HEALTHY WORKPLACE with Koreen Kimakowich


WE ARE ALL HUMANS AFTER ALL


Every member of upper management has his or her own beliefs, values and attitudes, which is why active participation in the resolution process is paramount


I


’ve recently been immersed in facili- tating respectful workplace education sessions for both public and private sector organizations.


It has been a transformational exercise to say the least. I always trusted that the majority of people in the workplace were in a more-than-ready state to welcome in what else was possible beyond just re- sponding to workplace conflict as the means to prevent it. I actually thought it was time to take our cue from and em- power those in the ready state with the new and innovative resources to see them be resourceful in their workplaces. It has and continues to be a privilege for me to share the concepts and notions around human behaviour and why we do what we do with these organizations. I’ve been able to engage in live learning forums and resolution sessions, bringing forward the consideration that allopoietic (mecha- nistic, process- based strategies) must be combined with autopoietic (organic, people- based strategy) if we are going to realize in real time, prevention of workplace conflict. With this privilege, I have noticed people


8 SECURITY MATTERS • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010


are relieved to finally have it acknowledged in their workplaces that no matter the rank, position or office held, before anything else, we are all human beings actually being human in the workplace. They’ve known that all along and there’s never been a safe space in which to acknowledge their human being-ness. And depending on how they perceive their workplace, as “safe” or “dangerous,” it will significantly impact their experience of it, at the level of self and then in their interactions with each other. The considerations and models I intro- duce during my discussions with businesses are seeded in the WEL-Systems Body of Knowledge. WEL stands for Working Envi- ronments as Living Systems, and essentially means that working environments are that because you and I are living breathing sys- tems showing up for work each day. Recently, I became witness to the greater majority of participants stepping into a new and higher level awareness of who they are, no longer trapped by beliefs, values and attitudes (BVAs) that previously held them hostage to habituated responses that made harassing another


permissible or that saw them submitting when targetted with harassment. Through the innovative learning models participants come to realize that it all comes back to them and how their current set of BVAs are playing out in their interactions, moment to moment, habituated day by habituated day, a paradigm shift if you will. Enter the critical success factor. In order for these concepts to take hold and bring the work environment to that place of perpetual respect and dignity, upper management, ex- ecutive and command staff has to actively participate in the new thinking of the organi- zation. It is no longer enough for such enti- ties to, by virtue of the high position they hold, be absent from or exclude themselves from a process where it has been identified that their participation is critical to the resolution. As long as this human element of the workplace has a pulse, they too are bringing their BVAs through the door, not that they are good, bad, right or wrong, but that they show up in all interactions. When it has been identified that higher levels of staff/offices played a role in the conflict, their active participation in the resolution process is paramount. They should not be an afterthought or automat- ically exempted from participating in such processes solely by virtue of their office. After all, we are all human beings simply being human in the workplace.


Koreen Kimakowich is a former police sergeant with the Ottawa Police Service. She is the founder of Awakening Wave, Organizational Evo-


lution (www.awakeningwave.ca), special- izing in harassment/discrimination workshops and training programs.


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