Environment 1. Where do I fit in?
Assumption / assertion: I'm an actor in the sense of the sociologist-- broader a sense than the dramaturgical meaning. I have my own goals for myself, beyond those of my position / organization, I have an autonomy (management of my subjects, my time, my resources, ... ), I act with good reasons--even if those reasons are my own--, I experience uncertainties which I look forward to reducing. Finally, I can make some people do what they would not have done without my asking them, a working definition of power.
Tool - skills: Questioning for discovery, three issues to be addressed in this order: what you do, what you find is difficult and the relationships you have with other people or roles.
Experimentation - know-how: self- questioning
You can choose between two environments:
1) You may want to work on your present job.
2) You may prefer to work on a project, a past job. In this case, preferably choose a topic as recent as possible .
Having chosen your environment, ask yourself what you are/have been doing, which is difficult for you and with whom you interact.
What you do. Not quite the job description, but what you actually do. Describe your typical day, how you start in the morning, etc.
Which is difficult. There is always something difficult in what we do. This can be a concern. This can be a soluble or insoluble problem, a difficulty resolved or in the process of being resolved, a technical or relational concern.
With whom you interact. Individuals or groups of people.
Add a sign on each relationship: is it warm? note "+". Is it tense? note "-". Emphasize the strength of the relationship, put several signs if you feel like it: "+ +" , etc.
Stakeholders Involved: Myself. Yes, it is mine to start doing it.
Feedback dialogs
Sarah. I started listing my job, but I quickly moved to what I do every day, there is a lot of relationships with others, many different people. PM. That's different from the job description. Sarah. I'm impressed, I did not expect that. PM. A lot of relationships. Sarah. That is the essence of my day. I do my best, I go by feel with people, but sometimes it does not work. When my contacts are another department, they tend to refer me to their leader, and when they are within my own department, they are nice but not very competent, so it takes time. Everything takes time. It's amazing how long it takes. I feel discouraged sometimes. PM. As if you'd burn a lot of energy. Sarah. Or rather the feeling of moving slowly, very slowly, as if the organization had a headache.
Sophie. I do not see the point of spending time to ask these questions, I know very well what I do, what is difficult is to complete my job and that's all, and I work for a whole lot of people. PM. Everything can continue as it is, the situation is under control. Sophie. Not quite, but it's my job to bring it under control, actually. PM. What do your colleagues say? Sophie. They say it's the same for them, but I do not think so. There are people with whom it does not work, who refrain from cooperating, who think only about their problems. PM. So, it looks like the control is not total. Sophie. They want to keep control over what they do, I understand that. PM. So they create uncertainty for you. Sophie. Yes, they create uncertainty for me. And I do not like it .
The next step
Having started with ourselves, continue the process by meeting colleagues (both horizontally and vertically) , starting with those in the most modest positions in the hierarchy.
References: Actors in a system, Crozier-Friedberg . The central idea is that the players have good reason to act as we see them do, we have to discover these reasons. Note that Crozier-Friedberg hypothesize that actors have the psychological resources to play their part; this is where they lean towards psychology. Specifically, if we replace a weird player by a so-called sane person, this logic would dictate that the new actor soon takes tics of their predecessor due to the same parameters in an equal position.
CROZIER M., FRIEDBERF E., Actors and Systems, 1981, Chicago University Press. More detailed, more technical. A reference.