There’s So Much More You Can Do—With a Fat Awareness

Author’s note: I am so very grateful to Lynne Kweder for the term “fat awareness.” Lynne has been a friend, a mentor, a “revealer-of-life’s-mysteries,” and an awesome human being for the nearly 35 years that I have known her. I have been deeply enriched by Lynne’s perspectives and continue that enrichment to this day. Thanks, Lynne.

When I first attended the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland, I thought I was pretty hot stuff. Although still in my thirties, I had worked on the divestiture of AT&T, the establishment of Sprint, and countless other organization development projects that, by prompt payment and verbal acknowledgement, suggested to me that I, was a maturing leader and organization development consultant, knew some stuff. Always believing that there was more that I could learn, I leaned in when my colleague, Al Templeton, suggested I attend the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland. Already possessing a doctorate, I humbled my puffed-up self and applied.

While at the Institute for my initial interview, I met my friend, Rita Andrews, whom I had not seen in years. The last time I saw Rita she was a mess—having experienced a major heartbreak with the divorce from her husband—a loss I wondered if she would ever get over. This time, though, Rita looked calm, centered, put-together and tight as she made her morning tea.

“Rita!” I called out, “you look SOOOO different from the last time I saw you.” “I am,” she responded. “What happened?” (inquiring minds want to know). “This place” was her response. I was hooked. Any place that could have taken my broken-down friend, put her back together, embolden her, and make her a force for change and wholeness in the lives of others—both women and men, deserved my unbridled attention and devotion.

And so I began my learning and apprenticeship at the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland—learning that continues to this day.

It was in that learning environment that Lynne introduced me to the term, “fat awareness” and spoke of the power of a fat awareness. Rather than approaching an issue, a consideration, or a problem with a limited, “good-enough” perspective, the fat awareness allows the leader to perceive reality much more broadly, deeply, and expansively. As someone who had experienced leaders’(and my own) shallow, superficial thinking and problem-solving, single-loop learning, as Harvard’s Chris Argyris described it, those seeking a “FAT” awareness do so by broadening their perspective, exploring data points that previously were left unattended.

It reminded me of a time when I was doing diversity consulting with a large healthcare company that was concerned about their declining customer service scores. They could not imagine what the problem was. I flippantly suggested that these leaders hang out in the customer service center, “take a whiff of Jiff,” to see what the customer service staff faced and how that might affect their performance.

It was like magic.

By hanging out in that space for something under an hour, these leaders learned that the place was like a dungeon—little lighting—and was more reminiscent of a sweatshop of decades ago than a progressive Fortune 100 company. They also learned that the seats in which the customer service agents sat lacked padding—making them incredibly uncomfortable for the less than 60 minutes that the executives occupied them. They also experienced the malfunctioning equipment, through which the agents were supposed to provide “world-class service.” Not today.

It was in that “fat awareness” moment that these executives knew what they needed to do. Budget overruns were no longer a barrier to the unapproved requests for comfortable seating for the agents’ eight hours of work as the executives learned that the outcome that they wanted would not nor could not be achieved by simply “lashing the slaves harder.” An enlightened approach, based on the experience of the agents’ plight, set in motion a series of changes that, without one additional admonition, brought about transformational results.

There is a lot that can be said about a “fat awareness,” and it can best be said by those who need a change and who, in pursuit of that needed change, lean into the many and rich perspectives of others.

To your fat awareness.

About the author: Dr. Ollie Malone is President and Principal Consultant of Olive Tree Associates, a Texas-based consulting firm that he founded in 1993 (after graduating from the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland). He is also a member of the faculty of the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland and its Gestalt Institute Leader Development (GILD) program. His clients have included Walmart, Shell, Boeing, Arizona State University, the University of South Carolina, and State Farm Insurance. He holds a doctorate in Adult Development and Learning, a second doctorate in Transformational Leadership, a master’s degree in business administration, a second master’s in hearing and speech, and a bachelor’s degree in communication.