The Answer to
How Is Yes: Acting on What Matters
By Peter Block
*****
For
change agents
*
For
everyone who’s content with things as they are or
relinquishes accountability to others
Anyone who’s an AQP member and keeps up with
News for a Change is familiar with Peter Block as
a speaker, author, and provocateur. I greeted his latest
book with anticipation and found myself, as usual with
Block’s writing, both nodding my head in agreement
and shaking it in awe with how he turns business
convention on its head.
The book’s interspersed artistic photos of
balancing rocks are constant reminders of a key
statement: “The goal is to balance a life that
works with a life that counts.” The opening page
quote, “Transformation comes more from pursuing
profound questions than seeking practical answers,”
opens the gate to an introspective journey.
We can’t get to what matters and to the
“right” answers, by asking the wrong
questions.
If you often find yourself thinking that you’re
very busy yet not accomplishing anything important, and
wondering why your work circles around the same struggles
over and over —it’s time to read this book
and examine not only your organization’s culture
but your personal collusion in this conundrum. A review
of “One From Column B” in the November 2001
News for a Change (“Actions That Might
Matter”) will give you a glimpse of the nature of
Block’s challenge to our habitual questioning. But
in The Answer to How is Yes, Block takes us on a
journey of discovery and understanding, revealing why
questions of “How?” can act to avoid more
important questions, such as whether what we are doing is
important to us, as opposed to being important to
them.” The shift to Yes! questions inspire
us, guiding us to act on our ideals, and
creating effective organizations. Maybe you’re
satisfied with where your questions and answers have
taken you; in that case, forget the book and coach the
rest of us.
As consultants and facilitators, our role is to challenge
groups to be clear about goals, then ask the right
questions to guide choices to reach those goals. If the
desired culture is for “shared vision” rather
than “buy-in,” and “conviction”
rather than “convincing,” then rephrasing the
How? questions in the way Block suggests will go a long
way toward balancing what works with what counts.
“Getting the question right may be the most
important thing we can do.”
I was most intrigued by Block’s elucidation of
social architecture, as applied to organizational
culture. In this section, Block defines four archetypal
images common to our organizations: the engineer, the
economist, the artist, and the architect. As he explains,
each represents a strategic stance, a way of thinking,
and a way of acting. Our challenge is to integrate the
qualities of each into our own strategy for acting on
what matters. Block is clear that “social
architect” is a role for bosses and
employees, and is not a technical specialty attached to a
certain role or function. Rather, it is an image, a role
for each of us to help create. The social architect is
concerned with how people are brought together to get
their work done and build organizations they want to
inhabit. “The task of the social architect is to
design and bring into being organizations that serve both
the marketplace and the soul of the people who work
within them.” Sound like anything in your job
description? Don’t you want it to be?
If we are each to balance what works with what matters,
we must each be attentive to the questions and the often
paradoxical answers. A final image to hold: As social
architects, encouraging others to find their own voice
will make us more able to sustain our own.
Reviewed by JoAnn Stoddard: joann@aqp.org
Book
Ratings:
***** =
Pick it up today
**** =
Overnight it
*** =
Snail mail it
** = At a library?
* =
Never mind
March 2002 News for a
Change Homepage
