SV: Hierarchies, decision making and a real-life example

[Eva P Svensson]

Hello all of you wonderful people out there – and thank you for this list
and all of your contributions!!!

Peggy - So many wise words and thoughts and an analyses of what is going on
I think. And I come to think of an group model to which I’m sure you’re all
familiar with – Will Schutz FIRO model (fundamental interpersonal
relationship orientation) – and I must test my thoughts with all of you out
there.  (And since “I’m not that old” at the list and I may be way out and
this is not what is happening – or has happened before – here comes my to
cents – or två öre on Swedish)

It seems to me that we can compare in a way what is happening on the list
with a sort of a group forming process à la FIRO where we are going from the
first rather safe space where we are “talking nice” to each other and
exchanging thoughts, ideas, questions and a lot of learning, the phase when
we are asking ourselves if we want to be in this group. From this phase to
the second real step in his model, the part where the participants are
questioning each other and as you said Peggy talking about hierarchies, who
should be in charge and why, - where conflicts are higher and occurs more
often then in the first phase?
I’m definitely not an expert on FIRO and against my ideas (?)  must be that
I think that in our conversation on the list we share our thoughts and are
very open about our feelings but maybe not (up till now?) our feelings about
each other?? ( so maybe we have started from the end
?)

I don’t know, but FIRO came into my head when I was reading these entire
postings about givens, and who had done what and why. And in the mean time I
see this as a great learning for what could – and I’m sure most certainly
would - happen in an organisation that wants to evolve to a more open and
conscious open space organisation. Where more people will “be in charge” and
maybe there is less hierarchy and what will happen then? Even if we are
clear about the givens, I am sure that they will change, because things
change faster than we can react sometimes. And maybe what we see right now
on the list will happens in real life and then there will be no immediately
help from outside so they have to solve it themselves – as we have to do-
this is our (my) responsibility and it’s up to (me) us to learn and to move
forward so that our (my) understanding about the process and myself will
deepened and be a good contribution on my personal journey.

I absolutely don’t mean to take away all the feelings that are exchanged
here by “going theoretic” but I felt that I needed to test my thoughts on
you and see if there are any responses.

Love and peace from a sunny but chilly west side of Sweden where spring is
desperately trying to come through!

Bästa hälsningar


Eva P Svensson
............................................................................
............

EPS Human Invest AB
"Verksamhetsutveckling genom människor"
Anåsbergsvägen 22
S-439 34  ONSALA
Tel & Fax 0300-615 05
Mobil 0706 - 89 85 50
eva at epshumaninvest.se

-----Ursprungligt meddelande-----
Från: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU]För Peggy Holman
Skickat: den 2 april 2004 06:42
Till: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Ämne: Hierarchies, decision making and a real-life example

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 <http://www.opencirclecompany.com>
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