Self-Organization????

[kenoli Oleari]

For some reason the listserv rejecteed this message.  I am sending it
again. -- Kenoli

At a workshop last year, Harrison Owen commented that he thought all
organizations were self organizing, that they all manage to "muddle
through", making their own way, in spite of CEOs, strategic plans,
budget constraints and horrible (or sometimes excellent) management
practices (including OD consultants).  This is one perspective.  And,
I suspect, that our conscious or unconscious awareness and
appreciation (this does feel good when you area a part of it) of this
aspect of organizations is what moves us to try to make systems
self-organizing.  What we are probably really doing (and OS is a
prime example of this effort) is to get out of the way of this
process as much as possible.  How many leaders have thought they were
running an organization only later to realize that the organization
was very well running itself?

In addition, there are many people who have tried to list
characteristics of "self-organizing" systems and many large group
consultants whose work is about trying to support these
characteristics.  Thus we do things like give people a chance to tell
each other their stories, talk about past and present experience,
reflect on what has worked in the organization, make decisions, share
"successes" together and dream together.

And then there is the quality of "group", the added element and
experience that results from doing things together, sometimes,
feeling almost spiritual.  For a wonderful treatise on this see
"Centered on the Edge: Mapping a Field of Collective Intelligence and
Spiritual Wisdom" published by the Fetzer Institute
(http://www.fetzer.org).  The power of group may be a next step in
human development.

Kenoli


--
Kenoli Oleari, Horizons of Change, http://www.horizonsofchange.com
1801 Fairview Street, Berkeley, CA  94703   Voice Phone: 510-601-8217,
Fax: 510-595-8369, Email: kenoli at igc.org (or click on: mailto://kenoli@igc.org)

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu,
Visit:

http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html