"empowerment" is a disempowering concept
Koos de Heer
koosdhr at auryn.nl
Mon May 13 00:15:06 PDT 2002
Dear Kenoli,
Allow me to respond to the different items in your mail just a little
out-of-sequence:
At 13:48 12-5-2002 -0800, kenoli Oleari wrote:
>I think we're on the same page., although I seem to be saying things
>that are causing a push back. I wonder what is behind this.
I am not aware of a pushing back motion on my side. My intention is to pull
you closer. There was never a thought in my mind that you wouldn't agree
with me at least a large part of the way. If you have felt pushed back, I
am sorry. Please stay with me as I try to clarify it a little more.
>This all gets into how we use words and how we perceive reality. We
>all know (I think) that the Open Space process is not about "doing
>anything to" (in the transitive sense you refer to), except, perhaps,
>providing a context which supports certain inherent energies or
>dynamics in a group.
That is right, and still the way we use words is important in my view.
Especially since words like empowerment are often used in a context of
command and control. The example I gave in my other mail is a real one.
There really are managers who say "We empower the people in our company."
And they say so with the best of intentions. And at the same time I think
it is bullshit and it makes me want to grab them by the shoulders, give
them a good shake and tell them to wake up. And it makes me not want to use
the word empowerment in the context of Open Space.
>In the sense I used the words in my previous email, "empowerment"
>really has more to do with removing conditions that disempower. You
>can also argue that you can never do anything to disempower anyone,
>but you can also argue that none of us can really do anything to or
>for anyone else.
That is not completely true. I can care for you when you are sick, I can
hit you over the head and steal your wallet, I can do a great deal of
things to you. Opening Space is also a thing we do to others. And in doing
so, we present them with an opportunity they can either take or leave. We
do not have any power to give away. But we do have a setting to offer,
which is also doing something. And in doing so, we present a new paradigm.
This will only work if we truly live this new paradigm ourselves.
>Yet choices we make do present different
>opportunities and choices to people and to ourselves. A truly free
>being is not going to be constrained by anything or anyone, even
>death. Yet we are generally dealing with people who perceive
>themselves to be in a state of less than full personal freedom. In
>this state people do perceive external factors as influencing them.
And they are. We are always influenced by external factors. In this respect
I would like to point to the concept of the Holon, introduced by Arthur
Koestler in 1967and developed further by Ken Wilber in the 90s. (In fact I
am in the process of writing a paper on some connections between Open
Space, Buddhism and Ken Wilber. Very interesting stuff.) Koestler and
Wilber argue that a truely free being does not exist. We are always
influenced by external factors. It is how we perceive that influence that
determines whether it makes us unhappy or not. We are always free with
respect to the way we view things and with respect to the choices we make.
But we are not isolated beings. If I hit you over the head, steal your
wallet and spend all the money in your bank account, you are definitely
influenced by me. You are free with respect to the question whether or not
that makes you unhappy. If you let these events make you unhappy, that is
when you give me power over you.
>Thus our existing institutions seem to do things that disempower
>people. And other tools like Open Space seem to do things like
>"empower."
I still don't think there is such a thing as empowering or disempowering in
a transitive sense. It is just a belief system that we can either suppport
or let go. The problem is that so many people cling to that belief system.
What we do when we Open Space, is show people a way out of this belief
system. How can we open a new door and invite people to step through it, if
we don't believe there is anything out there ourselves?
>It is similarly true that we can argue that we we can't do anything
>to cause a paradigm shift.
I think we can. After all, a paradigm is only a way of looking at reality.
We can present a new way of looking at reality and if someone picks it up,
we have caused a paradigm shift in that person.
>But we can do things which provide
>external conditions for people that have a better chance of
>supporting the wisdom and power that is already in the system, the
>wisdom and power that generally allows itself to be suppressed by its
>perception of the limitations the system presents. And this is a
>significant shift from most everyday realities and creates a rich
>possibility for deep change to take place.
Yes, I totally agree.
>I think it is in this sense that we talk about empowering or
>empowerment: setting up conditions that don't provide any apparent
>barriers to the surfacing and exercise of the wisdom and power which
>is always there. Getting out of the way.
We do a little more than just get out of the way. Because people tend to
cling to what they know, it is necessary to do a few things to impose the
new setting on them. I consciously use the word "impose", because we have
to be conscious of the fact that we actually do something here. In my view,
we have to take responsibility for the influence that we have. The fact
that we Open the Space is an act of influence. Once the Space has been
Opened, the best thing we can do is get out of the way.
>I think we also talk about
>setting up conditions like those described in the list I sent in a
>previous email that set up possibilities for certain kinds of group
>experience, which can also be transformative, both to individuals and
>to institutions.
Yes, I liked that list. But indeed what we do is set up conditions, which
is doing something. It is doing something that makes people aware of the
power they already have. I would just not call this empowerment because
that would mean "giving power to". I do have the power to show you things.
I do not have the power to give you power.
I hope I made it a little more clear now. Thanks for staying with me up to
now. And please let me know if and in what way I have influenced you by
writing all this.
Warm wishes,
Koos
Koos de Heer
Auryn management advies BV
Utrecht, the Netherlands
mailto:koosdhr at auryn.nl
http://www.auryn.nl/
*
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