributed, etc. it would be useful.  It was also emphasized that while largely intangible, people related to the UN’s work strongly, or the staff would not be choosing to work there.

Navigating Change

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In the next segment, Craig asserted that there are things that we can control and some that are beyond our control.  As such, how can you navigate through change for your own reality, by?:
  • Acting as a change model BY CHANGING
  • Identifying opportunities available to you during the change
  • Translating plans/objectives into action TO SUPPORT
 

Participants said that they would put these into action by:

  • Knowing yourself, where you fit in and where you make an impact
  • Communications
  • Staying focussed on the change, implementing it and following up
  • Being attuned to timing and receptiveness, so as to gauge when it is worth it to persevere

    • Craig added that it was also critical to know your values, since values allow you to take a stand.

    Given the time constraint of a lunch hour, the facilitators encouraged participants to continue with exercises on the handout as “Homework”.  These would include asking yourself:
  • What are your values and beliefs?
  • What is your mission for your life, even in changing circumstances?
Take-aways from the work shop included one participant incorporating the ideas into a proposal she planned to submit the following week, and another noting that it would be helpful for her to work from this space of ideas in her future work.

Dr. Carley wrapped up the workshop, thanking the facilitators and participants and noting GVI’s ongoing programming and next event.  In particular, she invited interested participants to sign up for the opportunity to do an individual values assessment exercise offered on a limited complimentary basis by the facilitators as a follow-up to the workshop and deepening work on values and change.

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