CASE STUDY (2017)
Quick and Deep Shifts at Simsai Construction
- Eye to Eye exercise
- Social Presencing Theatre / 4D-Mapping
- Generative Dialog
Challenge
“What is Simsai’s Higher Purpose?
How will the Perth home-building market be different once it has been fulfilled?”
Context
Simsai Construction is a home-building business based in Perth, with several brands serving different market segments. Its primary market in 2017 was first-homes with a large proportion of these clients being new immigrant families. The three owner-directors were keen to build a successful organisation that made a positive difference in the world and provided secure, fulfilling and enjoyable employment. This presented quite a challenge given they were in a highly competitive industry within a city experiencing tough economic conditions.
As a key part of a larger project, Simsai’s directors invited threefold to guide the management team through an exploration to discover the organisation’s vision and higher purpose.
Approach
A one-day workshop was conducted by threefold and Burkileadership to explore the emerging future for Simsai Construction. The workshop included:
- Establishing deep one-to-one connections through an eye-to-eye experience
- Practising body mindfulness as a warm-up. This helped people settle into a space of presence and listening to their bodies
- 4D-Mapping, a tool from Social Presencing Theatre, where predefined roles represented the perspectives of various Simsai stakeholders
- A generative dialogue in three phases, sharing:
- Facts – what was observed with people’s physical senses?
- Interpretations – what feelings, images, intuitions or interpretations arose?
- Conclusions – what insights were gained and what conclusions drawn?
- Stepping into the field of the future and seeing what shifts had occurred and how they were created, followed by another round of dialogue
Over the following days, the workshop’s insights coalesced into statements of vision, higher purpose, and a beneficial cycle which will help fulfil both.
Shifts/Results
- Simsai now has an inspiring vision and purpose, including a “beneficial cycle” which describes how the organisation plans to create positive outcomes for all stakeholders, including society as a whole
- Team members felt a deep sense of connection with each other, the organisation, its stakeholders and its purpose
- Relationships within the team became more open and trusting
Post-session client reflection
“I’d highly recommend the 4D Mapping process to other organisations. It pushed the boundaries of how we usually make decisions and created a way forward we would have never otherwise discovered.
Our team’s relationships have been more open and trusting since spending this deeply-immersive day together. While it stretched our comfort zones it gave us great insights into our staff and the company’s direction.
I’m amazed by how much we were able to achieve in a single day. Most other methods for discovering purpose take months to work through. Not only was this incredibly quick, but it was also incredibly deep. We not only thought about our purpose, we felt it.
Provided we keep nourishing the work begun during the mapping I sincerely believe it’s going to make a huge difference to the organisation in years to come. Since the workshop, we’ve integrated the purpose and vision into further development of our values and behaviours, and our people are becoming increasingly aware of the impact their work can and does have on society.”
Ashley Thomlinson, Owner and Director of Simsai Construction
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