Organizational Istima

How can an organisation learn from experience and mature in its culture and conduct?

Organisational Istima concerns how an organisation learns through experience and matures in its culture and conduct. Reflection on successes, difficulties and feedback can reveal what supports dignity, what is overlooked and how decisions affect people. Maturity involves carrying that understanding into everyday relationships, decisions, incentives and safeguards. Leaders have particular responsibility for making honest feedback possible and following through on what becomes clear. People need room to acknowledge uncertainty and revise an account. That room does not remove present duties to protect people or address known harm.

When someone describes a difficult experience at work, first make room to hear it in their own words. A feedback process needs time, an appropriate setting and a response from someone able to act.

A question to sit with (optional): What do we understand now that we missed at the time, and who is responsible for carrying that understanding into practice?