Organizational Development Barbie
Barbie is ready for some team interventions!
Of all the hubbub surrounding the new Barbie movie (of which I am a huge fan), I’ve been mulling over one critique from my viewing partner - and what it reminds me about the work of organizational development.
Some Barbie background, but no major spoilers!
The dolls in Barbie Land all believe that the creation of Barbies has fixed the Real World and “solved all problems of feminism and equal rights.”
But of course, the Real World in the Barbie Movie is the same as our real Real World - equality is far from reality, which Barbie learns all too soon when she travels to the Real World herself.
My viewing partner expressed disappointment at the end of the movie that the Real World wasn’t fixed of any of its inequality, patriarchy, or misogyny. Instead, the movie calls us to appreciate the imperfect, messiness of life. Still, the movie does leave you with this wistful sigh of, “but couldn’t Barbie actually just make the Real World better?”
Except…I saw something hiding, a window into what that better Real World can be. Gloria’s husband (a character of the Real World) is quietly sitting at home trying to learn Spanish while his wife is on an epic adventure with Barbie. We’re supposed to laugh at his obliviousness.
He was funny. And he was, at least to me, an example of how life can be when there is positive change and development towards equality. He trusts his partner, even when she randomly disappears. He diligently practices a skill that he knows is important to her. He doesn’t defend himself when his daughter and wife call him out for appropriating their language. There is no mansplaining. There is no dominance. In short, he shows up for the women in his life in the way that matters to them (and I’m sure they do the same for him).
Barbie and Organizational Development
Like the Real World in the Barbie movie our organizations are not the beautifully organized, healthy, equal workplaces effectively working for a better world as we often think they are, or at the very least, wish them to be.
Change management is hard. Your DEI effort is a struggle. The organizational development process is non-existent. Coaching and team interventions derail. Because of the challenge of OD and OD-related efforts, organizations often either focus only on the more tangible process management task or no change-related effort at all, to their detriment.
We do, in fact, need dramatic systemic changes in our world and organizations to fully realize justice and equity, as well as our organizations’ missions. But, like Barbie, we don’t need to be hamstrung from making important changes just because our world/organization isn’t as great as we thought it was. Like the way’s of Gloria’s husband, what are the simple, every day ways we can make things better right now, in the imperfect, messy context we’re in.
Here’s a few simple actions that can form a foundation of healthier organizations:
Transparency. Do staff know how decisions are made in your organization? Do they know who decides what, how, and with which people are involved? Are you regularly communicating to all staff about the challenges, successes, and learnings across the organization? Do you ask people who are distant from formal leadership if they actually feel like they know what’s going on (and truly be okay and learn from their honest answer)?
Listening. Do you take time in meetings to truly listen to your colleagues, especially people you supervise? Not listening to respond, or even active listening, but empathetic listening? Do you learn about and practice listening? If there is a conflict do you take a minute to ensure you understand the person talking to you, as affirmed by them, rather than immediately moving to clarifying, problem-solving, or defending?
Gratitude. Do you express thankfulness for your staff and their hard work, regularly, often, and in various ways? Not just when a big accomplishment or work project is finished, but for the every day persistence or their work? For taking care of themselves, and holding the boundary to step away from work when they need to? For just being who they are?
Decision-making. This one I think starts to veer into the “not so simple” zone, but this one, especially for senior management, can be singularly and quickly implemented if one chooses to do so. Do you push decision-making down? Do you feel you have to decide most everything because of your position or are there opportunities where you can support supervisees, mentees, and junior colleagues to make the decision, to take a risk, to try that new idea?
“The Simple Side of Complexity”
There’s a whole body of work about “organizational simplicity” equaling a better functioning business. And in my training, John Paul Lederach, encourages peacebuilders to explore what Oliver Wendell Homes calls the “simple side of complexity-” to get to the essence of a conflict and its possibility for transformation. There truly are seemingly simple every day actions we can take in our organizations to move some of our organizational development needs forward and build healthier, stronger workplaces. Imagine, if more of us were persistently and patiently doing the little things, like Gloria’s husband, sweetly practicing how to say “boligrafos.” As Gloria’s daughter, Sasha, says, “we can’t make it perfect, but we can make it better.”
Resources
I enjoyed this recent article from one of my OD teachers, Nan Gesche, with more concrete examples of organizational development steps one can take by using, not the Barbie movie as metaphor, but a bike trip.