ABSTRACT
143TA principles underpin my role and practice. They were instrumental as a guide and an evaluation process for myself personally and professionally. In the closing of this chapter I briefly discuss each principle. The project was with a real workplace situation of team meetings and participants from multiple background levels. Each meeting participant was a department manager representing all areas of the business which meant it was a team working together from not only different business leadership responsibilities but also different backgrounds. Time at the beginning of the project was spent understanding each participant’s frame of reference.
I observed intuition emerging through the individual and collaborative reflection activities both for myself and the group which enabled discussion for creating a new reality. Contracting set the expectation for everyone to operate from the position of OK-OK, especially when confronting each other about differences in perception and culture. Specific agreements incorporated being committed to listening to each other’s perspectives, encountering each other on an equal level and taking each other’s autonomy and wisdom seriously and as an asset to the group knowledge.
TA offers many concepts that can be designed as micro-learning and applied directly into workplace practices as demonstrated from this research project. The practice of contracting sought to articulate the ways in which contracting (agreements) will be practiced in workplace activities. Integrating previous change experience and learning as a preparatory exercise into the competence curve supporting strategies offered a leveraging step to draw upon previous knowing before addressing the here-and-now support of self and others.
Integrating new learning into immediate practice in real workplace practices I observed increased leader understanding and purpose of the TA concepts. Regular reflection developed collaborative responsibility for ensuring team meetings were continuously effective. Finally, it was through the pedagogical method of cognitive apprenticeship which provided a practical scaffold from which to design, plan, reflect and evaluate the workplace learning activities.
