Wave Rider: Who is the self organizing?

Michael Wood mjwood at admin.uwa.edu.au
Mon Nov 3 17:29:25 PST 2008


Doug - thanks for the question.

Larry - good to see you back on deck! Good healing to you.

I think this is a very interesting question. Larry is saying that formal
leadership articulates the direction and boundaries. On the face of it,
this makes sense. For example, certain person(s) are charged with an
authority for stewarding the mission of the organisation (say, as laid
out in the Founding Stories of the Community, the Constitution, or the
Articles of Association; others have been given authority to sign
cheques; some people have been given the legal capacity to hire and
fire). 

And would it also be true to say that the "mission" of the organisation
is often quite broadly defined, so we then end up with the tension
arising out of discussion of specifics? So one person says, "I think the
mission, as defined in the legal documents, means we go in "x"
direction" and someone else says, "I think the mission means that we go
in "Y" direction".

How do these tensions get worked through in a self organising system? If
the formal leadership holds the "direction and boundaries" too tightly
then we risk being back into a "command and control" situation where
self organisation goes underground. But if the direction and boundaries
don't have enough clarity then we don't have a furnace/container in
which tranformation/innovation is encouraged and everyone is sloshing
around not knowing where they are going (a friend of mine once called
this a "democratic swamp").

So I guess my question is HOW the formal leadership (say, the potential
Sponsors of Open Space) go about the process of articulating direction?
How does this direction get arrived at in the first place, who decides
and on what basis? 

Michael Wood



-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Larry
Peterson
Sent: Thursday, 30 October 2008 11:36 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: Wave Rider: Who is the self organizing?

Doug:

I can't reply for Harrison, but I have some thoughts on the importance
of "leaders" in self-organizing processes.  I think it is about
articulating the direction and the "boundaries" within which
self-organization happens.  

I've recently been reading "Reinventing the Sacred" by Stuart Kauffman
-- it is a tough scientific read so I'll read it again.  He does make a
strong scientific case for "self-organization" from molecules up --
including biological and human systems (like economies). He provides
some "proof" that systems are not reducible to quantum/physics
phenomena.  He states that cells (for example) self-organize the next
level of boundaries within which self-organizing processes happen and
without the boundaries it wouldn't happen.  Boundaries are clearly
semi-permeable with their environment, but real enough to give some
definition to the reality.  

"Leaders", maybe, in human systems are those people who articulate both
the frame and the direction well enough to help create the conditions
for more effective self-organization in that direction.  Formal
leadership can also help by committing resources in a certain direction.
Certainly the role of formal leaders in organizations where I have
opened the space have been key to both event success and longer term
engagement of others.

The other book I've read is "Hot, Flat and Crowded" by Friedman.  He
clearly believes that to more intentionally address the climate change
crisis upon us, a new regulation frame has to be created by formal
leadership -- governments. (He has some understanding that this creates
the conditions for
innovation.)  Otherwise, it will continue to be too easy and cheap to
use fossil fuels that we will not make the switch and the next 20 years
are critical to reduce the carbon and the number of climate change
calamities that will befall us (and keep us alive as a species).
Certainly the crises won't be eliminated.

Now that my surgery is over and healing is on my agenda, I'm hoping to
read and think and contribute more.

Larry


Larry Peterson & Associates in Transformation Toronto, Ontario, Canada
mailto:larry at spiritedorg.com   416.653.4829   http//:www.spiritedorg.com




 

-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of
douglas germann
Sent: October-28-08 10:29 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Wave Rider: Who is the self organizing?

Harrison--

If we self organize our work, why do you make such a point that we did
not do it ourselves? (eg, Wave Rider, p 133) 

I suspect the answer has to do with debunking the notion that someone
did it for us: The Leader. However, in point of fact, the people
organized it, organically and largely unconsciously. That's what I am
seeing. In other words, you seem to be saying, in the realm of humans
working together, it was not done by just a few of us, but by all of us.
Yes? 

But if just a few of "The Leaders" did it for us, is it not because we
abdicated our role in the process to them? So even that is self
organizing?

When we are speaking of human enterprise, who is the self who organized?

			:- Doug.

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