Leadership and Power

[Harrison Owen]

John asked:

what do you see as the relationship between Leadership and Power?

I suppose that depends on what you mean by "leadership" and "power." One of
things that I have learned in Open Space is that Leadership appears at the
crossroads of passion and responsibility. Or putting it another way, the
leader is one who claims his passion with responsibility. By doing so, he or
she opens some space for something new to appear. There is no guarantee that
the new will make an appearance, or that if it does, it will be useful, but
the potential is there. When the space is open and the new (plan, action,
program, idea) stikes a resonant chord with those who share the passion in a
responsible way -- things begin to move. Or -- we might say, power begins to
flow. Power, from where I sit, is quite simply the motive force which
energizes life. I guess that is a tautology, but it is as good as I can do.
Point is nobody owns it, and for sure nobody can really control it. Under
the best of circumstances, we can only open some space in which power may
flow. We might even channel it a bit, but that is about all.

A major point is that the Leader certainly doesn't own it (power). For power
is always the collective juices entering an an attractive open space to get
some job done, thought thought, plan made. Looking at power and leadership
in the terms I have suggested makes it crystal clear that Leadership is not
(nor has it ever been) position, titual, a matter of confered status.
Leadership is an action which all of us can, do, and must take. So to speak
of The Leadership, or The Leader as a predetermined reality is idiocy. For
sure, those designated (falsely I think) as Leaders can lead, and hopefully
they do. But they have no corner on the market, and waiting for them to lead
(or blaming them when they don't) is a simple abdication of our right and
responsibility -- to lead.

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 john engle
Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2004 11:59 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Leadership and Power

hi friends.

my colleagues and i are working on our next newsletter for beyond borders,
an organization i'm affiliated with. the theme is going to be Leadership and
Power and i've just posted on my blog a half a dozen great quotes that my
haitian colleagues put on our OS list serve in haitian creole.

if you want to take a look, go to http://johnengle.blogspot.com (same as
below).

if you want to receive Beyond Borders' ezines, sign up on home page at:
http://beyondborders.net.

what do you see as the relationship between Leadership and Power?

peace,

john

http://JohnEngle.blogspot.com - Reflections about Haiti, life, and our work.
http://JohnEngle.info
http://TheExperiment.info

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