Although many scholars and practitioners focus on expanding networks to maximize leverage, Paddock and Nilsson focus on internal dynamics – “inscaping,” they call it, with a nod to the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins. By “inscaping,” they mean paying close attention to intra-personal and interpersonal experience within the organization.
The authors write, “When we’re trying to wrestle with the large and complex issues ‘out there,’ why would it help to dwell on the relatively small issues “in here”? Part of the answer may be that, in the end, there is no ‘out there.’ The cultural, economic, technological, and moral complexities that social innovators confront don’t respect organizational boundaries. . . . They are in the room.”
This simple observation is brilliant. Clearly, there’s no escaping the personal at work; but how many organizations actively consider, respect, and incorporate the personal experience of their members?
Paddock and Nilsson distinguish between work inscaping, which involves frankly exploring the personal experience of day-to-day work, and life inscaping, which involves sharing aspects of life outside of work. They note that some organizations are very good at one or the other (many are good at neither), but that the transformative organization is good at both.
Obviously, being good at either or both of these forms of inscaping might require considerable organizational change. Happily, Paddock and Nilsson offer some very concrete strategies for beginning that change. These include “role hacking” (switching roles for a day or two), encouraging divergent opinion and thought, personalizing feedback, and eliciting personal responses when planning or evaluating programs– not just emotions, but insights, doubts, and hunches.
Two important points of clarification: “inscaping” is not group therapy, and it’s not a management-driven, top-down exercise. It must be organization-wide to be effective.
What do you think? Can you see your organization embarking on a process to enhance work and life inscaping? How would you start?
I’d love to discuss it with you. Be in touch!