April 2009 Ongoing Discussion Announcement, with Peter Stonefield

Peter last joined the Ongoing Discussion as a Thought Leader in December 2005. At this year's Forum Peter is presenting at the In2:InThinking Network's annual Forum, at the weekend conference ("i-Powered Self-Management") and for a post-conference session ("Psychosynthesis").

For this month's Ongoing Discussion, Peter invites us into to a preview of his weekend conference session; that is, a reflective practice around "how we show up", looking deeply into the nature of our interactions with others in our organizations and communities.

In his Thought Piece, Peter contends that "We are being evaluated by a new yardstick now; not just how smart we are, or by our training and expertise, but also how well we handle ourselves and each other." He references a recent article in the Harvard Business Review titled, How Toxic Colleagues Corrode Performance, which cited studies showing the effects of poor self-management issues such as anger, frustration, berating bosses; employees taking credit for others' work, blaming, or spreading rumors; and excluding teammates from networks. All of these cause job satisfaction and performance to fall. Of a sample of people exposed to inappropriate behaviors at work,

48% decreased their work effort
47% decreased their time at work
38% decreased their work quality
66% said their performance declined
80% lost work time worrying about the incident
63% lost time avoiding the offender
78% said their commitment to the organization declined

Further, Peter suggests, most of us, contrary to our values and good intentions, engage in defensive strategies when faced with the competing perspectives of others. We automatically push our viewpoint, attempt to "win", and try to avoid being seen as wrong or not knowing. Frequently we don't even realize when we are doing it. No matter how much we improve organizational structure and processes, or how effectively and quickly we get the right people together, with the right information, our planning and decision-making cannot thrive without altering these defensive patterns. We will continue to experience limited results if we do not learn self-management.

Please join your network colleagues in a vigorous conversation about defensive routines and strategies and what we can do to overcome them and thrive in our work environments.

What defensive strategies do you observe in your own behavior?

What kinds of things push your buttons?

How often do you get emotionally upset, frustrated, defensive or angry?

How often are you very critical or judgmental of self or others?

Do you believe there are skills, behaviors, attitudes or ways of thinking, which if you had them would cause you to be much more effective?

What prevents you from acquiring them?

Are you aware of how you are thinking about these questions right now?

Peter holds a B.S.E.E., M.A., Ph.D. and is President of Stonefield Learning Group. In this capacity, he serves as an executive and technical staff coach, consultant and trainer. He was an electronic engineer, marketing and sales executive for the Bunker-Ramo Corporation before becoming a psychologist. Peter was inspired by psychologist Carl Rogers and one-on-ones with two-time Nobel Prize winning marine biologist Albert Szent-Gyorgyi regarding his theory of a Drive In All Living Matter To Perfect Itself. Roberto Assagioli's psychosynthesis transformed his life and his studies with general systems theorist, Erich Jantsch, author of "The Self-organizing Universe", gave him a more scientific understanding of psychosynthesis. Finally, W.Edward Deming's work opened the door to taking this knowledge into business and government.

Peter has taught graduate-level courses on Cognitive and Creative Process, Psychosynthesis, Counseling Psychology, the Integration of Mind and Feelings and Mind Meditation and Creativity. Some of the business training programs he developed are The Will to Excellence, Optimal Thinking, Managing Innovation, TQM, Agile Communications, Agile Leadership, Knowledge Management, Managing Change, Creative Thinking and Architecture for Teamwork. He has also facilitated the development of 10 knowledge leveraging "Communities of Practice" in engineering and marketing organizations. He was the principal consultant to Region IX of the US Dept. Of Labor, the winner of the 1992 US President's Quality Award for Managing Change and the 1994 winner of the GSA Administrator's Quality Award for Managing Change.
Peter's mission is to catalyze and accelerate the evolution of organizations and people. He is currently working with high tech startups in Silicon Valley.

Contact Peter by email (peter@slgllc.com) with any questions you would like to share with him in preparation for his OD session with us.