CHE Emergence

So, as many of you know, the CHE has been going through some soul-searching the last year or so, resulting in a new Purpose, emerging principles and now a new organisational structure. We have not rushed this process, as we know that energy and time have their own dynamic and trusted that we would know when the moment was right. Within a couple of weeks or so at the end of January, it all started to fall into place, and we are ready now to take the next step.

Many of you may not be familiar with our organisational design, so this may not mean much to you. The story however contains useful principles for natural design which can be of value in many contexts.

Our structure started loosening about six months ago, as some souls left their roles, roles were not filled and the Service Circle put their Circle structure on hold until clarity emerged. We could sense the system pulling apart a bit to make the space and energy for a re-formation. We resisted the urge to fill the vacuum immediately, until it emerged naturally.

A first significant step was the synnervators retreat at the end of January, where the Synnervate field started to cohere at a new level. Arjen writes more about that in this newsletter. The essence for me as I experienced it was a simplifying and grounding of the system. Part of that journey was the decision to release the CHE School of Synnervation brand and bundle all activities under the CHE Synnervate brand. In its simplest expression it means we no longer have to question which label an activity comes under and our clients no longer have to seek clarity about the relationship between the two. We also more fully integrate action and learning. We remain grateful for the energy that Alain Volz put into forming and nurturing the School, and will be honouring the School’s passing with an appropriate ritual and wake.

A few days after the synnervators’ retreat, the CHE’s Alignment Circle met for a governance meeting. The key elements that emerged were:

  • consolidation of the Synnervate circle to be composed only of Synnervators, with internal roles to meet the needs of the business (see Arjen’s piece ‘Ontwikkelingen CHE Synnervate‘);
  • bringing the Salon and Constellation Leads into the Alignment Circle. Synnervate, the salons and constellations are the main interfaces of CHE with the world and as such it makes sense to have them all in the Alignment Circle;
  • releasing of the Service Circle. This was supported by feedback from the Circle itself where people felt it was getting a bit top heavy. We looked at what was actually happening in practice and followed that design.

As such a number of roles were released as we felt they were covered by the accountabilities of other existing roles (Organisational Connector, Internal Relationship Officer, External Relationship Officer, Wisdom Council Lead). Remaining roles were linked to existing roles represented in the Alignment Circle.

CHE NL Organisation (March 2012) - Click image to enlarge...

I’d like to express my thanks to the souls who have vitalised these roles we are releasing over the years, in particular Jan-Willem van Aalst, Marianne de Jager, Domi Lambregts and Esther Brouwer. They have allowed us to get where we are now.

It feels like we have re-established a solid foundation and tight formation for the next phase. May our paths cross in co-creation when the time is right…

With love, Peter