This started when Sharon Loeschen emailed me requesting information about how the Satir Process applies to business. After doing so, I realized that I could write several posts about this to share with others who wonder, as Sharon did, about Satir in other contexts.

I work in the field of software, but like most people in most companies, my success relies on relationships. My jobs have included programming, sales, consulting, managing, and business ownership. Along the way, I have read various technical and business books. Some offered insights, others offered formulas and techniques, but all seemed hard to put into practice consistently. None made a big difference in how I viewed my working self.

That changed after I met Jerry Weinberg, who introduced me Virginia Satir’s process and models in his Problem Solving Workshop (PSL), which is still offered (http://www.estherderby.com/workshops/problem-solving-leadership-psl). While twenty of us worked together in the workshop’s simulated projects, we started to comprehend a new sense of self, a sense of others, our stress reactions and our impact on others. We also learned a lot about choices.

For example, take Jenny. She and I were two of a team of five. The first night I called home to my husband with tears of frustration declaring, “If I have to work with her all week, I won’t learn anything!”  I wouldn’t be at all surprised if she had called home with a similar message. She said I was just like the pushy, arrogant engineers she worked with. She struck me as passive aggressive. Those rash characterizations melted away once we came to understand our own clumsiness as we overlooked other possible interpretations of our own and each other’s actions. On the last day we had lunch together and connected as the individuals we really were and were becoming. I will always remember Jenny with great appreciation.

In addition to having created and facilitated amazing workshops, Jerry happens to be a prolific and acclaimed author. (http://www.geraldmweinberg.com/Site/Non-Fiction.html). He is now writing fiction, has written classics for systems thinking and software engineering, but I’ll direct you to start on two that will undoubtedly whet your appetite for more:

1)    Becoming a Technical Leader: An Organic Approach to Problem Solving covers many of the PSL lessons and more. The nice thing about the book is each chapter has exercises for you to gain more skill at the ideas and processes just discussed.

2)    The Secrets of Consulting: A Guide to Giving and Getting Advice Successfully is a personal favorite. Jerry spins wonderful stories that teach profound laws of humanity much like Aesop’s fables do.

You’ll discover that whether you are a technical worker, a consultant or neither, the lessons about self-awareness, choice and change apply.