The Power of Acupressure to Bring About Lasting Change in an Organization
Would you like to help foster the growth of organizations that are committed to making the world a better place? If so, you might find this article interesting.
As an agent of change in my organization, I have often asked myself the following questions: Where should we focus our efforts to drive change? Who or what should we focus on? Internal factors? External factors? “Top management”? Front-line staff? Middle managers? What will create the tipping point?
A Systems Approach
I’m a fairly holistic and systemic person. I rarely—if ever—operate in a sequential manner. That’s why I prefer to work on different levels. My team and I therefore focus on various areas of the company, such as:
Strategy and Governance
Employee expertise
Overall Performance
The Impact of Operations
New Business Solutions
Types of Partnerships with External Stakeholders
We often work on several projects at the same time, with various types of internal and external contacts.
While this method yields good results, it also creates a workload and demands that can sometimes be difficult to manage. In Japan, I remember feeling lost and helpless in the face of so many projects and requests. To cope, I had to reduce my workload. Yet, “something” wasn’t right.
An approach that fosters responsibility and engagement
One day, something just clicked. I was at my acupuncturist’s office for recurring back problems. That’s when I had a revelation. The acupuncturist’s skill lies in knowing which points to stimulate for specific problems. He doesn’t impose his will on these points or act on their behalf. On the contrary, he “listens” and trusts the body to act at its own pace and according to its own needs.
By trying to be everywhere, support everyone, and control everything, we were wearing ourselves out—at best, to achieve goals that were impossible to reach; at worst, to create the opposite of what we wanted: rejection or dependence.
So we’ve made a subtle but crucial change: our approach and our method for collaborating with our ecosystem. We still take a holistic approach, working at different levels with a wide variety of people. Yet we harness the power of acupressure in our own way.
We act as catalysts for change. Our role is to engage specific parts of our ecosystem in addressing a challenge, in order to foster the emergence of innovative, sustainable, and impactful solutions.
A sense of humility
Consequently, rather than trying to solve a problem by imposing our point of view and solution:
We choose to reaffirm our purpose and vision, nurture the quality of our relationships, recognize subtle signs of resistance, and find a third way to make an impact—in line with the group’s mission and local realities.
We encourage our stakeholders to challenge and enrich our projects to ensure their long-term success. For example, to assess the behaviors that shape our corporate culture in Asia, participants represented our five main stakeholders (the environment, employees, customers, society, and shareholders). Some even tried to understand nature’s perspective by putting themselves in a tree’s shoes!
This may seem unusual. However, these adjustments in leadership style, action, and decision-making are the result of much reflection and experimentation. What is certain is that, in addition to my back feeling better, my anxiety has decreased, and our community of change-makers has become larger and more powerful than ever. What about you—what’s your approach?
Take action to bring about change
Identify the main categories of stakeholders in your department or company.
A stakeholder is an entity that is affected by your actions and/or that has a significant and formative impact on your actions.
Ask yourself how you engage them.
Start finding out what they're looking for.
Consider ways to improve your relationships with each of them.
Find ways to foster their collective engagement in order to bring about systemic change through joint projects.
"Themost important thingto know is that pain or physical problems that arise in one part of the body—and are the end result of imbalances—are not exclusively related to that part. Therefore, you should not focus too much on relieving that single problem."
Hello, everyone. I’m Nina Cambadélis, an impact coach and facilitator specializing in sustainable development and organizational transformation. I’m also an agent of change myself, responsible for embedding my company’s purpose at the heart of our business.
What I love to do through my work is to encourage professionals to rethink business and make them proud to contribute, in their own way, to a world that is more sustainable, more humane, and more respectful of nature.
If you find yourself in one of these situations and would like some guidance along the way, please contact me:
Become the agent of change you want to see in the world you envision.
Discover and assert your leadership.
Make positive impact and purpose central to your organization.
Accelerate engagement within your ecosystem to drive systemic change.
Make an impact while conserving energy and promoting well-being.
Here is a link to schedule an exploratory and the form to further outline your goals and challenges.
