hierarchy...was report from the field

Sat Jul 14 11:29:30 PDT 2007

Sigh,
   Human communities do this for good reason.
  It works.
   Everyone is not 'equal'  in the sense that we all have different  
experience and different knowledge.  Some people are naturally  
skilled at holding space and others well they haven't learned it  
yet.    Newbies to a practice, technique or skill and having an  
arrogance of 'sameness' with practitioners who have been doing it for  
years.

Some how the 'groovy' green people (in the Spiral Dynamics sense)  
have this belief their is no expertise, no years of skill  
development, no level of maturity that comes from doing something a  
long time and that the respect, knowledge and reputation that someone  
might have because of this legitimate experience some how 'wreaks of  
"hierarchy"' and that all hierarchy is BAD.

There are important issues in our society around the abuse of 'rank'  
and having power over people because of positional authority that is  
abused...these are real issues. Robert Fuller has spent a lot of time  
thinking about this issue and has two books about the subject.   
http://www.breakingranks.net/  He does not say that 'rank' and  
hierarchy are bad he says abuse within this paradigm is bad.

I work a lot in Open Source and Open Standards technical  
communities.  It took me a while to get it but these 'open'  
communities function on the scale they do because of repetitional  
meritocratic hierarchy.  To read more on the functioning of open  
source communities read - Open Sources, OPen Sources 2.0 and The  
Success of Open Source.

Open Space Technology is fundamentally different then these to  
community practices - it is about taking the agenda away from the  
'organizer' how ever the organizer of the event still creates the  
invitation and invites the people and creates the space that is  
possible for good things to happen.   The Law of two feet is like the  
right to fork... there are similarities at a philosophical level...at  
a practical level... OST is not trying to build an operating system  
or have 100,000 all collaborate on the same thing - it doesn't 'need'  
the kind of hierarchy that technical communities do.

Having eldership and respect for experience is not a bad thing. If  
this must be called 'heirarchy' so be it...I think it is legitmate -  
and perhaps needs a different name.

  If it means new voices are shut out. Well perhaps some reflection  
on the culture that makes people think that - perhaps some  
introspection is needed to address that problem. They are not the  
same problem.

=kaliya

On Jul 14, 2007, at 11:07 AM, Raffi Aftandelian wrote:

> Greetings friends and colleagues--
>
> Harrison you wrote:
>
> "The other day I got a note which said in part, "I was surprised to
> find out that there was a hierarchy in the OST community and  
> everyone having
> a specific place to hold, voices are not equal and politics  
> prevails in
> certain circuits  Just the same old same old... I'm not sure this  
> is what
> you envisioned with OST." I have no idea what the specific  
> circumstances
> were, and less interest in finding out. But presuming that we have the
> creeping tentacles of elitism sneaking in - a good dose of the Law  
> of Two
> Feet and a clear recognition of the Universal License of Open Space
> (everybody has one by birth) should do the trick. Or something."
>
> I would love to hear more from the person who wrote about hierarchy  
> in the
> OST community. What is meant by "hierarchy" here?
>
> Isn't there hierarchy everywhere? Is it a bad thing? The question  
> is what
> kind of hierarchy do we have in the OST community? Is it a  
> hierarchy that
> feeds us, strengthens us? And how do we choose to engage with it as a
> community? Do we create the spaces to talk about the power  
> differentials
> within our practitioner community in a way that, well, builds more  
> capacity
> within us?
>
> Quakers, for example, acknowledge that voices are not equal within  
> the life
> of a Monthly Meeting. They have the concept of "weightiness" or a  
> "weighty
> Friend."  In other words, these are the elders within the Quaker  
> world.
>
> And doesn't the OST world have its elders and sages?
>
> I, too, have heard (and thought) that the OST community is the "same
> old...," - heck, some of that "same oldness" shows up on the list  
> from time
> to time- *and* I do not know of a more generous, welcoming, inspiring
> facilitation community. We either choose to engage with the OST  
> community as
> it is, or...well exercise the law of two feet.
>
>
> Raffi
>
> *
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Kaliya - Identity Woman
kaliya at mac.com

http://www.unconference.net
http://www.identitywoman.net

skype:identitywoman
Y!:earthwaters
AIM:kaliya at mac.com

510 472-9069 (bay area)
415 425 1136 (on the road)

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