Member Care and Organisational Health

Signs of Organisational Health

I am back at Ards Friary, Donegal Ireland. In my mind. In my heart. I come here often. Thinking about healthy organisations. Thinking especially about healthy faith-based organisations. Orwell has been so helpful. But what are the positive examples? How did the Franciscan monks for example, such as here at Ards Friary, maintain a healthy organisational life--and a healthy community?

How rewarding it is to work in an organisation, a community, a team, a network, with these features:

1. Mutual respect among staff
2. Fair pay/compensation
3. Opportunities to make contributions
4. Opportunities for advancement and personal growth
5. Sense of purpose and meaning
6. Management with competence and integrity
7. Safeguards to protect individuals (staff and customers) from injustice
8. Responsibility for actions: owning mistakes, not blaming others or covering up
9. Honesty in communication and public disclosures: not slanting the truth or exagerating
10. Accountability for personal/work life: seeking out feedback and ways to improve, not ignoring or pretending
*

Reflection and Discussion
1. How would you add to or adjust the above list?
2. What are the three core characteristics in an organisation that would make you want to be part of it and really contribute?

Team Resiliency: Trust

Functional Trust and Foundational Trust
This month of March we are continuing the focus on resilient teams and team life. Here are some thoughts on the importance of trust in teams. Let's look at two types of trust.

1. Functional trust is assumed, and needed so that we can work together.

2. Foundational trust is earned, and developed over time and over tough times together.

• These two types of trusts overlap. It is important to understand the difference between having friendly colleagues in a work context (functional trust) and having close friends in a non-work context (foundational trust). For teams the shift from functional to foundational trust may not really be a goal. And if it is a goal, the shift is usually slow. 'What types of trust and relationships do we want on our teams?" is a good question indeed. (See also the blog comments from 29 January 2007 for more discussion on true friendship.)

• “Trust shifts” happen via consistent demonstrations over time that people are seriously and sacrificially committed to each other. This is especially evident during crises, such as a natural disaster that forces people to work together closely, with mutual dependency.

• Further, there is the genuine willingness to put someone else’s best interests over one’s own.

• There is also the deep sense that people are doing their utmost to respect and understand each other.

• People communicate regularly and equitably.

• And finally, people simply follow through on their promises.

Where foundational trust flows, entrenched conflicts usually do not.