Personal Integration Essentials for
Consultants
By Tita Datu Puangco
People often ask me, how I got into Organization Development Consulting. It is for me a God given gift driven from a faith based perspective. It is the fulfillment of my search for meaning and authenticity. It also happened in perfect time when at a young age I wanted to go beyond my training in journalism and media to find the perfect fit between what one desires and what life has to offer.
I got introduced to the
exciting discipline of Organization Development in 1972, when as a USAID fellow
I attended in Battle Creek Seminar Center, Michigan a workshop involving close
to a 100 people from different nations. The intervention was all a social
experiment—about getting involved in managing change, communications and forming
teams. I was impressed how one’s personhood becomes a vital anchor to changing
external circumstances and its central role to organization effectiveness.
Career
Switch: From Media to OD
I was working in mass
media then having experienced in quick progression different roles and
functions: feature writer, radio producer-announcer, television producer, head
of regional operations. It was creative and challenging work but the idealist
of the change catalyst in me, spurred by being a college student leader during
the sixties (frequently termed as the third quarter storm ) remained hungry for
making the right type of contribution. Organization Development was the
profession I wanted to pursue.
Personal Integration
Test
Joining the consumer
conglomerate that pioneered organization development in business was therefor
for me dream come true. Many situations,
surprising and unexpected can test one’s personal integration. I remember one
incident, when my organization development team spent a week doing diagnosis
and preparation for a team building workshop involving an IT functional team.
The morning of the
workshop as I was about to board the bus to bring us to Tagaytay, I was
introduced to someone who was to replace the former head of the group. Eagerly
I sat beside him only to realize he did not believe in organization development
and felt the team building was a waste of resources. It was a dampener. I
probed gently asking questions trying to understand where he was coming from.
Then after much listening I started to share the findings of our diagnosis and
the design that we developed. He started nodding as if to say, he will give us
a chance to prove ourselves.
The team building
intervention was a success and the manager became our promoter and sponsor with
the other units. Remaining calm and personally integrated has converted our
skeptic into a believer.
Managing the Negative Self
Some of the concepts,
tools and processes I have found usefulto help in self integration, I keep in
my memory treasure chest. I remember studying in the United States and realizing
that our respect for elders and the relatively high power distance gave me a
certain timidity and shyness that prevented me from expressing my ideas. My dad
would remind me that every person deserves respect and that we all have equal
rights and not be scared by appearances. He knew what he was talking about,
having been a Fullbright Hayes scholar at the Ohio State University in the
fifties. After all everyone “sits on the porcelain chair every morning”, he
casually said. He can never imaging how helpful that image wasin moments when I
feel inadequate and inferior.
Onion Concept of Self
The other image is of
the onion concept of self. I can no longer recall the author. But the idea is
when we are born, we are “good, true and beautiful” so congruent of a person
being made “in the image and likeness of God.” But life’s circumstances and our
need for survival causes us to grow layers like an onion. Two more layers form,
one is the negative self concept and the other the “positive yet phony self”.
When I interact as an OD consultant I imagine myself peeling the layers of the
onion to arrive at my “genuine and authentic self.” Then emptying myself of my
ego, I am more ready to receive and listen to the inputs of the client and
discover what is the right intervention for the situation.
Transactional Analysis
The other concept that
appeals to me is “transactional analysis”popularized by Eric Berne. It is as
cited in Wikipedia as a “popular psychologythat one’s behavior and social
relationships reflect an interchange between parental, adult and childlike
aspects of personality established in early life”. In crucial situations the
awareness of the particular role played and the ability to process one’s self
becomes useful. It leads to enhanced mastery of oneself.
Some strategies from Thai
Nguyen, an athlete can equally be useful for organization development
consultants. One, become the best version of yourself that will spark change in
others. Two, make peace with your past that allows you a more objective
approach to the future. Three, challenge your self. Four, keep a journal that
will enhance awareness of your behaviors and thought patterns.Five, audit
yourself as self mastery starts with self honesty.
In addition, may I
suggest two vital strategies. One is to develop emotionally and intuitively
through meditation and reflection. Two is to do a journal for thinking through
each intervention experience.
I support Aristotle
when he proclaims “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom”
Tita Datu Puangco is the CEO and
Chairperson of Ancilla Enterprise Development Consulting, a major training and
organization development company in the Philippines with an Asian reach. It
specializes in enterprise transformation, executive coaching, corporate leadership
and functional training, human resource systems, learning events and management
of business training centers. Visit Tita’s Blog at http://titatalkstraining.blogspot.com. For
additional information please
email author at tdpuangco@ancillaedc.com.ph or at tita.puangco@yahoo.com
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