The clean slate is a session that Temenos conducts in organizations to eradicate the obstacles or the ill reasons that have been dragging down a change agent’s development. In this exercise, our facilitators develop the awareness in change agents to accept the things they have been doing or they did in past and follow the lessons they learned from the each event. When a leader starts doing this automatically it affects the followers. It is a transformation process that’s start from one person and goes to a group. Usually, we use the clean slate to solve the conflicts that have been cropped up between different groups of the organization. This gives the employees a baggage-free fresh start in the workspace.
Let’s discuss some issues before going further
An employee’s claimed view: “People do not do the things the way I think they should”--is what every single person out there thinks. There are so many issues that we face as an employee because of this particular reason. I am not getting enough learning opportunities. Do they think I am not qualified enough (Dissatisfaction on your current state); my manager did not listen to me when I requested him to put the proposal for a business campaign (Dissatisfaction on your boss and work); I am not comfortable here because of the people around me (Dissatisfaction on the organization). Look! how it’s spreading like a viral. At the start, it was all about you but the level grew up to your dislikeness towards the organization. If I am in a state like this, I swear it’s not possible for me to keep my greatest interest for the organization.
The next thing is “Money”. You know people will leave the job if they are inadequately paid. Like you are at a party, you found one person who is doing the same job in a similar type company and he is getting much more money than you. People, in this case, will try to go for another job because they may think that the company hasn’t been fair to them.
These are the common issues or views you can find in regular working groups. So, how can you subdue things like this?
A leader’s claimed view: The endless worry of a change agent is to build a faithful & loyal work culture. When you take up the career as a person who leads a group, there are times you will find very co-operative higher authorities to work with and sometimes the worst ones.
Like in many companies, from the first day of your joining they will give preach on what kind of work you are going to get, but they won’t say anything about the culture. A leader or a change agent at least needs to know what kind of environment his/her subordinates are working on?
This scenario makes me feel like, the higher executives are well aware with the responsibilities of others but don’t have the slightest interest on their own responsibilities. Such as, you may have seen a very few people saying to you--this is what it likes to work here and this what I expect of you. It’s about knowing each other more.
An overseer’s claimed view: Let’s consider the overseer as someone who stands above many leaders. Someone with one of the top-level status in a company. In my point of view their concern would be the relationship set up--- with colleagues; boss; subordinates; clients etc. Since their attitude affects the organization in many ways, they can never slack off from their responsibilities.
Nowadays when engaging & retaining the talented workforce is a top-notch priority, there is no saving you if people leave your organization in a regular basis. So, an overseer needs to know what are the things that will make people stay here and what are the things that will make them leave. And if you can’t answer theses questions about your employees today, I am gonna’ say that you are not fit for the status of the executive.
Keep in mind “People don’t seek what you seek, they seek what they need.” So, your culture must be flexible to keep on with that.
In the clean slate process, we make the analysis of how you have failed the system or the system has failed you. Now you are thinking why do I need to ask these questions to my subordinates when I know that I can’t deliver it. Actually it doesn’t matter because as an authority you need to know. If it’s something they need, and you don’t know, they are going to leave the organization anyway. And through clean slate you may find the answers to solve the query and make them retain in the organization.
How to do a Clean Slate?
I know the process sounds pretty heavy in a business perspective, but it is very simple to understand and can be carried out in a normal way. Don’t hesitate to ask or do not fear to tell. I know maybe ninety percent people will hesitate to tell what they really want; What are they passionate about in their work and what are they bad at but don’t stop. This will be a rare chance you will get to talk about your own views in our facilitation. It will help you to gain clarity about a specific system you are a part of yourself, your team---It helps you discover what you want. Temenos believes if you want to create a system with loyalty and commitment this process can bring you miracles that none other can.
The things you need to remember in this process is to be careful and know your own limits and the limits of your group. Do a Clean Slate a few times with others until you’ve analyzed how it works safely. Mostly the conversation process will be done by story-telling, which is very interesting and harmonized way to say something. Don’t do this in a way that could be harmful to anyone. To establish a space of trust, and bonding use Influence Map. Because a group of people who’ve shared their influence maps will have the level of trust that they need to do clean slate.
