Leadership is characterized by visionary guidance and strategic decision-making, forming the company’s trajectory with determination and purpose.
Meet Yvette Bethel; she is recognized as one of the top Global Thought Leaders in Trust by Trust Across America, Trust Around the World. She is the Founder of Organizational Soul. She always wanted to own a business, so after 20 years in a Fortune 500 company she decided to take a leap of faith.
In her last role as an employee, she was responsible for Human Resources in 8 countries, and this equipped her with the skills she needed as a consultant because she had to customize the company’s approaches to change for each country.
Since then, Yvette has been consulting for 18 years with her evolving vision. Currently, it is to support leaders with understanding their organizations as living systems in order to shift away from command-and-control paradigms that don’t support adaptability, flexibility, agility and healthy work environments the way trust does.
Let’s delve into the transformative journey of Yvette Bethel:
From Observing to Influencing Cultural Norms
Something that always caught Yvette’s attention while working full-time was how people use loyalty, power, and their personal agendas to navigate their daily interactions. This influences cultural norms like performance, creativity, inclusion, agility, engagement, and more. It is common knowledge that cultural norms have the power to restrict or catalyze any organization. When Yvette started out, she didn’t have an understanding of the concept of ecosystems, so she created a list of cultural norms that she called “The Games People Play at Work.” This was the beginning; she knew then that highly political cultures at work are systems and a real cost for companies.
Yvette states, “Interconnectivity, Flow, and Balance (IFB) are three natural laws that operate within all living ecosystems. Whether in nature or an organization, they function like an operating system within a computer that allows you to run healthy or unhealthy “apps.”
What differentiates the IFB framework is that it is grounded in trust because trust is a high-quality connective factor that is necessary for true team growth, agility, healthy cultures, and reducing fraud while improving engagement, creativity, and performance.
Establishing Credibility
Yvette believes, “Each organization has its own definition of trust.” Based on the data she collected over multiple decades, combined with the review of relevant literature, she and her team identified three competency clusters that are compatible with many other trust frameworks.
The organization defines trust through three competency clusters based on the Pillar of Trust framework. Yvette says, “Integrity is a core competency, but emotional intelligence is essential for avoiding judgment and disrespect. The “We” disposition is a connective component, requiring team members to balance personal needs with team needs, promoting healthy support for both themselves and others.”
Trust is a crucial connector in ecosystems, enabling organizations to sustain growth, improve engagement, and strengthen teams. However, trust building is an investment with associated risks. It should be part of a long-term strategy for team growth, whether driven by profit, social impact, sustainability, or other frameworks.
The Natural Laws of Interconnectivity, Flow, and Balance
Yvette emphasizes, “the interconnectivity, flow, and balance laws are present within living ecosystems.” The IFB® model separates these laws to explain their operation. Interconnectivity is central to the model, focusing on trust and interconnective infrastructure, which includes interpersonal relationships and abiotic relationships with structures and systems. This approach focuses on the quality of relationships and culture in living ecosystems.
There are many different types of flows that coexist. Some are short-term, and others are medium to long-term. A few examples are workflows, customer flow patterns, and different cycles. Relationships generate flow patterns, and while some flows serve the company’s best interests (intentionally or unintentionally), others do not, generating risks and creating tensions when they are out of balance.
There are at least two types of change that happen within organizations. Many researchers and authors write about organizational or team change and transformation through initiatives that require a framework for planning and execution. The IFB Model identifies a second type of change that occurs naturally—change as a constant—and how to manage it by balancing significant tensions.
This means living ecosystems tend to self-adjust, finding their own level of equilibrium when micro and macro changes happen both internally and externally. When organizations do not visualize or cultivate their ideal state of homeostasis, the ecosystem uses its built-in self-balancing mechanisms and this can lead to unwelcome changes in important tensions.
The IFB framework helps organizations to define the people systems embedded within and how they operate. For example, when there is a system of corruption, there can be an informal hierarchy and norms that are not always visible to the organization. Therefore, when people are terminated, the corruption can show up again because the informal system and structures are still in place.
Managing Organizational Issues through the Lens of Cultural Dynamics and Trust
Trust is a crucial component in organizational challenges, including engagement, productivity, leadership, and performance. Organizations can address these issues using tools specifically designed for trust, but if no tools or plans are in place, the solution may not address the deeper causes of the problem.
Yvette mentions a specific client as an example: “One of our clients wanted to strengthen their team and improve performance. We started by building their collective Pillar of Trust using the Trust Style Inventory and various trust-building activities.”
This led to improved communication and a better understanding of their culture. The owner of the business was also identified as influencing the culture, leading to the creation of unproductive interconnective dynamics. The company now operates differently and is a champion for the process.
Recognizing Trust Styles through the Pillar of Trust Model and Emotional Intelligence.
When OrgSoul partnered with “Six Seconds,” which is the largest global emotional intelligence network, they developed the Trust Style Inventory based on the Pillar of Trust Model and the Six Seconds Model of Emotional Intelligence. It is a reflective tool designed to help people understand how the way they trust can impact their success in various areas of their lives.
The TSI provides information about their emotional intelligence, and it also has emotional intelligence in its design so that people can feel safe enough to be open when discussing the outcomes. Based on the Pillar of Trust framework, there are six different trust styles, and all of them are appropriate or inappropriate, depending on the situation. The idea is for individuals to learn how to use all the styles and not just focus on one approach.
Recognized as one of the top Global Thought Leaders in Trust by Trust Across America, Trust Around the World.
Over the years, they recognized Yvette three times, and Thinkers360 recognized her for five years for thought leadership work in the areas of Ecosystems, Change, and Culture. Yvette is very grateful for the recognition, and she admits that the recognition motivates her to keep up with the research; because of this, every year, she launches new tools, events, courses, ideas, surveys, and programs.
Yvette adds, “Last year, we completed a case study that took us on a deep learning journey and totally transformed a small business. We found that when trust is strengthened unpredictable benefits show up along with expected ones. When people get in touch with what really matters it can really transform everything.”
The Development of Organizational Environments
Yvette started working on the book, “Interconnectivity, Flow, and Balance,” in 2012, and back then, she wasn’t aware of many people talking or thinking about organizations as ecosystems. Fast forward to 2024, and now Yvette has started to notice more and more articles and research in the area. From a corporate perspective, there are still organizations that are focused on the traditional control paradigm. As more organizations are perceiving the need for competencies like adaptability and agility, they are learning that the ‘command-and-control’ paradigm is not flexible enough for this.
A Journey of Personal Growth and Professional Understanding
Yvette thinks that her investment in her personal growth and development shifted her perception. This, combined with the research and experiences afforded by her career, has gotten her to this place. Yvette found that she had to grow and shift her thinking and perception personally in order to perceive organizations through a different lens.
Guidance for prospective leaders and change facilitators
Yvette’s advice to aspiring change facilitators and leaders is to go beyond the symptoms of a challenge and address trust gaps if you aim to create genuine, long-term change. Many organizations get caught in the trap of solving the symptoms, not seeking to understand the root causes. This can happen because when there are time constraints, root cause identification may not be a priority. Root causes can also be confrontational or complex because of interconnected challenges. When you start addressing root causes, you can get better at it over time. It becomes less difficult and more of a norm if you maintain trust as you address your challenges. She concludes, “Start with trust and learn how to implement the IFB principles in your organization. This will start to provide insights that you did not previously perceive.”
