Hierarchy

Sun Mar 28 11:12:47 PST 2004

Hierarchy for sure gets a bad rap. But as Michael points out, hierarchies
show up naturally, even -- and maybe most especially  -- in Open Space.
Somebody has the passion, takes the responsibility and some other folks come
along. I don't know what else you would call it. I call it Hierarchy. But --
and this is a BIG BUT -- it is a natural hierarchy totally dependant upon
the situation, the people involved and the task they are undertaking. Change
any of those variables and you will have a new organization/hierarchy. I
think the critical thing is that it is natural, and therefore appropriate to
that particular situation. The problem with hierarchies that not only get
the bad rap, but fully deserve that rap, is that they are imposed,
arbitrary, and un natural. I don't care that the CEO/MD was appointed by the
Board and gets the big bucks/yen/marks -- that does not make him or her THE
leaders. I think that went out with the Divine Right of Kings. Or something.

One other problem with Hierarchy may also be that it is (unfortunately) an
artifact of our graphics. When we draw our organizations they always seem to
come out looking like an inverted family tree. A real odd tree with the
branches in the ground and the trunk in the air. No wonder it dies. You
would too if you had your head 6 feet under! But there are other graphics --
circles, spheres -- polycentric spheres in 3-D. Suppose you thought of an
organization as polycentric spheres all overlapping each other to some
degree. And at the center of each was the one with the passion who took the
responsibility. Now tell me which way is up -- and does it really matter?

Harrison

Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, Maryland   20845
Phone 301-365-2093

Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com
Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
Personal website http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm
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-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Pannwitz,
Michael M
Sent: Sunday, March 28, 2004 9:00 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: Modesty & 5 Simultaneous Open Spaces

Dear Larry,
the "team" I referred to, is the temporary organization created for
the os-event (not part of the sponsor) made up of assistants,
helpers, facilitator, documentation specialists, photographer etc..
This team has or rather gives itself a hierarchy.
Its been a great learning field for me to look at these small
"systems" that I am part of when involved with facilitating an open
space and to tinker with "appropriate" structure or hierarchy.
One of the principles that I try to stick to is the notion of the
"fully present and invisible" facilitator...recent feedback has
indicated that sometimes the hierarchy designed for the facilitation
team actually supports this "state" in the eyes of the
participants...extending the "fully presnt and invisible" mode to all
team-members from the experience of the observing participants.
My assumption in general is that every system has a hierarchy (more
or less appropriate) (Ken Wilbur reports of more than 200 hierarchies
that he had collected in his search for a "fit", eventually coming up
with the concept of "holons"...noting that "Even those memes that
don't recognize hierarchies - such as beige or purple - still have
hierarchical structures. Everybody seemed to have some sort of
hierarchy, even those who claimed they didn't.)
The reason I am diving into this aspect:
Where can I get a more practical and existential learning or
remembering experience than in my actual praxis?
And:
(referring to Joelles comments about open space and hierarchy)
I find it productive to look at "hierarchy" as a "given" in all
systems and organizations without the popular stigma attached to the
term (I looked it up in the Unabridged and there it is almost
exclusively documented with that negative stigma attached). What
would a system or organization look like in which hierarchy is
eliminated? Appears, it would no longer exist.
Selforganization, which surfaces especially visible in ost-events or
when children play,  brings forth hierarchy and structure. Yes, of a
kind that has no designer! And of a kind that seems the appropriate
vessel for creating "peace" out of chaos, confusion and conflict.
Ok, what kind of hierarchy is appropriate for the " team" described
at the beginning that "facilitates" the ost-event?
Or, what kind of hierarchy is appropriate for the subsystem in the
organization you are working with that has the role of "providing
support to tenants and staff as they work together to enable the
local clusters to make key decisionsen"
Greetings from Berlin
mmp

On Sat, 27 Mar 2004 11:44:02 -0500, Larry Peterson wrote:

>Michael:  You said:
>
>"For me as facilitator working with teams (often groups of  7 or more)
>its proven to be useful to consciously design the "hierarchy" for the
>team and for the interaction of the team with other subsystems
>(catering, publishing, facility management, the sponsors, child-care,
>sound technician, press/radio/television, etc.)  for the open
>space-event (including pre-meetings, setting up the os, the os itself,
>follow up)."
>
>I'm not sure I understand what you mean.  I usually don't get involved
>in "designing" the hierarchy in systems I'm in.

Michael M Pannwitz
boscop
Draisweg 1
12209 Berlin, Germany
FON +49 - 30-772 8000     FAX +49 - 30-773 92 464
www.michaelmpannwitz.de
www.openspace-landschaft.de

An der E-Gruppe "openspacedeutsch" für deutschsprechende open
space-PraktikerInnen interessiert? Enfach eine mail an mich.

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