How we work together.
The Big Waves approach begins from learning from you, to be able to discern root causes.
We often find that some root causes are the way work is designed or structured, or aspects of norms and accepted practices in the organization, not just interpersonal dynamics alone. These structural aspects of the work often invisibly exacerbate relational tension. Supporting relationships alone, without adjusting the structural frictions that aggravate tensions, is usually a very short-lived “remedy”.
We will learn from you what is happening in the work, and recommend interventions that may begin from structural or relational places, or may involve both structural and relational support concurrently. We may be able to offer support around all of our recommendations, or we may recommend approaches you can do internally and/or with expertise Big Waves does not offer.
What's happening?
Does any of this sound familiar?
We begin from the effervescent possibilities of exploration and discovery! Together we’ll build understanding of what needs shifting or transforming in your workplace or team.
Explore signals you may be perceiving, in the boxes below, and go on to read about our approaches. Or to guide your exploration with some of your specific context, try our NEW support matching tool first!
CONNECTION
You are here:
• lack of trust
• silos, lack of communication
• loss of direction
With Big Waves:
• building relationships
• celebrating, enjoying, relaxing, and finding your natural flow
• learning and growing
Working better:
• trust
• sense of shared purpose
• clear roles and relationships
• mechanisms for meaningful feedback
COLLABORATION
You are here:
• unclear roles
• poor decisions
• meetings where nothing gets done
With Big Waves:
• surface root causes limiting your collaboration
• explore supportive tools and processes, structural encouragements
• build shared understanding of purpose
• create clarity around roles and responsibilities, decision-making structures
• understanding power
Working better:
• creativity and conceptual productivity
• faster better problem solving
• innovation and flow
• jazz band
CLARITY
You are here:
• confusing relationships or workflows
• change regularly disrupts planning
• dreading feedback or meetings
With Big Waves:
• earning open and authentic communication
• see the impacts of your structures, roles and practices
• who you are in dialogue with
• design adaptive planning mechanisms that account for complexity
Working Better:
• richer collaboration and increased trust
• better decision-making
• shared purpose
• more reliable planning and resourcing
CONFLICT
You are here:
• turnover
• toxicity
• low psychological safety
With Big Waves:
• lbuilding skills to disagree better
• lunderstanding generative conflict
• lhealing interventions in crisis
Working better:
• lhealthy disagreement
• llearning from mistakes
• lgreater trust and authenticity
• lcuriosity about possibilities for change
Next, we’ll propose an approach, including building any internal capacity needed to support it, and including signs we’ll monitor to know whether we are on or off track. Then it’s off to work, watching the signs and adjusting course as needed. The work may include any or all of the following approaches:
COACHING
a wide range of methods address limiting beliefs and patterns, to be able to recognize and build on your inner leadership capacities
FACILITATION
Group process design and facilitation, including conflict mediation. With a deep understanding of group dynamics and a wide range of tools to guide groups where they want to go.
LEARNING
All Big Waves’ training and learning materials are designed from educational better practices, in a range of formats from self-paced courses to downloadable tools to public and private cohorts, on topics including: decision-making for buy-in, improving impact through input, creating healthy feedback culture, fair expectations, understanding power, basic conflict resolution, creating inclusive workplaces, protecting strategic priorities, working with different personalities and conflicting styles, designing and participating in meetings in ways that directly support your values and objectives, and how to be an emotionally aware team.
ORGANIZATIONAL
DEVELOPMENT
Big Waves can bring a wide variety of organizational development tools and approaches to our work with you, in addition to the coaching, training, and facilitation approaches introduced on this page. Explore your processes, roles, structures, and practices with us, to learn more clearly how things are working and identify opportunities for improvement.
When we’ve completed the planned work, we’ll assess effectiveness. Any or all of the monitoring and evaluation, whether in progress and/or at completion, may be simple and straightforward, or more complex: we will determine together what’s needed. When we look at our findings, we’ll recommend any further work they suggest.
Signature Engagements.
Workplace Culture Change
You can create safe, caring, and transformative work environments that support the equity and dignity of all members of the workplace. This has been shown to create happier, more effective, and more creative workplaces with higher retention and sustainability. What’s more, by transforming systemic issues in our workplaces, we move toward shifting them in the world. Whether you are looking for a prevention strategy, or responding to an identified problem, Big Waves can help you make the changes your organization needs to be successful.
Culture change is an adaptive process customized to your workplace. It goes through the following stages:
Discovery: Together, we will identify the elements of culture that you want to shift, and then plan an approach.
Action: We will start with one to three targeted actions to move toward your goals. These will be chosen based on expected impact and level of complexity.
Evaluation: We will then do a mini assessment to learn what has shifted and what else might help. The plan is then adapted based on this evaluation.
Capacity Building: If needed, we will build internal capacity to make sure these changes stick!
Maintenance: We will check in after 3-4 months to determine if there is a need for any further support. It is recommended to do the check in at least twice.
Actions may include creation or modification of policies, processes and procedures, group process facilitation, mediation, leadership coaching, training, team building, and/or visioning.
Strategic Clarity
As organizations change and evolve over time, the clarity of purpose, and the clarity around choices of practices, norms, structures and systems to achieve that purpose, can dim.
Re-establishing a shared understanding of “why we do things the way we do”, and then ensuring that the ways things are done are still actually aiming directly at that purpose, can profoundly change the way your work together feels.
How are expectations set and discussed and supported?
How is input sought and offered, and how is this understood?
How are decisions made, and how is this understood?
How do you choose how and where you’ll discuss, update, inquire, celebrate, and plan?
How are roles designed, and how is this understood?
Adaptive Strategic Clarity
Work with us to discern what’s non-negotiable in your pursuit of your purpose, and then design systems to carefully consider and test priorities and pivots on that path.
Expectations
When teams fall short of expectations, it’s rarely because people aren’t trying. It’s more often because expectations were unclear, unrealistic, or not aligned to shared priorities. Our easy to use framework builds trust, clarity and accountability into your work together.
Input and Decision-making
Does your group revisit decisions? It’s easy to think a decision has been made, when in fact, there wasn’t full buy-in. Work with us to design decision processes to seek and gain true buy-in, or to practice decisions using our supportive tools and systems.
Input is a key component of decisions, but also it’s a core aspect of any collaboration, whether or not there’s an immediate decision to be made. The way that input has happened traditionally is not often what’s needed in today’s organizational realities. Work with us to build versatility into your collaboration. Together we’ll map your current approach, learn and practice alternatives as well as how to know which is best in the moment, and make a plan to bring these practices into your work.
Meetings and Communication
How do you choose how and where you’ll discuss, update, inquire, celebrate, and plan? If the answer is “depends who’s choosing”, or perhaps simply “I’m not sure”, you are probably experiencing one or more of the following: frustrating meetings, lost time seeking basic information, regular misunderstanding or miscommunication, duplicated efforts, or dropped balls. The great news is that it’s not usually difficult to clean this up, and you’ll notice the increase in ease very quickly.
Roles and Structures
Conflict Transformation
To be adaptive in today’s work environment, workplaces benefit from diverse perspectives and different ways of thinking. But this can create conflict and teams need support to find their way.
When faced with conflict or difficult conversations, people need to feel safe enough to engage. Big Waves uses a trauma-informed approach to supporting better relationships at work. Through a range of approaches including mediation, facilitation (link to facilitation), coaching (link to coaching), training (link to training), and workplace restoration, you can renovate your relationships to make more space for the work that really matters.
Some of the reasons you might need support around conflict:
- People on your team don’t get along and it’s impacting their ability to work together
- You’re building a more diverse workplace, and discovering it’s leading to more difficult conversations that you don’t know how to navigate
- People avoid each other or are afraid to disagree
- People are leaving because the workplace culture feels toxic
Mediation is a voluntary process in which two or more people who are having a dispute are supported to negotiate an agreement that works for everyone. Mediation supports people to have a conversation about their areas of disagreement, and helps them to understand each other, communicate more effectively, make agreements and improve their work relationship.
Once the mediation process is complete, a written document is provided that describes what the people involved have agreed to.
Brook has been a Qualified Mediator (Q.Med.) since 2016. She integrates conflict coaching into her mediation process, and has a particular focus on supporting people around issues of equity and power in the mediation context.
A comprehensive approach to restoring good workplace relationships after a major conflict, investigation or other workplace trauma. Workplace restoration usually begins with an assessment and recommendations, which may include mediation, a facilitated group process, team-building exercises, conflict management coaching, policy review and/or training. Once the recommendations have been tried, there is often an evaluation period to make sure the process has been successful. (Learn more)
Putting the Workplace Back Together
A major trauma in the workplace such as an investigation, a complaint of bullying or harassment, employee terminations or organizational change can be a devastating experience for everyone. Broken relationships, stress, anger, confusion, fear and distrust can be just some of the emotions experienced. Such emotions make it difficult for people to want to come to work each day, much less be productive and creative. You may even lose key staff as a result.
Through the Workplace Restoration process, we help organizations restore relationships and move on from the crisis, leaving the stress behind.
When to consider workplace restoration
- Following an investigation of a human rights or bullying and harassment complaint
- In situations of escalated conflict
- Following terminations, legal actions, unpopular changes, or other workplace crises that have damaged trust and the capacity to work together
What is the Workplace Restoration Process?
Workplace restoration usually begins with an assessment and a recommended plan of action.
During the assessment, we interview management and staff and review your current policies regarding conflict resolution. We ask, “What happened here?” and “What is needed to heal?” We recommend a plan of action for repairing relationships and for ensuring similar problems don’t happen in the future.
Depending on the nature of the conflict, the plan of action may include the following:
- Mediation or restorative group process
- Conflict coaching to prepare for mediation or to improve general conflict skills
- Leadership coaching to support leadership to respond proactively in a workplace conflict or other crisis
- Review of policies related to conflict, code of conduct, discrimination and harassment, feedback and performance, and other policies that may impact conflict
- Workshops and training
After the recommendations have been implemented, there is an evaluation to make sure the process has been successful. This often involves checking in with key people via interviews, focus groups or surveys to assess what feels better and where there may still be areas for improvement. The evaluation may lead to further recommendations.