Table Of Content

WWW.BAREFOOTGUIDE.ORG This publication has been made possible through the valuable and ongoing support of these partners of the Community Development Resource Association (CDRA): © Copyright Barefoot Collective (See page 5 for further details) ISBN 978-0-620-43240-5 First Impression: July 2009 Initiating writers: Doug Reeler, Rubert Van Blerk, James Taylor, Desiree Paulsen, Sue Soal (Community Development Resource Association, South Africa) Editor and Cartoonist: Andy Mason (N.D.Mazin) Co-writers: Catherine Collingwood (Independent practitioner, South Africa) Christine Mylks (Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) International) Karabo Monatisi (Treatment Action Campaign, South Africa) Khayalethu Mofu (Treatment Action Campaign, South Africa) Manas Ranjan (ActionAid India) Maureen Mbuyongha Anfumbom (Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), Cameroon) Nomusa Sokhela (Church Land Programme, South Africa) Phakama Pyoos (Treatment Action Campaign, South Africa) Saani Yakuba (ActionAid Ghana) Simon Brown (Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), Nepal) Tracey Martin (Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), Nepal) Website: Laura Garcia-Puig (Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), Nepal) and Rubert Van Blerk (Community Development Resource Association, South Africa) Layout Artist: Paula Wood (Paula Wood Design, South Africa) Administration and Finance: Linda Njambatwa and Vernon Weitz (Community Development Resource Association, South Africa) Contributions: Rama Naidoo (The Democracy Development Programme, South Africa) and Azer Hasanov (Oxfam UK) Contact: Please contact us via email – [email protected] This book can be freely downloaded from: www.barefootguide.org The Barefoot Guide Resource Centre You can fi nd a growing collection of exercises, readings, handouts and case studies that accompany the Barefoot Guide at www.barefootguide.org Printed on Sappi Triple Green paper, whose primary source of pulp is waste suger-cane fi bre. The paper’s wood fi bre comes from sustainable forests and its bleaching process is free from elemental chlorine. Produced by The Barefoot Collective 2009 Illustrated by CC oonntteennttss 1 Introduction - Welcome What is the Barefoot Guide? The People Of The Barefoot Collective Honouring The Sources Of This Guide Copyright And Licensing 7 Chapter One - Shaping Our World New Ways Of Looking At Organisations And Social Change Why Organisations Matter Seeing What Is There, Supporting What Is Possible Seeing The Future In Sovereign Local Organisations Key Aspects Of Sovereign Organisations Seeing Organisations: Machines or Living Systems? Key Principles and Ideas Guiding this Book Seeing the Ways Organisations Change Seeing the Future Organisation of Society 23 Chapter Two - Inside Out Towards understanding ourselves, other people and how we change Asking Good Questions Good Facilitation And Facilitative Leadership The Threefold Human Being Phases Of Individual Development The Four Temperaments Leadership Polarities 47 Chapter Three - People to People Creating and Working with Relationships in Organisation Why Are Relationships So Important? Seeing Through Relationships Power, Relationships, Change Types Of Power Five Bases Of Power IV WWW.BAREFOOTGUIDE.ORG Why Is It Important For Us To Talk About Power? What Is Needed? What can Get In The Way? Some Practical Tips 65 Chapter Four - Through the Looking Glass Observing and Understanding Organisations Facilitating Organisational Understanding – Some Principles And Guidelines Does Organisational Assessment Help Anyone? The Phases Of Organisation Development Using Phases Of Development In Practice Organisational Elements And Cycles Getting Practical – Techniques For Observing And Understanding Organisations 101 Chapter Five - Stepping into the Unknown Facilitating Change in Organisation Common Issues In Facilitating Change Facilitating Emergent Change Using The Action Learning Cycle As A Tool Facilitating Transformative Change The Seven Tasks Of Working Through The U-Process Facilitating Projectable Change 3 Key Challenges Of The Project Cycle Drawing The Threads Together 125 Chapter Six - Finding a home for change Supporting, Grounding and Sustaining Change Why Is Organisational Change So Diffi cult To Accomplish? Managing The Transitions Of Transformative Change Practical Suggestions For Leaders In Implementing Change 135 Chapter Seven - Staying alive to change Learning and Innovating in Organisations What Does It Mean To Be A Learning Organisation? Designing Our Own Approach To Learning In Organisation Practical Guidelines for Designing Learning Watch Out For… Why Do Organisations Resist Learning? Key Elements Of Organisational Learning Stories, Learning And Social Change… Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (PME) Mapping PME in the Development Sector Outcome Mapping Horizontal Learning – And New Forms Of Organisation… THE BAREFOOT FIELDGUIDE: CONTENTS V The Opening of Eyes That day I saw beneath dark clouds the passing light over the water and I heard the voice of the world speak out, I knew then, as I had before life is no passing memory of what has been nor the remaining pages in a great book waiting to be read. It is the opening of eyes long closed. It is the vision of far off things seen for the silence they hold. It is the heart after years of secret conversing speaking out loud in the clear air. It is Moses in the desert fallen to his knees before the lit bush. It is the man throwing away his shoes as if to enter heaven and fi nding himself astonished, opened at last, fallen in love with solid ground. By David Whyte from Songs for Coming Home ©1984 Many Rivers Press WW INTRODUCTION eellccoommee!! ...to The Barefoot Guide to Working With Organisations and Social Change Please take off your shoes… What is this Barefoot Guide? This is a practical, do-it-yourself guide for leaders and facilitators wanting to help organisations to function and to develop in more healthy, human and effective ways as they strive to make their contributions to a more humane society. It has been developed by the Barefoot Collective. The guide, with its supporting website, includes tried and tested concepts, approaches, stories and activities. Its purpose is to help stim- ulate and enrich the practice of anyone supporting organisations and social movements in their challenges of working, learning, growing and changing to meet the needs of our complex world. Although it is aimed at leaders and facilitators of civil society organisations, we hope it will be useful to anyone interested in fostering healthy human organisation in any sphere of life. The Barefoot Guide is offered free to the world and can be downloaded on this website: www.barefootguide.org. The website also contains a growing library of additional downloadable exercises, readings, case studies and diagrams to accompany the Barefoot Guide. INTRODUCTION: WELCOME! 1 In this book we offer a perspective on why organisations exist, the real roles they play, and on the importance of supporting the sovereignty of local organisations and social movements for meaningful social change. You will fi nd here a range of approaches to understanding ourselves and our roles as leaders and facilitators, as we try to understand and facilitate change in organisations. In addition, the signifi cance of relationships and power dynamics in organisations and organisational change processes are explored. We provide some tools for reading organisations, including how organisations tend to move through various phases of development, how we might facilitate change and the challenges we all face in implementing or sustaining change. Finally, the guide gives support to processes of building learning organisations, how we can continually learn both from our own experiences and the experiences of others. WHO IS THE BAREFOOT COLLECTIVE? This guide is offered to you by a global team of collaborating practitioners and activists from the Community Development Resource Association (South Africa), Voluntary Service Overseas (Nepal, Cameroon, Canada), ActionAid (Ghana, India), the Treatment Action Campaign (South Africa) and the Church Land Programme (South Africa) and some independent practitioners. Valuable contributions were also received from The Democ- racy Development Programme (South Africa) and Oxfam UK. WE NEED YOUR FEEDBACK We see this guide as a work in progress to be annually updated, based on feedback and contributions from users. We are releasing this Pilot Edition with an invitation to anyone who uses it to send us your comments, based on your own experience. We are keen that this guide is tested in many different contexts. This will help us to expand our understanding of the real work that leaders and facilitators are facing and thus enable us to improve the guide. Our thinking at this stage is to produce revised editions annually – perhaps until this guide outgrows us and becomes something else entirely! If it is found to be useful enough we plan to have it translated into various languages and also produce a colour hard-cover version for sale. Our website (www.barefootguide.org) has an online feedback form. You can also email Tracey Martin, who is leading the feedback process, with your feedback, comments and suggestions – [email protected] FEEDBACK QUESTIONS: 1. Has the Guide inspired any changes in how you do something or approach your work? It would be helpful if you could tell us a brief story of how you have used the Guide and what responses it has had. 2. Which chapters have been particularly helpful? Why? 3. Is there anything else that you would like to see in the Guide? 4. Is there any part of the Guide that you have found diffi cult to understand? 5. Is there anything in the Guide that you disagree with? Please tell us why and suggest or feel free to contribute alternatives. Send your feedback to [email protected] 2 WWW.BAREFOOTGUIDE.ORG