Elicitation processes – developing a keen eye for change

Norms and culture are created through people in organisations interacting, establishing routines, and supporting, reinforcing or repeating a specific system or scheme. In order to spot phenomena in an organisational culture, curiosity and an exploratory approach provide important help.

The process model focuses on collective learning processes and change management. The model is based on the idea that initiatives, actions and knowledge are created at the intersection of theory and practice. Three distinct and partly interconnected processes characterise this change work: elicitation of insight, mobilisation of willingness to change, and actual change. Work based on the process model requires a dedicated group that collaborates on joint investigation and experimentation.

Elicitation involves participants observing their local organisational environment while simultaneously engaging with gender and diversity theory and research, providing a framework for creating meaning and understanding.

Mobilisation is primarily about using the insights gained during the elicitation process: to set goals, select strategies and build motivation for change. 

Change consists of practical change work where new patterns of action are tested and established.  

How can insight be elicited?

Choose something you want to understand better and are curious about. These are often phenomena that are taken for granted in a working environment, and noticing what is taken for granted requires curiosity. Train your ability to use gender lenses/diversity lenses and be curious about norms and patterns. Both formal and informal meetings are often rewarding to study. How people sit, what they say, how they say it, and to whom, can provide important insight into what is taken for granted in an organisation and form a basis for reflecting on what consequences this may have for different groups of employees.

Example of arenas that can be observed:

• Meetings
• The lunchroom
• Other joint activities 

Examples of things to focus on:

• Body language
• Who takes up space/who is given space?
• Distribution of speaking time
• Who is listened to?
• What is said – and what is not said?
• Master suppression techniques 
  • Different forms of power structures. The concept was developed by Berit Ås, a Norwegian social psychologist. The different master suppression techniques are: Making invisible, ridicule, withholding information, double bind, heaping blame/putting to shame, objectification of men’s and women’s bodies, and force/threat of force. For more information, click on the following link: The five master suppression techniques | Source 

The process model for change leaders

Step 1: Elicitation

• Observe, be curious, investigate and try to understand
• Observations in your own environment/community
• Identify patterns from your observations
• Knowledge about gender and inequality along other dimensions, such as ethnicity or disability. 
• Analysis and reflection

Step 2: Mobilisation

• Reflect on the consequences of patterns you have identified
• Gather energy and direction for change
• Problem formulation based on what has emerged in the mapping
• Goals/Action plans
• Challenge what has been taken for granted

Step 3: Change

• Take the initiative to develop new ways of working that support equality and diversity
• Establish new patterns of action
• Deeper knowledge about gender
• Learn about resistance and change
• Establish change