Acknowledging those who came first and all that has been given in a system can be a beautiful thing.

 

It puts us a newcomers in our rightful place whether we are the boss or the trainee.

 

The order of time is one of the ordering principles when working with Systemic Constellations, a powerful model for bring balance back to the systems of our lives.

 

“Without you who came before and all you sacrificed, we would not have a place. Thank you for what you gave and what you have created. Please help us understand as we join you for this next chapter and allow us to share what we have learned with you and write our shared story together.”

 

Acknowledging this in organisational change and acting from this mindset is often something that Agile practitioners & leaders trip up on so I was thrilled when I recently ran a workshop for Australian Government Agile Digital teams when we started with this Acknowledgement of Country.

 

How different would all our change efforts be, whether personal or organisational, if we started them with an Acknowledgment of History for the organisations that we are joining for a short period in their history?

 

Could this be a useful priming directive for your change initiatives?

 

Thank you James Hughes for organising this and sharing this acknowledgment of country and thank you for the Elders who went before without whom none of our work would be possible.

 

Art in the above image is by Chern’ee Sutton.