Organisational Spirit and Reinvigoration

We know what we mean when we say there is a lack of "team spirit". And we can see the same thing on a bigger scale with a lack of "organisational spirit".

A spirited organisation (like a spirited team) has a vigour and vitality about it. You have that sense that it is going somewhere to do something. This is an organisation that feels alive with togetherness, and heart and action. 

If "spirit" sounds too esoteric - it's worth remembering that most ancient languages have the same word for "spirit" and "breath". And that doesn't mean they had two clear concepts that happened to share a word (like how a dog barks and a tree has bark) but that they made no distinction between these concepts. So in Latin/Ancient Greek/Hebrew breath was spirit - and spirit was breath. And we still see this in english words like inspiration which means both the process of being awakened to something and the drawing in of breath.

So a dispirited organisation might also be thought of as an org that is short of breath. There is not enough oxygen in the blood. There is not enough aliveness flowing to the organs. It i not easy to access energy to do things or to improve things or to change things.

Trouble breathing - CDC on Unsplash

Causes of dispiritedness

So let's take this as grounding and diagnose some possible causes of dispiritedness:

• Heart issues - Do we have a clear sense of identity and purpose? Why do we matter as an organization? Is this a place where we can truly invest our passion and commitment? Are we doing good?

• Breathing difficulties - Are we resourced? Do we have helpful tools and processes? Are we overwhelmed? Are we rushing and never stop to 'catch our breath'?

• Problems in the blood/circulation - does energy/attention flow to all parts of the org? Are we united or divided? Are we flexible enough to respond and adapt to new situations?

• Lack of fitness - Do we support personal and professional growth? Do we follow through on our commitments? Have we lost focus or taken on too much? Have we 'swallowed' ideas or practices or processes that leave us bloated?

• Anxiety - are we an emotionally and psychologically supportive system? is there trust and good relationships? How do we respond when things go wrong? Are we an encouraging place that creates courage?

• And of course external threats - How are we responding to technological and social changes? What are the trends in our marketplace? Who are our competitors and what are they up to? How are we affected by regulations? How is our work impacting and being impacted by the climate/environment?

But diagnosing alone is not our main interest. We want to know how to respond.

First let's take a deep breath and acknowledge some obvious (but often unacknowledged) truths:

• Becoming dispirited is a thing that happens - to all of us and to all our orgs

• It is not always easy to count, but is often obvious to sense

• Being dispirited is an untenable situation if we want to perform

• It is to do with the way energy flows/grows - with how we work together

• Acknowledging the ways in which we are dispirited is an important step to rekindling our aliveness

• We are not helpless in the face of dispiritedness - that it is not esoteric even if it is energetic - that we can encourage and equip ourselves and our orgs to rediscover our spirit

So, what do we DO with a dispirited organisation?

Orgs are complex so it's naive to suggest we can find the one single cause or even more so the one clear fix. But at Let's Go we believe that is possible to reinvigorate dispirited organisations. That is our focus now, has been in our collective practice for a few decades, and an active learning process on every project since 2016.

Most answers are context and situation dependent. What works in one org at one time might not work in another org or at another time. So in general you need an experimental approach: try things and grow what lands/works vs get too attached to 'knowing'. And this is always about the art of the possible - it's rare to have all the power, not every lever is under your influence, it's never the "right" moment. But in your imperfect context is where to make a start - doing what you can where you are. Good work done right will open up more possibilities than waiting for the perfect context/moment.

But beyond those general points - there are two things we can say that are always helpful places to start:

1. There are different levels at which interventions can work - and working on multiple levels at once is much more powerful than just on one.

Selecting the frame - Evan Wise on Unsplash

The work of reinvigorating can happen at the level of:

• Individuals - building skills and awareness for facing issues in a healthy way, improving collaboration and leadership skills, giving tools that work in the context.

• Teams - building togetherness, performance, and experimenting with new ways of working (and not working) together on our task.

• Communities - building cross-functional connections in meaningful communities of practice where new conversations and new practice can be encouraged and equipped.

• Systems - by which i mean a coherent arena (with a clear edge) like a division or business or network - here we can shape the agenda, set compelling vision and strategy, process improvement, stopping things.

Our perspective is that its unlikely that working on any one level or with any one task will be sufficient. So you can't "skills and mindsets" your way to a reinvigorated org - and you equally cant "articulate a compelling purpose/strategy" your way or "team build" your way.

2. There are different dynamics that might need attention - and having a clear sense of which might need more attention will help you shape better interventions

Distinguishing between colours - Ying Chih on Unsplash

Here's where we get to the Let's Go Model and why it's such a helpful way of seeing the energetics of collaborative organisations. Each dynamic is like a frequency to tune into, or part of the colour spectrum that makes up the whole picture.

• Belief - an understanding of where we are going and why. The energy of purpose, vision, and motivation.

• Structure - clarity on who will do what when - order and processes and resource allocation. The energy of calm confidence in our plans.

• Involvement - the sense of involvement between people and across divisions - the flow of communication, the quality of dialogue, the diversity of perspectives/experience/expertise. The energy of ideas and each person/team/division having their place.

• Progress - deciding and moving to action and weighing up how we are doing. The energy created by seeing wins - both big and small.

• Care - investment in relationships and real connections. The energy of belonging and togetherness - which gives resilience and a deeper commitment.

The Let's Go Model®

All of these dynamics are at play in the work of reinvigorating - but often one or two are more out of balance than the others. And if you don't have the structure you need then no amount of care will compensate for that. Or if you cant make any progress then a high level vision will feel empty and belief will fall away.

3. This is collaborative work - reinvigorating a dispirited organisation must be leader-led and bottom-up, with cross-functional/inter-disciplinary participation.

Leaders set the tone from the top by what they care about and what they act on. Their voices are disproportionate and without their deep engagement the work will struggle for attention. But on the other hand they are blinkered by (1) the way feedback flows (people speak softly to power) and (2) by only dealing with aggregated information they cant always get a feel for what is needed.

So you need cross-functional/inter-disciplinary participation for a few reasons.

• Practically, people with different perspectives see the world differently and each angle sheds light on what is needed - and as participants work together they are able to see what matters most across areas.

• Symbolically, if "people like me" aren't included then its difficult to trust.

• Pragmatically, it's more possible to speak the truth to power when you are a collective.

There are many ways you can do this - depending on the context you might want a tighter core team or a wider network. Sometimes both.

Much more to say

This short article is an attempt to lay out some of our thinking. There is much more to say and much more to learn. This fundamentally is a labor that many people are engaged in without realising it - our sense is that this needs to be recognised as an important practice in the health and performance of organisations. And vital to that is to dismantle the distinction between "hard" and "soft" - and see that "culture" and "performance" can not be seperated. Organisations are only spirited when they have both.

Organisational spirit is something that people can sense and it impacts everything that matters.

And, of course, If you are tasked with this work in your org - do talk to us - this is our work at Let's Go.