Coaching Leaders Who Are Living on a Warped Plane

In addition to all of the fast learning that must occur, the ball/organization may be in for a spectacular ride! And the leaders of this organization may find the services of experienced coaches to be invaluable. The ball enters the second valley at an angle and at the peak of one of the second valley’s ridges. Therefore, it will tend to roll high up on the opposite ridge of this second valley. It may even roll over the top of this second valley into yet another valley (another revolution). Regardless of the valley in which it settles, the ball will swing back and forth wildly from one ridge to the other before settling into a more stable pattern of slowly oscillating, self-correcting movement down the floor of this valley.

What determines the nature and outcome of the movement of the ball/organization down the warped plane? We have already mentioned speed as an important determinant. The faster the ball is moving, the more likely it is to shift between adjacent valleys. The amount of oscillation is also dependent on the height of the ridges. Adjacent valleys and organizational types with low ridges (highly permeable boundaries) are conducive to frequent movements between valleys. Thus, in a postmodern world with highly permeable boundaries, we are likely to find more revolutionary changes in organizations—more swinging between valleys.

The amount of oscillation within a specific valley is also dependent in part on the amount of friction that exists between the ball and the plane on which it is rolling. High levels of friction in a valley tend to slow down the roll of the ball and hence the extent (and height) of the movement up the side of either ridge of the valley. Organizational valleys exhibit friction to the extent that they have strong cultural resistance to change. Organizations with dominant, stable cultures tend to slow down oscillations as well as the movement of the organization down the valley. As I mentioned earlier, complex organizations (with many triangulations) are likely to be less efficient and responsive to change, are more likely to be stable. Ironically, as I have already mentioned, these organizations are also likely to be vulnerable to large-scale and disruptive changes. If the ball does roll into a second valley, everything must be adjusted—revolution is inevitable!

Effective (and powerful) coaching in a contemporary organizational setting might best be described as a short-term excursion of the ball/organization into foreign valleys: into valleys that can be anticipated, valleys that offer alternative perspectives on the valley in which the leader is now traveling, or alternative valleys that might better serve the leader and her organization.  As coaches we help our clients enter these foreign valleys not by chance, but by choice.

What about dancing landscapes? When living on Waddington’s chreod, the leader/ball moving down the warped plane “feels” that this plane is a dancing landscape.  The leader/ball enters a new valley. It is a tipping point for the leader—it is experienced as a dancing landscape. Is the landscape actually dancing, or is it the ball on the warped plane that is entering a different valley—“tipping” over the top of the ridge? Everything changes when one is moving into an unanticipated valley and rolling in a new manner through this new valley. Leaders need the assistance of coaches when living and moving of this warped plane. They feel vulnerable—with considerable justification.