Progress needs standstill: camera lens with shutter slats - netzwerk managementberatung | coaching
Photo | Triff on Shutterstock
6 min.

Organisational development

Progress needs standstill - a thesis

From Sabine Walter

Wolf Lotter writes in his prologue to the focus topic "Pause" of the current issue of "brand eins: "The word pause has two meanings that today seem to contradict each other. One is a rest, the other a standstill. A rest is a short interruption of a process that is supposed to continue all the better afterwards. ... Standstill, on the other hand, is a word that the new age has never really been able to handle. ... Standstill is the nightmare of industrialism..."

In this article, I would like to take up the topic and outline why progress requires standstill and why breaks in the conventional sense are not sufficient for this.

Success factors of progress

Progress generally refers to a significant improvement in past conditions. Progress is the result of change, even if not all change means progress. For progress to happen, different frameworks and competencies are needed:

  • a disturbing factor
  • Sense of responsibility
  • Reflective competence, i.e. the ability to assess a condition from the outside. value-neutral to consider
  • a comprehensive perception from different perspectives
  • Analysis strength
  • Exchange with others
  • Networked thinking
  • Creativity
  • Implementation competence

In my work I have made the experience that People and companies often want to force progress. Progress is supposed to happen quickly. Pressure is exerted internally or from outside. In the best case, people or teams allow themselves a short time out for this. With team days, this is often filled with a tight agenda.

But progress does not happen under pressure. Progress takes time and each of the success factors listed above.

Progress begins with a disruptive factor

In order to develop something further and improve it in the process, at least one person in the situation or process must perceive a disruptive factor; something that takes too long, costs too much, is too costly or complex. Something that fails to achieve the desired quality or goal. Something that causes pain or violates one's own values.

This ability to perceive presupposes that this person is not completely absorbed by the process or the situation; both cognitively and emotionally. It needs an open view. It needs an inner anchor and compass of values. It needs accountability. Responsibility for the process and the situation and the confidence to be able to change something.

It is important that people can regulate the speed of the process themselves in order to let individual aspects of it run in "slow motion" if necessary. Processes trimmed to output do not give this possibility. They produce tunnel vision that significantly limits the ability to perceive.

Value-neutral perception from the outside from different perspectives

The individual feeling of disturbance that arises when looking at a process or a situation can have its cause in two things - in the process and in the personality of the observer. Therefore, in a second step, it is important to look at the process or situation from different perspectives, i.e. with the view of the different stakeholders. How do others experience it? What can be perceived as disturbing by them? What not?

These observations are about collecting data and facts in a value-neutral way so that they can then be shared, discussed and the crucial questions of progress can be derived.

The exchange with others: Focus on solutions instead of problems

The aim of the exchange with others is, above all, to derive Future-oriented questions.

  • "How do we manage ...?"
  • "By what do we make it ...?"
  • "What does it take for ...?"
  • "How can we ...?"

The quality of the question is a decisive factor in the quality of the solution, i.e. the progress.

Networked thinking and creativity

Networked thinking makes it possible to apply best practices to other situations and processes and to develop something whole from several impulses. Networked thinking is not possible without transfer competence. But networked thinking without creativity would only allow something new to emerge to a limited extent. Therefore, framework conditions are needed that allow creativity. This includes time and a certain emptiness of thought. This is most likely to arise in a state of boredom, i.e. in standstill.

Implementation competence

In order to create something new out of creativity, you need implementation skills - skills that make it possible to transform creative thoughts into something concrete. People do not always combine both talents. That's why exchange and teamwork is necessary here, too. This illustrates that progress is better achieved in interdisciplinary and diverse teams; in teams whose members complement and mutually enrich each other with their competences.

Recommendations for companies to establish a culture of progress

How do companies succeed in establishing a culture of progress? Here are concrete recommendations for action:

  • Promote working and exchange in interdisciplinary teams.
  • Encourage job rotation. This ensures that you have a certain view from the outside.
  • Exchange ideas with other companies, research institutions or universities and colleges on a regular basis to get impulses and best practices.
  • Regularly ask trainees, working students or interns about disruptive factors. They are not yet "company-blind".
  • Embed a culture of trust in your organisation to get honest answers to your questions.
  • Demand and promote the assumption of responsibility by each individual.
  • Create a culture of entrepreneurial thinking and action.
  • Create free space by setting reasonable deadlines.
  • Accept a: "We can't do this in the time".
  • Encourage self-determined work and creative time-outs.
  • Live an open and constructive feedback culture.
  • Train yourself to perceive and ask questions.

Admittedly: This is a long list. If you don't know where to start, get a a trained view from the outsidewhich shows you - also in comparison with other companies - what you can build on as a company and what still needs to be developed in order to establish a culture of progress in your company as well.

Conclusion

Progress requires standstill. By this I do not mean that nothing happens at all in this phase of pausing, but that there is sufficient time to enter a state of mental emptiness. A state that is free of space and time and allows us to perceive - cognitively and emotionally - to let it take effect, to verbalise and to be creative.

It is better than nothing that teams take time for this once a year. But a culture of progress can only be effectively established if standstill - embedded in the outlined framework conditions - is a permanent companion in the company's everyday life.

Did you find this article helpful?

Contact Newsletter Whiteboard

Whiteboard selection

Galloping horses in front of the Brandenburg Gate - managementberatung | coaching
Graphics | Collage from jiris / dmnkandsk on Shutterstock
To the whiteboard
Call now