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Consultant as Emotional Container
A tribute to our beloved colleague Dr Leroy
Wells, whose premature death took a shining light from our midst. |
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This paper sets out to do four things.
(1) We argue there are collective emotions as well as individual emotions, just as there are collective thoughts, attitudes and values, as well as individual thoughts, attitudes and values.
(2) We demonstrate that an array of collective emotions get activated when an organization goes through radical change like that produced by the quiet and bloodless revolution created by the ANC and led by Nelson Mandela.
(3) We show how useful two key psychoanalytic concepts (container/contained and parallel processes) can be in both theorizing about emotion and in making organizational interventions designed to change the emotional landscape.
(4) We draw the link between what is occurring within South African organizations in particular and the larger society-as-a-whole.
The Contribution Of This Paper To The Theory And
Practice Of Consultation Once economic sanctions were applied to South Africa and blacks mobilized for liberation, it was evident that the heinous social structure known as apartheid would eventually collapse. This raised two questions, (1) how to minimize the anticipated bloodshed during the process of liberation? and (2) how to keep the aftermath contained so civil war did not result? For generations the hostilities among conflicting white factions (expressed so violently during the Boer war) had been transferred into the brutal white domination of the blacks via apartheid. Likewise, the inter-tribal hostilities among the blacks which had seared the political landscape prior to white domination, had been driven underground in the fight against the oppressive regime instituted by the Afrikaners. If the white-black hostilities were to ever end, what social structures would have to be invented to keep contained the historically explosive white on white and black on black aggression? In this paper, the parallel process and container/contained concepts are brought together and used as tools for understanding the collective emotions linked to inter-group aggression and the yearning for reconciliation and transformation in a specific case. The setting is a state-owned South African enterprise we refer to as CALDO. The work we did was an intervention into the senior leadership group of CALDO. This organization had an international reputation for its professional excellence but had also long functioned as an arm of the government's repressive racial war. As this consultation began 9 newly appointed, well educated and politically sophisticated blacks and 16 whites (who had been the leaders of this enterprise prior to Mandela's election as President), were given the task of rebirthing this organization. They had been instructed by the government to become commercially viable, increase the number of jobs for blacks, develop a business strategy to energize growth, and work with all its stakeholders (holding company, government, unions, ANC, regional clients, etc.) many of whom had strong and contradictory agendas. CALDO's efforts to comply had created much turmoil: it had downsized, unions were suspicious and watchful, and political appointees in senior positions within CALDO were monitoring the organization's transition to a more equitable and democratic environment. This paper chronicles and theorizes about three discoveries we made as a result of our involvement in the racial dynamics alive in the senior management of CALDO. First, this leadership group needed consultants to both carry, contain and help them comprehend many of the tensions unleashed by changes in their racial make-up, their corporate strategy, their leadership dynamics, and their new set of stakeholders. We identified and made interventions based on what we learned from the parallel processes we ourselves got caught up in during our interactions with them. Second, many of the intractable organizational conflicts being enacted within CALDO were serving as a release for the pent-up racial emotions of the nation-as-a-whole. We hypothesized that in today's South Africa, organizations must invent ways to keep racial tensions contained on behalf of the society-as-a-whole if excessive violence on the streets is to be avoided. This view helped us cast ourselves as a container to the containers. It also helped us see that the CALDO executives were doing a service to the whole society as they painfully confronted (via parallel processes they initially did not recognize) many of the irreconcilable emotions linked to race in their country. Third, we came to grasp that a major and unexpected contribution of our consultation, which had been designed to import expertise, was to function as a vehicle for exporting some of their organizational chaos. As we increasingly became filled up with, and then carried, their feelings of incompetence, despair, futility, shattered optimism, etc., CALDO executives seemed able to address organizational decisions they had to make but which were impossible while they were mired in those paralyzing feelings of incompetence, despair, futility etc. When they had consultants who were serving as a temporary container of the emotions created by their racial history, these executives were able to function more effectively as a leadership group, which in turn lessened some of the racial hostility.
The Consultation Story For State-owned organizations once run by Afrikaners in a closed, self-serving, autocratic and hierarchical way this meant shifting to an open, customer-focussed, collaborative and team-based way of functioning. Their strategies had to simultaneously be grow the economy, create jobs for blacks, and produce social structures serving the human needs of all 40 million citizens, not just the 10 million whites. In immediate and practical terms this required,
at all levels of government and state-owned organizations, blacks and
whites to work side by side and collaboratively. Further, all executives
and managers had to learn what being an effective leader meant in an
organization based on collaboration rather than autocracy.
In addition, all subordinates had to learn how to become active
participants in decision making rather than passive implementers
of decisions they often opposed but could not resist without being destroyed.
This was a tough task in a nation that for 300 years had been populated
by organizations based on either a military or tribal model of
authority. CALDO, a state-owned organization in South Africa, asked Wharton's Executive Education Division to conduct a program for its senior leadership group. This began a relationship that continues to this day. CALDO had a long and distinguished history. It had an international reputation for professional excellence but during apartheid, it functioned as an "empowerment zone" for Afrikaners and took an active part in the government’s repressive racial war. CALDO had always employed blacks, but only in low-paying, unskilled jobs. As this project began 9 blacks had been elevated to the senior group of 27. To understand what role we might play our first question was "why did you choose Wharton?" CALDO's answer was they were drawn by Wharton's international reputation as an educator of executives. Our second question was "why education and not consultation?" The answer was they'd hired numerous consultants before and found their advice unhelpful. Wharton decided to send a team to South Africa to do diagnostic interviews and then, if appropriate, design an educational program in interaction with people from CALDO. Two of this team were Rose, an African American woman, and Dana, a white man, both authors of this paper. We spent two days interviewing the senior executives and found a deeply divided and troubled organization. Cold Heat There were two radically different views of CALDO. Afrikaners were proud of it's long and illustrious history; many were bitter about having to give up power and status since Mandela's election. Blacks saw CALDO as having been used as a tool by the apartheid government. There were some major splits in the organization which threatened to tear it apart. The racial conflicts were palpable. There were also many external conflicts. CALDO once employed 70,000 and had downsized to 35,000. The government had told them they must become commercially viable, increase the number of jobs for blacks, develop a new business strategy to energize growth, and work with its many stakeholders (holding company, government, ANC, unions, regional clients, etc.) many of whom had strong and contradictory agendas. The old time Afrikaners felt their senior ranks had lost the expertise needed to run CALDO. They had little business savvy or interest and were nostalgic for the old days. The younger whites had a lot of energy for the new South Africa and were focussed on the strategy they thought CALDO should pursue. The blacks, many of whom had graduate degrees from oversees, seemed wise beyond their years. They grasped both the legacy of apartheid and the business problems facing them. Sitting Among Killers Upon meeting the CEO we were ushered into a dark, secluded, heavily draped office. He spoke in a regretful, mournful way, as if longing to be at a confessional. The theme? He'd recently been asked if he'd participated in ordering the killing of blacks during a strike in the '80s? The query had unsettled him and he worried about being called before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. His anxiety about this was palpable. Accomplishing the business agenda appeared feasible to the CEO. He knew what was needed: develop strategy, think profitability, benchmark, restore operational excellence, become a learning organization, etc. However, he questioned his ability to produce the cultural shifts needed to achieve the Government's social agenda. He was hiring the best black talent and sending them all around the world for further education. However, he was also very upset when he saw that his attempts to bring people together drove them further apart. He described the organization as being like a "new child" and then digressed into talking about he had failed as a father in real life, having given too much of his time to CALDO at the expense of his family. He'd lost one son and sustained deep pain and anguish while functioning as an apartheid leader. Recently he'd forged an extremely strong relationship with a black woman on his executive team. He was impressed with her wisdom and sought her advice on most things. Political Folly? After the diagnostic study Wharton agreed to run three, week long, educational modules in South Africa. Almost as soon as this decision was made we began to think it was a mistake. A design team, consisting of Dana and Rose, and three people appointed by CALDO set to work on creating an educational program. This was a roller-coaster. At times the work was smooth and efficient, but there were often angry and sullen exchanges. We began to suspect we were being used to shore up the failing and outgoing white leadership of CALDO. When an important, senior black in the organization, deliberately avoided contact with us we suspected we'd “been brought in by the white guys to put on a good face.” We were acutely aware that we represented a prestigious business school, in which the staunchly hierarchical power structure was dominated by white males. The similarities between Wharton and the apartheid regime were not lost on us. Eating
Consultants for Breakfast So what would CALDO do with a team from the USA? We knew that unless we approached this work collaboratively they would experience us as recapitulating the colonial attitude (Fanon, 1963; Memmi, 1965). Hence Wharton took the stance we must learn as much as we could about South Africa and CALDO before doing a thing. This helped forge our connection with them. When this design work was done everyone appeared energized and we felt it was possible their approach to Wharton was authentic. However we soon began doubting this. CALDO would ignore our faxes and calls for weeks and then send last minute, frantic demands for information and materials, blaming us things that did not go smoothly. Black
and White Together at Last -- Maybe!! The opening session got off to a good start. For the first few hours participants were very engaged in the organizational and leadership issues surfaced by the community building exercises and they began to self-disclose at a deep level. Then the most senior black executive challenged the group saying "for this program to be successful we must be really open with each other. I don't think we've ever done this yet. To learn together we must put our issues on the table." This triggered many reactions. Some dismissed him, others said they did not understand his comments, a few agreed with him. No one explicitly named the issues he was referring to, but it was clearly the racial tensions in the group. The next activity was creating a set of norms to enhance group learning, a process usually requiring twenty minutes. They took over an hour. It seemed they were trying to set rules to regulate their behavior and to keep their differences hidden. Participants made long speeches on a variety of controversial issues, engaged in numerous digressions, vented with heated outbursts of frustration, and ended up in a very muddled state. Conflicts were not stated clearly, disagreements were voiced in veiled language, and the air hung heavy. One norm creating a lot of heat was: "don’t caucus with your own race group." Whites stated "blacks should not huddle among yourselves." Blacks countered "at least we're open about our caucusing; not you Afrikaners who continue to hold secret meetings as you did during apartheid." The reply? "We don't!" It was clear the racial tension in this group was paralyzing, even though there were many been many protestations to the contrary. Over the previous six months all CALDO senior executives had done a three-day program on diversity. We were told repeatedly they had dealt with their racial issues and did not need to spend time on this during our program. Hence we'd agreed to down play racial issues, but given the chaos this norm discussion created, it was clear race had to be addressed before we could proceed. We facilitators did some quick workshop redesign so racial tensions could be addressed. We asked participants to gather in like race groups and requested each group record on newsprint (1) how it saw itself, (2) how it saw the other group, (3) what they wanted the other group change, and (4) what they themselves were willing to change. The black and white groups reported these out to each other and started discussing how to deal with the changes being requested of them. This proved to be a very powerful and useful exercise. These senior executives discovered they were able (1) to negotiate, without acrimony, across the racial divide, (2) to discuss, honestly, many of their buried feelings, and (3) to break out of old patterns of racial responses. They also realized they had been operating on false assumptions: for example blacks told whites they met off line because few of them had formal power and caucusing was a way to be supportive of one another. This made sense to the whites who willing accepted their need to do this. After this exercise participants were genuinely in a new place and were enthusiastic about working together. This exchange set the tone for a positive week. They gained new insights about systems thinking, themselves, their organization, the external environment and global competition. Although this module was construed as executive education, we were mindful that we'd had to function as consultants to make the educational part successful. Paralysis The second module was held in South Africa three months after the first. Its purpose was to help this group become a cohesive and efficient leadership team so CALDO could deliver on the mandate given them by the government. The module was staffed by Kenwyn, a white male from Wharton, Rose and Franz, the Afrikaner consultant. Based on what we had learned during module 1, we believed the starting point must be the establishment of some self reflective practices. This group needed a way to examine its own internal processes. Hence the first day was designed to provide a framework for their self examination. It began with a three hour simulation which the participants engaged with gusto. However, when it came to applying the lessons which could be extracted from the simulation participants resisted doing self reflection of any kind. This seemed to defeat the agreed upon purpose of this module so we asked why they were taking this posture. They were adamant: "we are not willing to talk further about race. We had a full discussion of racial issues during Module 1 and to revisit it would be redundant." However we had not mentioned race and had only asked them to discuss together the functioning of their leadership team. They were the ones saying race was the stumbling block and then making this topic taboo. We pointed this out with no positive outcome. For two hours, everything we said made the group more stuck. The second day began in an even more difficult fashion. We started by restating the purpose of this team building module and proposed a new way to get started. For an hour the group engaged in a meaningful dialogue about how to proceed. Then without warning, CALDO's boss from the holding company, who was present for this module, seized the initiative and gave a thirty-minute speech to announce that he had just come from a meeting with members of Mandela’s cabinet and wished to advise them that "YOU MUST INCREASE PROFITS AND AT THE SAME TIME DRAMATICALLY INCREASE THE NUMBER OF JOBS FOR PEOPLE OF COLOR. If there was not marked improvement soon on both counts, the organization would be privatized. His speech had a dramatic effect, as disturbing as telling them they were all about to be terminated. A coffee break followed, during which the informal conversation was filled with gloom and doom. Despite our best efforts, the rest of the day was spent counterproductively with the senior executives bemoaning the double binding realities they faced. By mid afternoon it was clear the executive education format we were operating within could not be effective given the nature and depth of this group's paralysis. Getting
Unstuck The next morning we unilaterally announced we were abandoning the educational format and wanted to explore if we could become consultants to the senior management of their organization. These executives did not reject this idea outright, but said they felt everything we were doing was a complete waste of time. They blamed us for this. We recognized we might not have the skills required for the tasks we'd taken on. However we attributed the group’s paralysis to three forces. (1) There were numerous warring camps in this group, all of which were aligned around some aspect of the national agenda. There was the ANC agenda, the government’s agenda, labor’s agenda, the old Afrikaner agenda, the holding company’s agenda, and their group's agenda, all of which were presented as being in opposition to one another. (2) As soon as battle lines were drawn between two or more factions carrying opposing agendas, rather than confront whatever was in dispute, members quickly shifted the exchange to some aspect of black-white history and whether the whites were willing to let go of their privileged positions. (3) The group always blamed others for their misery, acting as if there was nothing they could do about it. In the light of this paralysis, we told them that for us to continue working with them we wanted to know the ground rules they were going to use for moderating their own group behavior. We acknowledged the norms they created for their module 1 interactions and asked them to put in place agreed upon ground rules for their on going interaction in the organization. The group seemed energized by this request and within half an hour produced a dozen norms, which if honored, would radically alter their group dynamics. Most prominent was "we commit to deal with our conflicts directly and not use third parties to avoid addressing our disputes." Fortunately, this group then proceeded to break this norm in such a bold and visible way we were able to get them to examine their own behavior and begin the self reflection we thought was so critical. Throw
Out the Consultants We vigorously asked the group to return to the meeting room, so we could make an announcement. The group responded favorably to our heightened energy. We told them the CEO had informed us they did not wish to continue working with us. We said we accepted the group’s right to terminate our contract, but suggested they might benefit from examining what it meant that they had so grossly violated one of their recently established group rules, namely to deal with all conflicts directly and not use intermediaries. We said we were willing to be dismissed but to be faithful to their newly developed norms they would have to tell us that directly. The group was shocked and excited to be confronted in this way about its own behavior. In the ensuing conversation three things emerged. (1) Many were angry at the CEO for various things and they wanted us gone for fear that we would flush out this rage and they would not know how to handle it. (2) In their group were many factions which were in opposition to each other and that when they got gridlocked they looked for someone to blame, we being the most recent target of their displaced hostility and frustration. (3) They did want us to remain and help them move from their paralyzed state. This was the turning point we all needed. Leadership:
We ain't got it This was a sobering recognition. They agreed to embrace this reality and to address what they were going to do about it. For a day they brainstormed about the leadership initiatives they could take and came to an important conclusion. The situation they faced would take months to address adequately. They formed a task force which they called the "transformational leadership group" and appointed seven of their members to take on this work. This sub group was not designated the transformational leaders but was given the responsibility to devise a strategy by which this organization could get the leadership skills they needed for the future. By the end of the week this group had made some important decisions together, established and begun using some ground rules to regulate their own behavior, developed an inventory of leadership skills they lacked, started addressing their own internal conflicts rather than blaming others for their paralysis, and worked seriously on future initiatives, under the guidance of the transformational leadership sub group whom they'd empowered to lead them. They were beginning to act and feel like a group. At one point there was a poignant exchange between the group and the CEO, spawned by a junior black member asking the CEO if the creation of the transformational leadership group felt like an undermining of his authority. The CEO was clearly touched by the question, and responded that he needed all the help he could get and was thrilled they were taking up the challenge in this way. Where
to Go from Here? At the beginning of this week at Wharton these seven executives seemed battle weary from the turmoil of South Africa. What they needed most was R and R. At this time they were less focussed on changing CALDO and more interested in forming meaningful bonds within their group. These four blacks and three whites discovered they got close by telling each other stories about how hard it was to bridge the racial divide in South Africa. For example, a black reported some ANC colleagues thought he was a traitor because of all the time he was spending with white executives and an Afrikaner told of how many friends he'd lost because he now welcomed blacks to his home. Blacks and whites learned that the more they honestly expressed the differences between them, the more they had in common and the more unity they felt. During this time they needed us to serve as a container. We provided a psychologically safe space to sustain their new forms of relating while they told each other the heart rending stories about surviving apartheid and ridding themselves of this social scourge. We also served as international witnesses to the remarkable journey they were taking to transcend the racial divisions which had torn their country apart. Our listening to their struggle and our clear admiration for the dignity with which they were transcending their differences was our contribution to the bonding of this group. Black
and White Together at Last As this man spoke there was a glow and excitement in his eyes. He had unwillingly given up power, privilege and status. However, he'd confronted his bitterness, and was joyful about the personal stamina he'd discovered and the support he felt from blacks and whites alike for the soul-filled changes he was making. For all of us listening to him speak we could see his transformation represented on an individual scale what Mandela and the ANC had been striving for on a societal scale. This consultation continued until Mandela's retirement. Soon after the new president was elected, CALDO was broken up into four new organizations and our relationship with this system ended. Notes [1] Bion, W (1961) Experiences in groups,
London: Tavistock. Alderfer, C.P (1980) {"The methodology
of organizational diagnosis," Professional Psychology, Vol
11, 459-468,}, Smith, K.K (1989) {"The movement of conflict in
organizations: The joint dynamics of splitting and triangulation,"
Administrative Science Quarterly , Vol 34, (1), 1-20}, Smith, K.K. and
Zane, N. (1999) {"Organizational Reflections: Parallel Processes
at Work in a Dual Consultation" Journal of Applied Behavioral Science,
Vol 35, (2), 145-162}, define parallel processes as follows: when two
or more human systems interact, the suppressed or too-hard-to-handle
conflicts and emotions which belong in one setting may get enacted in
a secondary location, enabling a release of thdisplaced dynamics which
were too complex or too volatile to be expressed at their point or origin. |
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