Hierarchies, decision making and a real-life example

[Peggy Holman]

I am so tickled!  I have been away from the list for a month and as a result read about 200 messages in one sitting.  Perhaps because of this concentration, I noticed something that excites me.

The thread on hierachy was moving into a discussion of the occurence of hierarchies in nature.  The focus shifted with Birgitt's message on the listserv archives becoming more public.

What I saw was that Birgit took us from the abstract -- talking about hierarchies in nature -- to a real-life experience of what it is like to be in a conscious self-organizing community's version of a hierarchy.  After all, Michael took on the role of leader (passion bounded by responsibility) and made a decision that affected everyone on the list.  (BTW, I'm going to use the term CAS or complex adaptive system as a near-enough substitute for conscious self-organizing community because it is MUCH faster to type.)  I think decision making is a key aspect of what leaders, as the tops of the hierarchy, do. I thin it is quite challenging to understand decision making in CASs. It is also a topic of great interest for me.  The thoughts and examples from this real life situation that follow are in no particular order.

A CHANCE TO LEARN; DECISION MAKING IN A DIFFERENT SEQUENCE
What is currently playing out is a great chance for us all to learn more about leadership and decision making -- key aspects of hierarchy -- in CASs.  For one thing, I would say that the decision making process didn't end with Michael's action, rather that is where the process started.  And it is in action right now.  It is a bit elusive to see this because we generally think of action following the decision -- whether behind closed doors in a traditional hierarchy or in the circle or marketplace of a CAS.  I submit that in this situation, the decision making process is simply happening in a different order: 

--  an action was taken, 
-- in the wonderful self-correcting way of CASs, the system, through Birgitt, pushed back (even in a CAS, this can take an act of great courage -- thank you for that, Birgitt) 
--  and now the community is engaged in reflecting on the implications of the action.  
--  Ultimately, the conversation will wind down with either another action or not -- in effect, a decision to stay the course or alter it.  Certainly, learning will have occurred for many.  

WHEN DECISIONS ARE OUT OF OUR CONTROL
One of the aspects of hierachy that people most dislike is that they have no control over decisions that affect them.  In a traditional organization, the leaders often make decisions without consulting others.  Yuk.  Michael fits the definition of leader in an Open Space -- operating from personal passion bounded by responsibility.  And guess what?  A decision he made affected all of us and just as in a traditional hierachy, someone in the system -- Birgitt -- spoke out to say, as I understood her messages, that she didn't like the decision being made without her having a say.  Makes sense to me!  Guess whether the hierarchy emerges naturally or not the same dislike of being affected by other's choices can arise.

ROLE OF GOOD INTENTIONS
One good news aspect of organizations and communities that operate as a CAS: the people in them seem to consistently hold the belief that people's intentions guide actions that are on behalf of the whole.  No one questioned Michael's motive was to serve the community and open more space in the world.  I guess in traditional hierarchies, when people believe the leadership is well intentioned, they are called enlightened despots or benevolent dictators and when there isn't a belief that leaders operate for the good of the whole, the leaders are called tyrants.  Personally, I think there's something about what binds the CAS together that makes acting for the good of the whole highly likely to be the case.  I may mangle this a bit, but I believe CASs form around strange attractors.  In social systems, I think of the organization or community's purpose as the attractor.  In the case of this community, while Chris Weaver's comment about OSlist's purpose not being explicit is true, people pretty consistently talk about this as a place of support and connection, a place to tell stories, ask questions, learn, mentor and be mentored in that oh so wonderful act of opening and holding space in the world.  So, while not explicit, those who are attracted and stay are in pretty close proximity on purpose.  Anyway, I think that when people connect through a shared sense of purpose and act from personal passion and responsibility, spirit comes out to play.  This seems to bring out the best in us, hence actions, are well intentioned.

RISKS OF LEADERSHIP AS DEFINED BY PASSION AND REPSONSIBILITY
Are there risks in this approach to leadership -- passion bounded by responsibility?   Absolutely.  Who knows what independent action someone might take without fully understanding the impact?  I think this is in part why people comfortable in traditional organizations find the idea of an organizational CAS so unnerving.  

FLUIDITY OF DECISIONS
A big difference between the traditional and what is happening here is the degree of fluidity around action and decision.  
In a tradtional organization, this are pretty rigid.  You may not like a decision or know the rationale, but you know who did it.  In a CAS, as Birgitt pointed out, other than Michael, it isn't at all clear who, if anyone else, was involved.  Does it matter?  I don't know but it does speak to the fluidity of decision making in a CAS -- it can come from anyone at anytime.  No wonder many managers find OS terrifying!

Traditionally, a decision is made, executed and it's complete.  Perhaps there's some reflection and adjustment but it is often quite difficult.  In the CAS I think there is a different framework to be learned: nothing is linear, just having a beginning and an ending.  Everything is part of a larger pattern, a cycle.  Rather than seeing a decision as a one-time event, I think it is useful to learn to experience a decision as part of a flow, inspired by something that came before and ever shifting as more is learned.  One great aspect of this is the recognition that nothing is fixed, decisions can always be changed (even if it isn't always easy).  I think this makes experimentation much less stressful and much more fun.

ANOTHER ROLE OF BUTTERFLIES
Just as in traditional organizations, people may be challenged by the decision or discussion and leave the list or become fearful that speaking out is too risky.  I think CASs have a nice way of dealing with this: butterflies.  I learned a few years ago of this aspect of butterflies --conversations that people don't feel ready or safe enough to have in the whole group or even in the marketplace.  Ultimately the butterfly conversations resolve and disappear, become clear enough to be voiced in a more visible way or run into someone who takes the leadership (passion bounded by responsibility) to speak it in the marketplace or the whole.  I am willing to bet that Birgitt has had some behind the scenes conversations with some folks - butterflies in flight.  (Birgitt -- if you're willing -- please let us know if this is the case.)

CAN ACTIONS BE UNDONE? 
Now here's something that I wonder about in this sort of decision making: reversing the action.  As long as the decision can be undone, this sort of decision making works (albeit not always comfortably; I suspect it feels VERY messy right now because it is so different from our norms).  What about those decisions that can't be reversed easily?  I would hope that those issues would find their way into conversation BEFORE action but not sure how that can be guaranteed.  Even if stated as a given that irreversible actions are discussed first, in a list this fluid, I'm not sure this can be sustained.  It is area I see for exploration.

ATTITUDE OF SERVICE
One other aspect:  I think one of the characteristics of any healthy system is that actions are taken because of an intention to serve others and the whole.  In traditional organizations, one of the breakdowns that happens fairly quickly is that serving the people with position power becomes the focus for most everyone.  After all, they're the ones who can provide the rewards.  In a CAS, when anyone can emerge as a leader and the source and nature of rewards is less clear there is a very different dynamic, one about which there is still much to learn.

Well, after months of silence, here are a lot of words from me.  Enjoy (or not).

Love from sunny Seattle,
Peggy

_______________________________
Peggy Holman
The Open Circle Company
15347 SE 49th Place
Bellevue, WA  98006
425.746.6274
www.opencirclecompany.com

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