Mapping the Practices

Here is an exercise for discovering what each practice means for you and your team.

Figure 8 is a map of the Energetic Work practice. In the middle is the practice. Directly below that is the purpose of the practice as I see it: to keep my work and my life in balance. Attached to the practice are factors that affect it and, in this case, symptoms that the practice isn't going well. Map whatever issues come to mind when you think about a practice. Be as textual or graphical as you like.

Figure 8. Map of Energetic Work

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There are no "right" answers in this exercise. The example contains my answers for today. Each team member and each team will interpret what the practice means differently. The discussion around what is attached to the practice is one valuable side effect of the exercise.

Once you have potential changes to make, make some of them. All the good ideas about how to make things better are useless unless they release energy for change. I've sat through far too many "crying in the beer" sessions where all the energy for change was dissipated in the intensity of the complaining. Once you see an idea for improvement that makes sense to you, do it. If you can do it as a team, so much the better. If not, do it alone until you can share what you've learned with someone you trust.

I recommend taking up to half a day to go through all of the practices and deciding together what would constitute change with respect to each of them. Put the resulting maps on flip charts and post them around the team room. When one change is in place, look to see what new changes may have come into reach and begin working on them.