Organizations – like our bodies, garages, basements and lives – accumulate weight and clutter over the years.

A lot of this stays unnoticed and over time gets heavy, toxic and over time slows down the organization. When adding some conscious attention, we can easily identify what weighs us down. In this workshop we will walk through the favorite areas of toxic accumulation and sort them out.

Instead letting yesterday’s weight hold you back, you will be going to look deeply into.

Questioning into 5 areas of toxic organizational accumulation:

1. What are old beliefs, assumptions and values that don’t serve you anymore?
2. What are procedures, regulations and rules you could easily let go off?
3. What are the projects, initiatives and work groups that are meandering around without adding any value, but still drain energy, time, attention and money?
4. Are there any systems, tools, even IT programs in place that are more in your way than helpful?
5. What are roles, positions and maybe even people that have become road blocks when it comes to a lighter way of moving on?

The 3-step Process:

1. Sorting: In a comprehensive workshop you will walk through the 5 key areas and we will identify candidates for a “let-go” in a brainstorming mode.
2. Selecting: In a second round I will suggest a variation of the “Mari Kondo” method and you will “feel” or sense into each item with the question: does it add or extract value from our organization?
3. Disposing: Last step makes sure that items are being properly disposed of and you will define the according steps

You can do this workshop with yourself, with your team or on an organizational level. I would suggest to invite about 5 people representing the key areas described in the topics above.

The right attitude makes all the difference

Even more important than the technical process itself is your inner attitude towards letting go. This is the main reason why people – at the end of the day – hold on to their habits, projects and processes. They often know it on an intellectual level but are emotionally attached and not yet ready to let go. Sometimes clients find work arounds to pretend they let go when in reality they recreate e.g. a role in a slightly changed form.

• Be grateful for everything the item has done for you – but acknowledge that it has fulfilled its purpose in the past and is not helpful helpful any longer.
• Be fierce and clear because those items have an innate tendency to stick.
• Ask others for help who are less attached to a specific item and not emotionally connected (e.g. to a project or a product).
• Know that everything you keep will take its toll in terms of attention, space and costs. Don’t only look at what you might lose, but also what you will gain: space, resources, time you can use even better.
• Don’t be too hard on yourself but not too easy either. Challenge yourself and still stay gentle – even if it hurts a little bit – this will strengthen your self-esteem and have an empowering effect and will be encouraging for others.
• Don’t extend this process over a long period of time, it doesn’t get any easier or better. Act fast with a fearless heart, have no regrets.
• Start with the small stuff, get practice and then turn to the bigger ones.
• Enjoy the process (even if you don’t)!
• Feel the impact it has in your organization, team and life, thank yourself! Tell others about it, brag and encourage colleagues to do the same.

If you want help with this, I am offering Workshops to support this process – as I know it can be helpful to get an external view and a helping hand. I have done this many times with clients in different ways and my open and clear opinion was sometimes a helpful and well appreciated kick to them out in a loving way.