Integrated Clarity: Energizing How We Talk and What We Talk about in Organizations

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Shafer observed, “Internally, we all wanted to be more efficient with our operations, more

productive with our communication. As we grew, our sense of cohesion as a team and our shared

values were slipping. The top-down remedies management was implementing seemed to create

more of the symptoms we were trying to avoid. We decided to focus on our communication and

people first to build our new structure from the bottom up.”

In March 2005, ABHP launched Integrated Clarity (IC)™, a high-involvement series of

strategic conversations centered around a set of six universal organizational needs. In the first

conversation, 95 percent of the team experienced IC through one-on-one interviews, smallgroup and management team dialogues, or an initial assessment of organizational needs.

The assessment showed that employees ranked meeting “communication” needs the lowest

of 20 organizational needs. “Morale” was ranked sixteenth. Low morale and communication inefficiencies hampered and, in some cases, completely thwarted small-group and organization-wide

discussions on ABHP’s strategic direction.

The second conversation—a one-day Integrated Clarity workshop—was conducted with

the entire team. Eleven weeks later, the follow-up assessment showed communication had moved

up to sixth, placing it in the top one-third of the indicators. Morale jumped to number three. The

overall organizational health score rose 32 percent.

In August 2005, this increased operational energy was leveraged into the third conversation, an all-day strategic dialogue about ABHP’s future in the context of the critical organizational needs identified by the IC process. By day’s end, the team expressed excitement about

clarifying their organizational and people needs. They developed initial strategies for action

based on shared values and common direction.

“Yes, this is clear to me now,” said a researcher who expressed frustration at the first IC

workshop about the organization’s lack of clarity over direction and structure. “I know how I can

contribute to this. I can see how our structure might change to support our organizational

needs.”



The Basics

What Is Integrated Clarity?



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Integrated Clarity (IC) is a process that helps an organization or community2 discover

and articulate its needs critical to its sustainability in a way that benefits the whole system and

the people in it. It does this by changing the way people communicate and creates conditions

that engage people in a way that is more productive than what most are used to. It is a consciousness and a framework for a process that transforms how and what we talk about. IC provides a missing link for addressing the effectiveness dilemma implicit in the compelling

empirical evidence on “dis-ease” in organizations. IC integrates research that shares the idea of

empowerment—having power with people, not over people—into a single framework, bringing together the work of Jim Collins, Kimball Fisher, William Bridges, Jerry I. Porras, and Marshall Thurber (figure 1).



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Figure 1. Integrated Clarity Framework



While empowerment is not new, framing it into organizational needs is. IC’s framework of

six universal organizational needs is: Identity, Life-Affirming Purpose, Direction, Structure, Energy,

and Expression. Productive conversations around these needs provide a solid foundation for helping the organization meet its needs while simultaneously meeting the needs of its people.

Central to the conversations and consciousness of empowerment is a key ingredient—the

language model of Nonviolent Communication (NVC)SM, also known as Compassionate Communication. Developed by Marshall Rosenberg, NVC is a language of empowerment. Practicing

NVC dismantles our habitual, pervasive way of thinking and speaking that blocks empowerment

in organizations, such as thinking or language that includes blame, judgment, guilt, control, and

fear.

By introducing a language and consciousness that honor the needs of an organization and

the people in it, IC takes out the battle stance, “It doesn’t matter what you need, this is for the

good of the company” or “It’s the company’s fault I’m not able to do my job.” Instead, it provides

a clear and productive forum for seemingly conflicting needs to be equally heard and respected.

There are six steps involved in the Integrated Clarity framework:



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1. Prelude to conversations. Situation assessment, including a 20-question review of organizational needs.

2. Conversation: IC overview and meeting people needs. Learning and living the language of

empowerment.

3. Conversation: meeting organizational needs. Collective, strategic conversations on identifying, clarifying, and articulating “Source Needs”—Identity, Life-Affirming Purpose, Direction.

4. Interlude: the pause between conversations. Follow-up assessment.

5. Conversation: leveraging source needs into planning and implementation. Collective, strategic

conversations on identifying, clarifying, and articulating “Leveraging Needs”—Structure,

Energy, Expression.



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6. Conversation: the assessment-planning-implementation cycle starts again. Monitoring and

measuring the effects on organizational and people needs using the Organization Needs

Dashboard (or Instrument Panel)—an at-a-glance collection of top-line data that encourages participation in organizational conversations.

IC becomes the launching pad for organizations and teams to develop the cultural characteristics that produce empowerment in organizations and people, as documented in organization

effectiveness research. As both an organization framework and a collective conversation process,

IC operates at all three levels—intrapersonally, interpersonally, and systemwide. IC also works in

three ways: as an assessment tool, a planning process, and an implementation mechanism,

including NVC as a communication model.

While IC houses the qualities of empowerment under one roof, NVC acts as the day-to-day

operational voice of this empowerment consciousness.

IC Empowerment Consciousness

While the “empowerment” movement of the 1980s and 1990s did not live up to what we

knew possible, it is a powerful organizational force when it does take root. In fact, many leading

practitioners and researchers still believe that “empowerment is the second industrial revolution.”3

Key qualities of IC empowerment include:

1. Empowerment as power with people, not over them; a power that comes from inside of

us, our passion and alignment to others and the organization; freely offering what we

have in a spirit of contribution (versus control, punishment, guilt, blame, and reward

paradigms);

2. Blame-free environment of mutual respect, absent of judgment;

3. Conversation-based operations characterized by dialogue and debate;

4. Inquiry-based and iterative—asking the “right” questions is as important as getting the

answers; building on our answers from the last inquiry in a continual refinement process;

5. Responding to and operating from what we are passionate about, what’s “alive” in us and what

we value as an organization;



7. Honesty with each other and about the organizational data, information (including market

and business information), and feedback;

8. Connection to each other, to the organizational needs, to human needs, and to our markets.

Energizing How We Talk

Most communication in organizations is “dead,” and, some would say, not very honest.

Speaking and listening nonjudgmentally in the language of NVC transforms every conversation.



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6. Capitalizing on the human element—namely, feelings and needs—in organizational systems

rather than tolerating or “managing” them;



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It is an invitation into empowerment thinking. NVC develops “our awareness that we are each

responsible for our own thoughts, feelings and actions.”4

This awareness comes from a key understanding and redefinition of “needs.” We’ve been

educated to believe that having needs is somehow weak, that needs and feelings are unprofessional and outside the realm of business or organizations.

In truth, all people share the same universal needs, such as respect, choice, trust, comfort,

and rest. Understanding this brings us into a universal relationship with each other.

The challenge arises when people confuse needs with requests. For example, a supervisor is

actually making a request when she says, “I need you to get that report on my desk by 5:00 p.m.”

This request is a strategy to meet a need, perhaps a need for efficiency or completion. Confusing

needs with requests may be an unconscious, habitual use of the language of “power over people.”

We might also guess from her choice of words that if the report were not on the desk by 5:00 p.m.,

there would be punitive consequences. If that’s the case, this is not a request, but a demand.

An interesting thing happens when we think someone is demanding something from us.

We activate the “demand-resistance cycle.” Unconsciously, we hinder productivity by stimulating

resistance. This dynamic plays a role in the large number of failed transition efforts (people know

someone is trying to get them to “buy in”) and operational inefficiencies (ask any manager how

much energy it takes to continually “demand” from workers). When requests become the norm

and an empowerment consciousness prevails, the data convincingly support significantly

increased profits, productivity, and morale.5

Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, talks about “having the right people on the bus”6

instead of spending resources to motivate people. If you have to motivate people, he insists, then

they are probably not aligned with the team or organization.

The moment we understand the subtle but powerful distinctions that NVC makes clear

among needs, requests, and demands, empowerment begins. The four steps of the NVC process

can be learned in minutes and may take a lifetime to master:

1. Make an observation: What we are observing (objective, concrete, measurable, factual versus interpretation, evaluation, judgment).



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2. Identify feelings:7 What is stimulated in us by what we observe (feelings are caused by our

needs met or unmet and by our thinking, not by what we observe).

3. Connect feelings to our needs: Universal—all people have the same needs (independent of

any specific person, event, action, or behavior).

4. Make requests: “Would you be willing to tell me if you’re able to complete the report and

have it on my desk by 5:00 p.m.?” (specific, doable in the moment versus “Can you get it to

me right away?”).

Using this language of personal responsibility transforms communication in organizations

by engendering self-reflection and conscious personal growth. The qualities are consistent with

Collins’s description of Level 5 Leadership as professional will coupled with personal humility.8



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He explains how Level 5 leaders develop “under the right circumstances—self-reflection, conscious personal development, with a mentor, a great teacher, loving parents, a significant life

experience, a Level 5 boss. . . .”9 Practicing NVC is one strategy we are confident develops Level 5

leaders.

Energizing What We Talk About

At the heart of IC are six universal organizational “needs.” Like people needs, universal

organizational needs exist for every organization, every team. While NVC provides a language

and awareness for human needs, IC provides a language and awareness for organizational needs.

Together, they become a pathway to empowerment. Empowerment, by definition, is a

needs-focused solution to our organizational woes, such as workers being:

• value/principles-based versus policy/procedure based,

• self-motivated versus management-controlled,

• purpose/achievement-oriented versus problem-solving, and

• aware of others and the whole system versus focused on themselves and their isolated

function.10

Research by Fisher, Collins, and Bridges points to the need for self-aware workers, people

who can respond to “what is alive” in themselves, coworkers, customers, other stakeholders, and

the organization itself.11 Actions that come out of this connection make up the fabric of empowerment. “Build a culture around the idea of freedom and responsibility, within a framework,”

Collins says.12

IC provides such a framework. By articulating a unified set of organizational needs, IC is a

springboard to empowerment. With such a framework, organizations may experience farreaching results of empowerment like these, cited in the Fisher and Collins research:

• 45 percent lower costs

• 250 percent productivity improvement

• double the revenues and profits

• 50 percent cut in accidents, absenteeism, and sickness



With IC as a road map, many of the paradoxical concepts and counterintuitive research

findings of empowerment become more readily perceived and easier to apply. See for yourself as

you explore our Source Needs: Identity, Life-Affirming Purpose, and Direction (figure 2).



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• 3.42 to 18.50 times the general stock market value13



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Figure 2. Six Universal Organizational Needs



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Identity

The idea of organizational core values and ideology is nothing new. But what have we been doing

with them? At best, they are words on the wall for use on special planning occasions. At worst,

they are memos in the drawer. Identity invites us into a new kind of organizational conversation.

Instead of strategic planning focused on what we do next, it becomes a self-inquiry into who we

are. Collins’s discovery of the “Hedgehog Concept”14 (the intersection among what we are passionate about, what we can be the best at, and what drives our economic engine) is a favorite

tool15 of ours for inquiry into Identity.

Identity is the root need of the six universal organizational needs. When Identity is clear,

everything the organization does extends from it. It creates the kind of integrity that Collins calls

“fanatical adherence”16 to our values and what we stand for. “Beliefs must always come before

policies, practices, and goals.”17

Identity also includes whom we invite into our organizations. If we are unclear about our

Identity and hire people with values contrary to our authentic and unique organizational self, over

time our sense of who we are diminishes. Decisions get made that do not align with our collective self.

Life-Affirming Purpose

“Purpose is the set of fundamental reasons for a company’s existence beyond just making

money.”18 Empowerment research reveals a pattern in people’s answers to the question, “Why do

we exist?” Answers are consistently tied to meeting universal people needs and “making life more

wonderful.”19 It is this life-affirming quality that can make an organization’s purpose an inspiring

and powerful guiding force. We live Life-Affirming Purpose; daily operations affirm it.



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For example, conversations about Life-Affirming Purpose among a cross-section of

employees from Horizon Moving Systems revolved around “providing ease and comfort to

people who were in big life transitions—death, marriage, divorce, new job” versus “moving furniture or things.” They see themselves helping people through stressful times and are inspired by

this.

Direction

“Where are we going and by when?” Amazingly, many organizations have lots of strategic goals

that do not point to any future direction. These are organization “to-dos” without a clear intention. They answer the question, “What do we do next?” but not the larger inquiry: “Where do we

really want to be?” Direction is a picture of the sights, sounds, and feelings of desired possibilities

that is rooted in a deep intention envisioned for our future Identity.

While the Source Needs clarify who we are, the Leveraging needs—Structure, Energy, and

Expression—catalyze the Source Needs into action. The powerful connection formed by individually and collectively meeting our Source Needs and Leveraging Needs generates the results of

true empowerment.

Structure

This need begins with Fisher’s empowerment function of authority, resources, information, and

accountability20 as the bones of organizational Structure. We develop Fisher’s work with the idea

of “perfect balance,” equal parts of authority and accountability. To his elegant expression of

empowerment, we add communication, the critical ingredient that moves operations throughout

the organization. If Structure is the organizational body’s skeletal system, then communication is

its lifeblood.

Energy



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IC reframes profit and workforce morale—often thought of as opposing each other—into a

single organizational need of operational fuel. A third key aspect of an organization’s Energy

need is technology, which accelerates momentum.21 When we see Energy as a three-legged

stool—finances, morale, and technology—the idea that we must choose between profit or people

simply disappears.

After reading Marshall Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication, one chief financial officer

said she liked it for family or personal use but that “it wasn’t appropriate for business use.” At the

end of an executive retreat with the IC framework, she said, “We have to train every employee in

IC, including the language of NVC.” The reason she shifted? She grasped that the NVC model’s

focus on people needs coupled with IC’s focus on organizational needs was a direct route to

increasing all three aspects of Energy.



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Expression

The days of “selling an image” are over. Instead, being clear about our unique Identity and place

in the market most effectively connects us with our markets. Expression gives branding and market positioning a voice in the organization’s overall framework, not just as the ancillary “sales and

marketing” departments of old. The stronger the Identity clarity, the stronger the Expression of

that Identity is to customers and other stakeholders.

When and Where Is IC Used?

“Some processes focus on people issues like improving morale or communication while

others focus on strategic planning and business aspects,” says Valerie Becker, human resources

director for Horizon Moving Systems, a 300-employee company. “What’s exciting and different

about Integrated Clarity is that it addresses both at the same time.”

The effectiveness of IC comes from its applicability across multiple levels of an organization (table 1).



Level



Brief Description



Uses



Intrapersonally



what we tell ourselves, our thinking



executive coaching, one-on-one mentoring, self-inquiry and contemplation



Interpersonally



what we tell others, what we think we

hear others telling us



conflict resolution and mediation, challenging conversations, personnel reviews,

team processes, and operational communication



Organizationally



what we think the data and organizational

information is telling us



strategic conversations, providing a planning framework, Organization Needs

Dashboard



Table 1. Applying Integrated Clarity to Different Levels



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How IC Works

IC increases operational efficiencies by encouraging a blame-free work environment

that focuses people on creativity, productivity and learning. To understand the power of NVC

in this process, consider the following dialogue between an IC facilitator and Brian Arthur,

assistant executive director of Applied Behavioral Health Policy (ABHP). Brian knew the way

he expressed his frustrations in the workplace was becoming increasingly counterproductive

for his team.

Brian: I came into the office at 8:10 one morning. We open at 8:00 a.m., so I was a

little surprised that no one was here. I went into my office and started working. I keep



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waiting for people to show up. By 8:20, I’m really upset that I seem to be the only one

here.

Facilitator: Are you feeling upset because you need consistency around the office?

Brian: That’s right. I shot off an e-mail to three key people, told them the time, told

them that no one was here and they needed to fix this problem right away. These emails haven’t worked well in the past, by the way. (laughs)

Facilitator: Are you feeling overwhelmed and need respect?

Brian: No. (pauses silently for about three seconds) I think I was really feeling a bit

lonely. Huh. That’s surprising to me. I like to come in and get into the flow with others. I also notice that if Mike were here, I probably wouldn’t have been upset at all

because we would have gone out for coffee. In fact, I’m sure that my need was for . . .

(looking at IC Feelings and Needs list) connection. Yes. I like to come in and get connected to people first thing.

Facilitator: Were you feeling lonely and you needed connection?

Brian: Yes. I’m surprised by this actually. (pauses) And now I can see that the e-mail I

sent was a strategy to meet my need for connection rather than to address the issue.

Facilitator: With the understanding now of your need for connection, I’m wondering

how best to support you. Are there other strategies that would meet your need for

connection in the future and meet others’ needs for respect?

Brian: I can think of several ways I’d do it differently that would be much more productive. Talking to people in person and explaining what was going on for me would

be one much more productive approach, I think.



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At the IC team retreat, Brian shared these insights. It was clear that people who had previously

judged Brian as “mean” or “angry” now felt a connection with him. Comments at the end of the

day and in retreat evaluation forms echoed the power of his sharing. Team tensions eased. One

team member suggested that she and Brian have lunch as a way to meet both of their needs for

connection beyond the boundaries of work tasks.

By distinguishing between his “needs” and his “strategies,” Brian made a profound leap in

his processing. He could now see the difference between an organizational strategy—the policy

of starting work at 8:00 a.m.—and an organizational need—providing quality service to

clients.

By learning to distinguish between needs and strategies as individuals, we are better

equipped to apply this skill within the organization. Our chosen strategies meet needs rather

than existing for other reasons like, “We’ve always done it this way,” “Everyone else is doing

this,” or “Gee, I didn’t even realize we were doing that.” A needs-based approach (as opposed

to a strategy-based approach) results in improved relationships, increased productivity, and

profits.



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Table of Uses

Brief Description



Project

Length



Service Business

Developed Source Needs to increase profits,

productivity, and morale

• Conducted organization health assessment

• Facilitated strategic planning conversations

• Conducted communication trainings

• Designed team meeting models

• Restructured executive leadership team

• Provided executive coaching

• Defined criteria for designing restructured organization



24 months



Nonprofit and Professional Corporation

Merger

Facilitated tense negotiations and early

transition into new organization structure

• Facilitated merger discussions

• Determined postmerger organization

structure and identity



6 months



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• Determined financial structure for merger

and postmerger operations

State University

Provided strategic framework for planning

and resource allocations

• Articulated Source Needs to unify college

in a single direction

• Conducted college-wide needs assessment

• Provided empathic listening for team

members to share loss and fears as well

as hopes and plans



13 months



International Professional Association

Assisted board of directors in restructuring

the association and programs

• Facilitated strategic conversations on

identity, life affirming purpose, and direction

• Developed new program model



2.5 days



Events



Number of

Participants



• Monthly meeting with company-wide management

team

• 7 strategic planning sessions



• 15 people



• Multiple small-group employee trainings

• 5 combined communication

and strategic planning retreats

• 2 large-group meetings

• 16–21 sessions at a time



• 30 people



• A series of individual and

group discussions with decision makers

• Concurrent work groups detailing new structure

• Strategic planning session

postmerger with large integrated group



• 5 people



• A series of individual and

group discussions with

management leaders

• Concurrent groups working

on different parts of Source

Needs

• Large group meeting presenting approach and objectives



• 15 people



• Group meetings with board

and committee chairs



• 18 people



• 5–25 people



• 5–15 people



• 300 people

• 1-on-1

coaching



• 1–3 people

• 25 people



• 1–3 people



• 350 people



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Getting Started

For a successful transition, three points are critical:

1. Change is an external event. Transition is an internal psychological experience.22 Expect to

begin with heavily internal and personal work that moves outward to others, ultimately to

the whole organization. We believe learning and living IC with NVC as its language model

is a fast, effective way to empowerment in organizations.

2. Expect the return on investment in the IC change process to increase over time. The greatest return comes once a critical mass of IC practitioners—people speaking the language of

human and organizational needs—is established.

3. Ensure there is a supportive infrastructure for collective conversations, training, assessments, and follow-through required to integrate IC into the system.



Roles,Responsibilities,and Relationships

Since IC is a modeling process, adoption comes more rapidly when people with the most authority—either formal or social leaders—learn and practice IC. Empowerment is a “do as we do” process rather than “do as we say.”

Initially, a facilitator or small group of practitioners models the IC language and consciousness, guiding the organization or team in acknowledging and understanding the key distinctions. Facilitator dependence decreases over time as more people internalize the skills and

as formal and social leaders within the organization or on the team assume the facilitator’s

role.

Participants go through three stages of learning IC:

1. Hearing and learning key concepts and making key distinctions;

2. Contemplating, inquiring, and relating concepts to their organization;

3. Practicing and applying concepts.



Conditions for Success

Successfully integrating IC into an organization’s culture depends on these factors:

1. A core group of formal and social leaders learning and practicing IC, including the NVC

language model.



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As participants move through these stages, their decision-making awareness grows from

“no or little choice” to optimal choices.

For participant and facilitator alike, with time and practice, IC becomes a way of life.