Carrying medicine for a non-profit: Practical organizational change applications of process oriented psychology

by Jon R. Biemer

Manuscript, 2014

Status

Available

Call number

MANUSCRIPT BIEMER, J.

Collection

Publication

In partial fulfillment of requirements for a Certificate of Process Oriented Psychology, Process Work Institute, Portland, OR, 2014

Local notes

http://www.processwork.org/files/Finalprojects/Biemer_J_March_2014.pdf

INTRODUCTION Motivation Two stories exemplify my motivation for writing this paper. After twenty years of service at Bonneville Power Administration, a large electric utility in the Pacific Northwest, I hit an invisible ceiling. I had bid on several supervisorial jobs. Even though I was well qualified and had good people skills, someone else was always selected. It wasn’t your usual kind of discrimination. I am a white male. I had no major personnel conflicts in my history. Nor was reverse discrimination the cause. I honestly accepted the fact that, at each decision point, someone else was a better fit for the job. But what was missing? One day on a hike a fellow worker and friend said off-handedly, “Jon, they don’t know what to do with a Shaman.” For the most part management needs people it can understand. My second story is of knowing a Process Work Institute graduate. While he understood Process Work, he did not find a niche in the professional world where he could apply his new-found skills. His challenge, while specific to himself, highlighted for me the lack of guidance Process Workers have in applying their powerful tools in the consensus reality (aka mainstream) professional world. While we might wish otherwise, a host organization has tolerance limits for doing things differently than it has always done them. We work within those limits or we work elsewhere. I will show with this paper how Process Work principles may be applied while honoring the limits of a host organization. I hope that other Process Workers and the Process Work Institute will benefit from this effort. Approach This case study focuses only on my in-depth experience with one organization. My stories demonstrate how Process Work techniques have been applied. The narrative is arranged somewhat chronologically to give the reader a feel for the cumulative unfolding of organizational change. Chapter 1 will orient the reader to the circumstances of this case study. At the beginning of each chapter I briefly explain relevant Process Work principles. The first three chapters highlight Process Work concepts that required little or no cooperation from anyone else in the organization. To maximize accessibility, Process Work concepts are in bold italics and other organizational change concepts are shown in bold. The Appendix offers a table that roughly translates between these concepts. To protect confidentiality the subject organization will be referred as the “Community Inspiration Council” (IC) with its “Elders Program” and its “Imagine Our Future Program”. Incidents depicted are as they happened.

Barcode

BIE001
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