It will never be as good as one of these face to face meaningful conversations we enjoy at ebbf’s international learning events (if interested to attend, click here to book still a few places available) but all the same ebbf is offering the opportunity to join online explorations of the themes we will cover in the next international event.
Interested to hear what we learnt in one of the online explorations of what building capacity means and of what it takes to create the right culture to allow capacity building in a company?
Read More … People from the US, Sweden, Spain, Romania and Portugal first addressed the question:
What does capacity mean? what kind of capacity do we wish to build or release?Surprising richness in the diverse aspects of capacity that were mentioned: physical capacity, human capacity, intellectual, social, organisational and spiritual capacities. We came to the conclusion that practicing our own personal and organizational levels of capacity development would allow us to grow our understanding of just how much as yet unreleased potential we can all harness.
A fundamental concept was that building capacity is not an isolated personal activity but rather a cultural habit that is best performed together with the rest of the group and organization. Looking back at past ebbf meaningful conversations, a participant highlighted “actually my conversation did not find a solution or a new capacity, instead I found out how other people are thinking about that aspect, how they are practicing it and that opened an entirely new array of opportunities for me”.
Another participant mentioned how “capacity building is essential, it is a must for people and companies to develop and to continue to exist. But what kind of capacity we should develop is what I find interesting: right now we tend to develop capacity to address short term issues, instead deeper levels of capacity should be developed.
What do good capacity building processes look like?
A personal experience showed us how “working for a Foundation I discovered a totally different perspective of people around me, I used to work in an imperfect corporate world but now as I approach those same individuals in corporations inviting them to cooperate with the foundation I see people who are happy when they do good, I see the potential in people that I did not see before, how there is an innate desire to do good. This kind of new way to relate to people and finding many confirmations has created a new capacity in me and in my team. We are more confident, we see a daily progress in the way we work, in our morale and see our own personality improved”.
Working in an educational environment other key elements of good capacity building emerged “we are also increasing capacity in children, using love and respect to change them , making them more empowered, they are confident they will be somebody and change the world , making them feel somebody important that will make a difference”.
We all recognised those as traits that we could and should also use in our daily work environment together with dignity and respect. Giving hope where there is little, releasing potential tapping into the intangible.
We also explored what does not work well in terms of capacity building
Another company’s approach was mentioned as a common yet very ineffective way to develop capacity “people are promoted and then expected to develop capacities in a new job, capacities they often do not have, without any accompaniment, just expecting those capacities to emerge. On paper it is shown as a great opportunity, a promotion, but there is a difference between giving higher positions and actually accompanying people’s growth and talent development to reach that next level. What too often happens is giving higher responsibility without helping the growth of competencies.”
One approach was suggested in those leaders who lack the vision and leadership to develop capacities, asking them for that moment, that environment, that person what allowed them to make a big improvement in their capacity in their lives. Letting them re-live that moment and exploring with them the circumstances that allowed that to happen would then make it easier for that leader to implement it also in their organization.
Bringing the Heart, your full self and spiritual, meditative environments give best results
A part of the exploration was dedicated to some of the highest levels of capacity building, when growth is not sequential but exponential, where the individuals, the team and the work environment grow fastest. It was commented how some of the most illumined and successful leaders were able to bring their own and their team’s full self into the office, not leaving out any of the heart, of the values, of their spiritual principles and instead fully harnessing these most powerful of levers. Above just some of the highlights from that first online conversation, your next opportunities
1. THURSDAY 28th JULY Can we make better tools for inquiry and collaboration with advances in behavioural, brain and cognitive sciences?
2. EARLY BIRD ENDS 31st JULY And of course at the much more nourishing international learning event in October