| |
Wendy Kendall |
What is your approach to organisational and personal development?
There have been two main issues I've had to deal with throughout my career: the system and the individual. I've learnt, time after time, that if we understand these two fundamental elements, we are able to change and influence our environment more effectively. This is the essence of an holistic approach to personal and organisational development. I have two very simple elements that I consider when developing an intervention for an organisation or an individual. Firstly, we need to establish what we are aiming to achieve, in specific behavioural terms. Secondly, we need to understand what are the barriers and enablers to achieving this aim. The tricky part is finding reliable answers to these questions! For that I use a range of tools, from off-the-shelf psychological tests and organisational measures, to bespoke tests and measures, and all manner of research tools in between. My own research with Cranfield School of Management, and that of many other researchers, shows that accuracy of information actively determines the quality of decisions people make and their likelihood of success. Once we have reliable information, designing the intervention is usually straightforward, although gaining and maintaining commitment to the change is another matter all together! I work with a variety of other practitioners, many of whom you will find participating within our online community. Within the consultancy business I tend to work with other human resource and management development professionals. However, within the field of personal development, I am working with a variety of practitioners from fields such as natural horsemanship, the Martial Arts of Qi Gong and Aikido, Reiki, aromatherapy and Feldenkrais to develop the whole person. There is a very real, practical reason for this use of the Human Arts to develop the whole person rather than only the usual training workshop activities we have all experienced on courses we've attended. As a species, we have studied and developed highly advanced systems that have proven over millennia to cause real and lasting personal and social change. These are known as the Human Arts. I believe in putting those thousands of years of research and knowledge to our advantage, not trying to reinvent the wheel! In terms of consultancy, I usually work with medium and large companies and public sector organisations who are implementing change and development programmes. However, I am more than happy to talk to people informally about organisational and personal development, if they have any questions. Of course, I will also be talking to the Allow Change Members via online conferences and the various forums, and am working on the possibility of online personal development courses for the future. What is your background? My background is that I have a first degree in Behavioural Sciences (Anthropology, Sociology and Psychology) with my major being Psychology, and a Masters degree in Applied Psychology. Applied Psychology is basically about using psychology in a practical rather than experimental context, so I'm trained to get 'out and about' to do science rather than sit in a laboratory. I am also a Chartered Occupational Psychologist, which means I'm qualified as an independent practitioner with the British Psychological Society. My specialism is individual and organisational change and development. Professionally, I started out working for the Director of Research at Cranfield School of Management in the U.K. doing research into natural systems and what they tell us about organisational failure and growth. >From there, I worked for the U.K. Ministry of Defence as an organisational psychologist for 8 years in a range of areas from training infantry soldiers using virtual reality simulators to being part of a team carrying out air accident investigations. I spent two years teaching equal opportunities and diversity at the Royal College of Military Science and carrying out research into training effectiveness. My final job with the MoD was as senior psychologist for the Director of Army Personnel Strategy, where I worked to develop and evaluate the British Army's personnel policies. I set up Marengo as an organisational and personal development consultancy in 2003 and the Marengo team has worked with high-level businesses and academic institutes across Europe, in the public and private sectors, and for a range of clients in the defence, aerospace, automotive, heavy industry, information-technology and service industries. What do you bring to Marengo and the Allow Change website? I bring a passion for people and systems, which I hope will inspire other people to be enthusiastic about these too. I also have a lot of knowledge, training and experience in the psychology of individual and organisational change so I would love to talk to people who are contemplating the process of change in their own professional and personal lives. Something else that I bring to the development arena is my knowledge and experience of social research methods and statistics. I am involved in the site as an expert in personal and organisational development and as the site administrator. I am online several times a day during the week, except most Wednesdays or when I am away on business. The best time to catch me live on the site is in the late evening after 7pm GMT, or leave me a message and I will get back to you with a response or a specific time when we can meet online. I intend to write more articles for the site and will be developing the resources on this site as we go along. I am currently investigating the feasibility of running online courses and I will, of course, be available via the various forums and, soon, online conferences along with our other experts. What is your Vision for Allow Change? My personal vision for Allow Change is for it to become real centre of excellence for learning about organisational and personal development, and a source of inspiration and support for people looking for more effective, fulfilling personal and professional lives. Allow Change also serves as a vital part of our organisational and personal development programmes. Development does not take place overnight. The cornerstone of development is that change needs to be practised over and over, in different spheres, until new ways of operating become habits. Allow Change provides ongoing support to our organisational and personal development clients. What advice would you give anyone who is contemplating organisational or personal development? My best advice for anyone contemplating change and development is to understand that you are working within a system. If you wish to change within this system, it will take an increase in energy in all your spheres of life: physical, mental, emotional and even spiritual i.e. in terms of your beliefs. When we're feeling confident, this increased demand for energy can feel like a positive boost. However, if we are feeling insecure in some way, the requirement for energetic input can feel draining and can make us retreat back to our comfort zone. So, one of the keys to sustaining a change is our level of confidence. I will be writing about the keys to confidence via the Allow Change website in the near future. If there was one thing you could change about how people approach development, what would it be? If I could change one thing about how people relate to development I would stop them being fearful. Fear keeps us stuck doing the same things and over, repeating patterns of thinking and behaving without reference to whether they're helping us reach our goals. So many of the negative things we do and think prevent us from fulfilling our aspirations. Of course, a level of fear is required to stop us doing things that would threaten our own survival (e.g. waiting for the cars to pass before crossing the road!). However, we seem to be living in an age where we are paralysed by fear to the extent that we're afraid to step outside our own comfort zones. We have to learn to deal with our fears effectively, and then move on to fulfil our dreams. Someone recently brought a fantastic quote to my attention:
I hope that by participating in the Allow Change community, you will be even more able to let your own light shine. Wendy Kendall Marengo MD |
|
|