BMA eBook - Manual / Resource - Page 69
Intervention and Leadership
Interpretations are amongst the most provocative forms of intervention because
they represent only one person’s viewpoint and inevitably will evoke reactions
from the group. Given this likelihood a well-targeted interpretation can be
used diagnostically to gauge a group’s temperature or readiness for a particular
direction or idea.
Equally an interpretation may be purposefully provocative designed to
challenge an idea or way of thinking or behaving. Strong reactions tell you
something about the readiness of the group or the nature of the resistance
among its factions, including what is at stake for them; while silence or minimal
response something about the need to build interest.
In the end an
interpretation is only as good as the degree to which it mobilizes constructive
action or the extent to which it assists the group see itself in a new way so it can
move forward to a more productive level of functioning
Interpretations tend to be one of five main types:
•
Those that offer the group data and synthesize discussion to date, for
example, ”Here’s what I hear”;
•
Those that move the focus from the content under discussion (the task) to
the process or the dynamics of the group and, thereby, suggest that
patterns of communication and interaction may need adjusting (i.e. they
challenge default behaviour);
5
The art of diagnosing adaptive issues is discussed in more detail in Heifetz,
Grashow and Linsky (2009)
Copyright Vantage Point Consulting Pty Ltd 2010
Not to be reproduced without the author’s permission
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