MAP explained
- 1. Carly Padgett MO 455 POS MAP Assignment 18 February 2016 This visual representation of Positive Organizational Scholarship is based in the ecosystem model that Berry Checkoway describes on the topic of community action and social change (CASC). The model describes how environmental conditions (soil) and resources (roots) provide the grounds for developing the power and relationships (trunk) necessary for true transformations in individuals, communities, and institutions (leaves and branches). Checkoway’s model as it stands, however, does not suggest positive practices are a necessary part of the ecosystem in transformational, enduring change. Blending this model with our POS foundations demonstrates the significant place POS holds in CASC practices. The model is effective because it uses a system in natural science that is fully understood. The cycle we see describes why positive practices are both necessary and generative; it shows how the upward spiral works. The soil provides nourishment to the tree and reinforces the roots. It’s make up determines what type of vegetation can grow in the first place. The soil is made up of the founding conditions of an individual or organization’s culture and the resources that come with emotions. Positive emotions like trust, confidence, and generosity are the nutrients in the soil. They set the stage for flourishing, but they also need positive environmental support (founding conditions) to feed nourishment to the roots of POS. The roots provide anchorage for the tree and absorb the life giving nutrients from the soil. Positive meaning, including a culture’s values and core assumptions, ground positive practices and transformations. The vision that comes with positive meaning absorbs the nourishment that positive emotions provide. The trunk supports the tree and protects it from opposing forces. It ensures that the nutrients of the roots are transported to the leaves and buds of the tree. Positive connections and positive culture practices, and change agents reinforce and protect the transformations, artifacts, and behaviors that come from positive meaning and emotions. They ensure that the nutrients are being used, and they use them to strengthen themselves. The leaves and branches are the product of a thriving tree. These are the practices, norms, and artifacts we see in an organization’s culture. They are also the transformations that take place as we utilize positive practices as change agents. Like leaves, practices must grow, change, and transform into entirely different things sometimes. So they fall from their branch onto the ground, where they begin to decompose. Decomposition is learning, as it replenishes the soil’s nutrients with both positive and negative feedback. It demonstrates that even in nature, the 3:1 ratio must exist in order for living organisms to thrive. Most of the fallen leaves transition seasonally, but some fall early. All of them give back to the soil. The artifacts and norms of our environment feed and support our emotions, making the fallen leaves the basis for more resources. It comes full circle here,because the “leaves” on the ground will eventually establish the founding conditions that help the tree survive. The sun provides the energy the tree needs to make the soil’s nutrients in to food (photosynthesis). The Sun is the overarching goal that energizes an organization. It is constant source of energy that drives us to use our nutrients purposefully. A balance of air and water allow the tree to turn food into energy (oxygen) and to transport the nutrients up the tree (water). The air we might consider challenges that drive a sense of urgency to resource,and opportunities for positive practices are the water that lubricates resource usage. The wind carries seeds and spreads new growth. We can consider this the people that are impacted by POS,and carry it’s potent, contagious affects with it. It may carry a seed, that needs the right soil in which to grow, or it may only carry the leaves that add nourishment to soil in need.