A Systems Thinker Deals with a Layoff, Part I: The Grief Cycle
By Chris Abbey
"Chris you have been selected to receive a 60-Day Warn Notice." In a matter of seconds, my perceptions of the world and myself had been seriously shaken. Everything seemed to close in around me.
Looking for guidance for moving forward, I turned to Meg Wheatley's book Finding Our Way: Leadership for an Uncertain Time. I was struck by her comment, "An organization's identity includes current interpretations of its history, present decisions and activities, and its sense of its future."
With the warn notice, my interpretation of history had narrowed considerably; I could only see myself in my current position. The "present decisions and actions" had severed my feelings of 
stability and my visions of the future. My sense of identity had large gaping holes in it. In the beginning, all I was looking for was what was missing.
Meg goes on to write, "Because identity is the sense-making capacity of an organization, every organizing effort--whether it be a startup of a team, a community project, or a nation--needs to begin by exploring and clarifying the intentions and desires of its members."
Over time, I noticed that my process of making sense of what had happened followed the grieving process. The seven-stage model of grief describes what I've been going through:
- Shock and denial
- Pain and guilt
- Anger and bargaining
- Depression, reflection, and loneliness
- The Upward Turn
- Reconstruction and working through
- Acceptance and hope
Within a short period of time, the wild emotional swings had subsided, and I had moved through to the fifth step. A new sense of identity started to surface--a changed identity, an identity that now incorporated the warn notice. This new self was uncomfortable--it felt as though my skin didn't quite fit--but I began to adjust to it.
At this point, I could commence exploring new activities in earnest, because a new impression of the future had also started to emerge--not a clear impression, just an impression. Before, I had gone through the motions of looking for a job, but really just to avoid dealing with the pain by keeping the mind and body busy. Now, I approached the task with purpose and direction.
My narrow recollection of my history expanded beyond my current employment to include the fullness of my life. I shifted my perspective on my present decisions and activities from what my employer was doing "to me" to what I was doing to find another job. My activities became part of a coherent plan to transition myself into a new future, a future, while still uncertain, in which I am in the driver's seat. Though still cycling through the seven steps of the grief model--you may find me anywhere in the model at any particular time--I am spending more and more time in step seven.
The activities include the usual: updating my resume, preparing for interviews, and searching the job listings. In addition, I'm using systems thinking perspectives to focus on relationships, including taking stock of my "system" or network, creating new network connections, and disturbing the system. I'll reflect on these efforts in part 2.
Chris Abbey is responsible for bringing about the education, engagement, and empowerment of employees in a global information technology organization, enabling them to continuously improve their products and services. His work involves coaching, mentoring, and training in various hard and soft skills, such as High Performance Work Teams, Lean, Systems Thinking, Theory of Constraints, and trust building. One of his current passions is in the use and building of communities of practice as a way to greatly increase sharing and collaboration in complex organizations.
Mirror photo by Ian Britton/freefoto.com