Visible Agreements, Invitations and Accountability: Making the Implicit Explicit

In Stina’s work she helps people see and be seen.
Organizational cultures that prioritize belonging and well-being outperform those that don’t.

Just as a human body functions as a single integrated unit even though it is a multitude of cells, the superorganism of a honey bee colony operates as a single coherent whole even though it is a multitude of bees.” ~from Honey Bee Democracy by Thomas D. Seeley.

Relational vs Transactional Relationships
Make treating your people as people your highest priority.

We all know what it feels like to feel unseen as a person at work – just filling a function. We have a script we follow and a transaction takes place. But when we create workplaces where people are treated as people – as worthy of being seen, valued for more than their function, cared about and celebrated – so much more is possible. 

Transactional means to treat people as a transaction – something to do, something to accomplish, a checkbox sort of activity…  versus something connecting to someone. We don’t create a sense of belonging in transactions… When working in relationship with each other, we create a feeling of belonging — accountability to each other, even if it is through brief interactions. We see each other. Relationships built on listening, trust building, longevity and openness will flourish more than interactions that are one-of or one-sided. Relationships over transactions. ~Fakequity Blog July 16, 2021

If we start treating people like people and not assuming that they are simply horses (the ideology of carts and sticks) we can actually build organizations and work lives that make us better off… and make the world just a little better. ~Daniel Pink

Through her coaching and meeting designs, Stina prioritizes honest relating – inviting your whole self into the spaces in which you work. Her meeting designs prioritize people – meaning she designs ways of appreciative relating into the meeting. For people to feel open to relating in new ways, conditions to invite a new degree of psychological safety are consciously set. 

Stina facilitates with compassion and love.
~Multi-day Offsite Retreat Client

Psychological safety is being able to show and employ one’s self without fear of negative consequences of self-image, status or career (Kahn 1990, p. 708). It can be defined as a shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking. In psychologically safe teams, team members feel accepted and respected. ~ Wikipedia

We make the implicit explicit through scoping, individual and group conversations.
Together we share and co-create expectations. We then have flexible new structures for shared accountability in real-time. We have a space to practice new cultural norms together that feels directly related to the group’s values and beliefs. These “agreements” can go by many names and are created through a variety of processes: community invitations, community charter, group guidelines, ground rules, cultural manifesto, team agreements, even Terms of Reference, etc.

Social Contracts: Invisible Agreements

Your core values guide your hiring, firing, and decision-making, while your social contracts guide all other behavior that lies in the gray areas. Social contracts play a supporting role to your core values and sustain your culture with rules of conduct for both the organization and employees. (to read Lorenzo Gomez III’s full article on Why It’s Important to Define the Social Contracts for Your Workplace Culture click here)

We are in a real-time global rewriting of social contracts.

Stina is able to understand how to work with high-powered Type A individuals. She can support the work as well as make people feel safe in sharing. It’s a difficult skill to balance listening with empathetic and insightful comments, which is what Stina can do.
I never felt rushed or put upon by Stina. ~Offsite Retreat Client