The Genuine Contact ™ (GC) approach provides a perspective and practical tools that assist organizations to find solutions and build their capacity to perform in environments of constant change. The approach can be applied to many areas, including:

• Organizational and team development,  

• Leadership development, 

• Capacity building, 

• Participatory strategy development, 

• Meeting facilitation, 

• Project design and organization design.  

Developed over 20 years ago by Birgitt Williams, the Genuine Contact approach has been used by professionals worldwide in different cultural and organizational contexts.  The approach has been developed upon the foundation of the following beliefs:

• Every organism (including the organization) has within it the blueprint for its own optimal health and balance. We trust the people in the organization to know what is needed for optimal effectiveness. Building on the strengths within the organization is a key to optimal effectiveness.

• Focusing on genuine contact enables individuals and organizations to achieve the individual and organizational health and balance that is needed for optimal effectiveness. Positive change in the organization is directly linked to positive change in individuals. Both are required for sustainable new ways of working.

• Spirit or spirit matters that through spirit or Spirit all creation is connected, and that people are precious. Our experience is that strategies based on these values have exciting, tangible results.

• Change with its accompanying loss, grief work, and conflict is constant. Individuals and organizations that develop skillfulness in working with change can sustain optimal effectiveness. These leaders and organizations recognize that change cannot be managed, that energy spent trying to manage change is wasted energy, and that productive use of individual and organizational energy is achieved by working with change rather than against it.

• Simple frameworks and processes enable success with complex situations. In keeping it simple, we recognize that any sustainable change must begin from the inside and cannot be externally initiated or driven.

These beliefs are not meant as dogma. Instead, they are intended to provide transparency about he foundation upon which the approach is built. In Doris Gottlieb’s work, these beliefs translate into deep respect for the wisdom of the people in groups that she works with and trust that they can find solutions together. It also means that she is conscious and respectful of how any change in the organization will also imply a need for capacity development of those people involved, and that work is solution focused tapping into the potential of people to find their own way to address their unique challenges. 

You can find out more on the Genuine Contact Organization website.