1.
Good Grief and
Facilitative leadership
Welcome!
Esther Matte
CULTUREcon 2014
Boston, MA

2.
Losing someone…
or something…
• Grief can also happen at work
• Small changes, big changes: both
initiate a grief process
• Dealing with grief is mostly an
individual process
• In an organization, it influences
interactions and productivity
• When conscious of the grief
process, people can help each
other
• Grief cycle is a healing cycle

3.
MISS!
• The worst change I
experienced in an organization.
• Imposed
• Not explained
• No influence, no autonomy
• What made it happen: H2H
• Conversation
• Connection

4.
Adapted from Elizabeth
Kubler-Ross, Harrison Owen
and Genuine Contact™
Program
Grief cycle

5.
Agile News :
Shock, Anger
« Why?
Urghhh!?! This is stupid and
unnecessary!
What’s going to happen to me? »
!
Help : Clear explanation of why; not a
good stage for training.

6.
Denial
« It’ll pass - just be patient. Let’s keep
doing our job. Not much will change. »
!
Help : Talk a lot about the change,
clarify it’s pertinence, reassure but avoid
talking about only positive aspects:
recognize difficulty and effort needed

7.
Memories
« Hmm…
Do you remember when…?
We did a great job on that one! »
!
Help : Listen, recognize and
honour the past, DO NOT accuse
people to be resistant to change

8.
Acceptance
« Things change. I want to know
more about this. How is this
going to work? »

9.
Letting go
« My expertise can probably still be valuable
and helpful.
!
Will others help me? Will I have time to learn
and adapt? How long will it take before I feel
expert again? »
!
Help : Ask for feedback, express gratitude,
recognize expertise, involve people in
something positive

10.
Openness
« I wonder how we can make this
work well or better than before… »
!
Help : Invite people to share
experiences and learn together,
invite energy to create and
innovate

11.
Reframing
« Lots of possibilities and opportunities to
grow! »
!
« Let’s try this… »
!
« I wonder if we can make it even better? »
!
Help: Celebrate!

12.
Open Space Technology is a great tool!
It creates space for grief work AND for
figuring out how to become agile in your organization.

13.
WARNING: It is a cycle. If you try to skip a step, it’ll get you later!
My Verchères-Manhattan-Bromont story

14.
Listen with
curiosity and
compassion…
!
Have clear info
and good
conversations…
!
Give it time…
!
Create space for
a common
vision…
Adapted from Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, Harrison
Owen and Genuine Contact™ Program

15.
Questions? Comments?

16.
About Esther Matte, organizational coach and
trainer in collaborative methodologies
• Independent consultant for 20 years
• Started in strategic communications, moved to facilitating collective
work in the context of change and transformation
• Works and teaches mobilization and development of teams,
organizations, communities
• How I work:
• Use collective intelligence
• Generate openness, authenticity and responsibility

17.
About Ev Lagüe, Illlustrator
!
Ev
Laguë
Illustratrice
/
illustrator
-­‐
evlague.tumblr.com
-­‐
-­‐
cargocollec0ve.com/evlague
-­‐
☎
1
450
779-­‐5535
@
evlague
(at)
outlook
(dot)
com

18.
18
Thank you!