Is your community, business or organization rife with conflict?
Are individual and departmental conflicts sabotaging production and growth in your organization?
Do you sometimes feel that clear and congruent communication between all members of your organization is lacking?
If so, then your organization could benefit the services of Imago Processes for Businesses and Organizations utilizes the structure of Imago processes for communication and conflict dissolution.
There are several Imago processes for individuals, dyads (2 people) or groups:
I. Diaflection – A reflective dialogue for two people
Individuals will experience:
- Reflection and further development of their own position
- A deeper understanding of motivation of own position
- A realization or discovery of new, not yet conceived content
- Empathy for the “others” world.
- In understanding a world that had previously been incomprehensible each person can expand his/her own perception and thus create a diversity of perspective that opens up new pathways for action.
Both partners create a space in which they can grow in confidence. New perspectives and ideas emerge from the shared connection.
II. Communo-logue
- Dialogue in a group/department
- Supports conscious listening
- Creates deeper understanding and greater awareness when expressing one’s own ideas.
- Discussion topics and development issues are aired within a supportive, respectful and safe environment
- Produces results which all contributors experience as productive and satisfying
Group discussions on the principle of “who is right” often lead to dissatisfaction, indecision and additional tension. Fundamentals of Communologue is safety and respect for others’ point of view – this promotes creativity, innovation and solutions – all of which are harder to achieve in a competitive discussion environment.
Applications of Communologue:
- Relationship Stabilization
- Group development
- Pre-emptive conflict handling
The communologue is not the best method to achieve concrete solutions – it is rather a way to create a common atmosphere which will later facilitate the:
III. Communo-lution
– (the community finding a solution) this creates an opportunity to work on concrete results and solutions, working on a specific topic that leads to clearly defined actions.
The process invites each person to air his/her opinions in several rounds of discussion. In each round a pre-defined content is processed:
- Each person voices his/her intention/purpose/goal
- Differing perspectives
- Compatibility, re-framing, merging of different perspectives
- Action/Implementation of concrete steps.
- Decisions are made by consensus – leading to direct implementation of solutions or to look at superior structures of responsibility for decision-making.
Communoflection is a development and reflection model in which a team supports a team member when addressing an issue, solving a problem or overcoming a blockade.
So………………
If you would like to:
- Improve communication between members of your organization, community, business or institution
- Provide a space of safety for individuals to express themselves and be heard
- Provide an environment for the creation of fresh ideas
Then your organization would benefit from the structure of Imago processes provided by Paula Smith, Imago Facilitator. Contact 401-782-7899 or email: paulasmith@post.harvard.edu.