Living in a volatile organisational environment

It is not uncommon to find ourselves having to cope with pressures and volatility in the organisation we work in. Sometimes, this can feel overwhelming. The world in general seems to be becoming more volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (‘VUCA’*) as time goes on.

Challenging environments

Frustrations and obstacles arise in dealing with bosses, colleagues, direct reports, customers and others. For many of us, the difficulties and uncertainties that we experience come to feel like ‘our’ inadequacies. We turn to self-blame, impostor syndrome, feelings of being alone and of being not good enough. We over-think, self-analyse, ‘take work home with us’, give up…

An example

 A person working in an organisation finds their boss(es) increasingly unsupportive and/or increasingly controlling. There may also be concern or criticism from above about the performance of the person or the team for which they are responsible. The individual may feel personally responsible for their team’s failings or may feel overly defensive, laying blame for failings higher up the organization. Often, the individual comes to feel isolated, inadequate, stressed and stuck.

How coaching can help

It is important to realise two things: a) We are all ‘damaged goods’, products of our unique past circumstances, upbringings and educations. We all have our habitual ways of coping with and reacting to stress and of seeing the world. Also, b) the patterns of relating with others in and around organisations (not only workplaces but families, societies, etc) often follow very typical and recognisable patterns, known as ‘system forces’.

Moreover, there is a link between a and b.

Life coaching for work can include introducing material which helps make more visible these organisational ‘systems’ at work. Other material might be to do with helping to develop awareness of self (one’s own habitual patterns), awareness of others, and on improving clarity and effectiveness of communication and collaboration.

The coaching work itself then revolves around the application of these ideas in the circumstances of the person’s environment. Seeing the patterns, becoming more effective at navigating them, developing skills in communication with team, colleagues, bosses and outsiders.

We discuss examples of issues that have arisen in the workplace. We explore the habitual reactions experienced (in us and what we see in others), we play with possible alternatives. We rehearse, we role-play, we ‘try on a new garment’.

We look at what occurs through the systems lens. Can we recognise the tensions as not personal failings but as typical, recognisable playing out of predictable phenomena?

In these ways we step outside of ourselves, so to speak, become less caught up in the personal, our own or others’ failings, and become an ‘observer’. As we become more detached, the range of our options expands and our freedom to act, and our effectiveness, increases.

*VUCA is an expression introduced by the US Army War College after the end of the Cold War.