An Inside Look at Process-Oriented Organizational Work

Organizational life—whether corporate, nonprofit, community based, schools, hospitals, or athletic teams—is full of richness and incredible challenge. Whatever the specific goals are, all organizations want to be successful. Success might be measured in many different ways, including how much money we make, how many people we touch in a positive way, how successfully we bring about necessary and desired social change, and how fast we can grow and expand.

Organizations bring to the table incredible skills in so many specialized areas of production and services. However, most organizations struggle in some of the most crucial areas that play a major role in their long-term success. These areas include: how the organization works with conflict; how the organization creates and stays close to its most powerful visions; how it deals with social issues and social pressures as the world changes, including diversity issues; how to deal consciously with issues of rank and power and avoid charges of abuse of power; how to keep people motivated to bring their best forward and to stay with the organization; how to make major transitions in leadership; and how to create healthy psychological environments that maximize health and happiness and minimize workers’ negative stress levels, work-related health issues, and resulting downtime.

Process-Oriented Psychology has several aspects to it; the relevant one for organizational consulting is called Worldwork, which stands on three pillars:

1. Conflict resolution

2. Organizational development

3. Leadership training

Process organizational work has many different aspects, including private consulting, organizational consulting and facilitation, and trainings in many transformative areas. This information is relevant to a broad spectrum of groups, including

• Corporations of all sizes
• Small businesses, including family owned businesses
• Nonprofits
• Social action groups
• Athletic teams
• Hospitals
• Schools
• Religious institutions
• Universities
• Government agencies

What Areas Does Process-Oriented Organizational Work Address?

1. Working with Conflict: The latest methods for facilitating conflict to help bring positive resolutions, these trainings include the Process Work three-point method of working with your position, the other’s position, and a neutral third position, and we train individuals in how to move fluidly between the sides. Once people can do this, most conflicts can be resolved peacefully and effectively—even some of the most seemingly intractable conflicts. We also train individuals and organizations in four-phase conflict work. This work helps to identify what phase or style of conflict a person or group is in, and then tailors the interventions to fit that phase. Briefly, the phases are:

Phase 1: Avoid conflict

Phase 2: Get into the conflict and get polarized

Phase 3: Move freely between the different sides on a conflict

Phase 4: Gain distance and positive detachment so as to understand and gain insights on how to resolve the conflict from a nonpolarized place.

We have good experiences applying these methods to groups, cities, and even polarized groups in countries and between countries.

2. Developing Conscious Use of Rank and Power: Most conflicts are started by and enflamed by one or both parties or sides using their various sources of rank without awareness. Sources of rank include social rank, contextual rank, psychological rank, and spiritual rank. As we train people in how to be conscious of their rank and use it for the best of the organization, conflict drops and positive leadership, productivity, and well-being goes up. We also have helped organizations resolve potential lawsuits and other actions around the unconscious use of power.

3. Process-Oriented Psychology Vision Work: Process-Oriented Psychology has many different approaches to connecting and reconnecting individuals and organizations with their deepest visions and the feelings that give rise to these visions. The closer organizations are to their core visions, the more they reach the levels of motivation and success they desire.

4. Process-Oriented Psychology Group Facilitation: Process-Oriented Psychology has highly effective ways of working with the atmosphere and core issues at work that disturb and undermine organizational effectiveness. We train organizations specifically in how to facilitate five-minute open forums and group process, where we work with and train how to work with groups from six to 600 people.

5. Process-Oriented Psychology Leadership Training: This work helps develop leaders who can rise to face today’s challenging organizational environments. We train in skills that help leaders know how to best give and receive feedback; how to deal with criticisms and attacks; how to develop styles of leadership that fit the kind of organization that is being led; and, of course, how to use rank and power in ways that are conscious and useful.

6. Process-Oriented Psychology Dreaming Money: This work helps organizations to make their work more profitable. We have practical, strategic methods for how to work on increasing profits, as well as methods of “dreaming money”—that is, how to open up to the art and magic of making money. We work with an integrated approach that brings together material and spiritual approaches to making money with an emphasis on socially responsible methods.

Excerpt from “Process-Oriented Facilitation Manual” by Gary Reiss.

Dr. Gary Reiss holds an LCSW, Ph.D., and is a certified trainer in Process-Oriented Psychology. Reiss has a private practice in Eugene and Portland, OR, and teaches Process-Oriented Psychology worldwide. His specialties include family therapy, sex therapy, trauma work, healing history, working with coma patients, Worldwork in hot spots in the world, organizational development, and integrating Process work with different spiritual traditions. He is the director of the nonprofit, The International Peace Group. He has published 13 books, including “The Dance of Sex”; “Dreaming Money: Families that Dream Together,” and “Love, Power, and Wisdom.” His newest book is “Healing History Breaking the Cycle of Personal and Historical Trauma,” and his two most recently published workbooks are “Healing History Training Manual” and “Process-Oriented Organizational Facilitation Training Manual.”