Stephan Polomski is director human resources, coach and trainer

For my work and approach how to deal with change as a manager and head of human resources I found a philosophy of five genuine principles. These principles are my personal working charter. They reflect how to make change a positive experience for employees and all other stakeholders, apart from demands for a tool kit how to execute change.

1.       The Principle of Profitability

The principle of profitability is the material basis of our existence. I understand it as platform for individuals to unfold their potential and to gain security, orientation and identity while working. The more this is realized through change the more the social system lively and positively generates material return, benefitting all stakeholders.

I furthermore understand economy as a system which carries and serves life and the human community. Nonetheless, economic activities create order and hierarchy as a structural framework amongst equal humans. Therefore, economy influences culture and is thus a constitutional part of the social community and its patterns. The way we design and change economy we design and change our cultural and social community.

Profitability and return on investment shall take place within a framework guarding human needs and of social and ecological balance. By securing profitability we sustain and develop common welfare and life quality. This is where economical and cultural change should aim at.

2.       The Principle of Humanism

Humanism according to Erich Fromm is a system, which centers the human being, his integrity, his development, his dignity and his freedom: In order to live the principle of humanism the human being himself has to be his own aim (and has not to be considered as a means to gain this or that). And as the human being is his own aim, he is enabled to influence history – as huge change process – carrying humanity as a whole within himself.

Although in a framework of necessity and contradiction, humans constantly search for new solutions in order to – in the best case – lively and positively design the change of what is to the better.

3.       The Principle of Change

Nothing is as consistent as change – this is the Aristotelian principle. Within systems like organizations renewal and change are successful only, if all stakeholders incorporate renewal and change. The potential of success lies within interpersonal resonance utilizing and orchestrating all powers and abilities of experience, knowledge and wisdom as resources for the entrepreneurial or non-entrepreneurial aim. Securing interpersonal resonance creates an organization which works integrated and self balanced. This also unlashes motivation. Individuals are engaged target-oriented, self-responsible and meaningfully whoever they are and wherever they stand.

Productivity grows when employees and leaders find opportunities to express their interests and talents. Positive experiences in the presence on the one hand and on the other hand a long term, meaningful perspective – a vision – for the future are the basis of engagement and performance not only in periods of change.

4.       The Principle of Systemic Thinking

What fosters the cooperation of all people involved? Understanding multidimensional interrelations and networks, considering their feedback and being aware of the process of these networks. This is what the principle of systemic thinking – introduced by Peter Senge as Fifth Discipline – means for me. And this is true for individuals, groups or teams, and organizations.

This is also why personality development and organizational change are closely related to each other. And this is why I understand the company as a place for partnership and dialogue, as a system, that needs a systemic way of understanding how to organize itself in order to solve the tasks of constant adjustment to new situations – called balance.

Balancing itself and using mutual synergies shall raise motivation, productivity, effectiveness, and innovation in a company.

5.       The Principle of Facilitation

Professional facilitation may have different faces: such as consulting, coaching or training. It signifies for me in a broader sense to design and accompany the processes of change of individuals, groups or organizations. Finally, they reach they reach in their own responsibility a positively perceived state of success coming from a stuck state, like a crisis or dysfunction. This positive state is then perceived as a temporary solution or a newly acquired capacity to act and work during the constant process of development, change, and self-balance.

In a narrower sense means facilitation the interaction of individuals towards an aim. The facilitator or coach is expert for the process guarding strength-, resource-, and solution-orientation, and the client is the expert for himself and his specific context as well as the concrete solution he finds for himself.

Future-orientation and solution-orientation are also the basis for all interventions in the field of consulting, coaching, and training after the situation analysis. Cooperation with all stakeholders is a key issue of success. New perspectives on the perceived problem are jointly developed. This leads to new and innovative concepts and their later execution.

The attitude of the facilitator as change agent is shaped by empathy, acceptance and congruence.