Hearing the Tree Fall In the Forest

Are team consultations, based in accomplishing task goals and sub-goals, possible in the absence of formal organization?

The Accord Advisory Group’s StoneSoup Project says, “Yes!” However, the effort requires a catalyst, a common need. In a fast changing world, such imperatives may not be so difficult to find. They present themselves to us in the newspapers every day.

Business analysis of external threats and opportunities are continual. The perennial question is, “what to do?” In the absence of a formal business enterprise, the pragmatic answer is: organize!

That’s what StoneSoup sets out to do: we address challenge by turning an old adage on its head: to someone who has a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
Our conviction is that interpersonal engagement and the sharing of knowledge, supported by mentorship and facilitation, yields benefit to all involved.

So, while an organization might not have existed before, in addressing common need, a temporary organization may be guided into either short or longer lasting productivity, based on the willingness of its membership to contribute.

One of our projects is called, “Negotiating Transitions Together”. It focuses on supporting the determination of downsized individuals to re-shape their economic future. It emerged when we looked at the numbers: increasingly, people who were either downsized or retired beginning in their mid 40’s, were having a terrible time finding an “onramp” back to the workforce.

Then, the larger, global economic turbulence of 2008 expanded the pool of individuals seeking both relief from sudden economic uncertainty and productive preservation of their “knowledge capital”, their skills acquired over lifetimes of work.