what are we learning about leadership and control?

Fri Nov 20 00:01:27 PST 2009

*The Chief Leader.* Leadership happens everywhere, but it is essential not
to minimize the critical role played by the chief leader. Needless to say,
control style leadership doesn't fit this role. Stories of most tribal
chiefs, medicine men. etc., usually reflect that they pay a high personal
price in fulfilling their role - if they are any good at all. It takes a lot
more personal energy to enable than to control. Being present and being true
over the long haul is very difficult. For me to achieve and sustain this I
must be very intentional about nurturing my own Spirit. My life experiences
and learning and my faith commitment have taught me how to do this. I
believe that for an organization to sustain Spirit, supporting the "chief"
to sustain his or her Spirit is the most essential ingredient.*
*

*Appropriate Structure.* I have found that in organizations where people
focus on consensus decision making, shared power, putting all their energies
into process - the organizations eventually are filled with conflict and
dysfunction. It is not politically correct to say this, but I rather suspect
it is because these organizations are not built on truth - some members are
hungry for power and control, but won't say so, others have their "secret
agenda" in their breast pocket, but won't clearly put it on the table. In an
organization, most power (even to hire and fire) is with the senior staff
person, who must claim that power (women have a hard time doing this) and
use it.  This translates into acknowledging that hierarchial structure for
some purposes - formal responsibility, accountability, authority, formal
communication at the same time that we have and grow an appropriate
structure for the actual work of the organization to take place. Both
support the other, enable the other, and both are essential and interface
with each other.
*-- Birgitt Williams, Chapter 5, Tales from Open Space (edited by Harrison
Owen)

**so... what are we learning these last few days about being and supporting
leaders in open space?  about ownership, control and authority? *
*
*---

for those of you whose only experience of me is the last few days of kaliya
and tree telling you who i am, i feel compelled to offer an alternative view
of who i might be and how i think about openspaceworld.org...

first, i am sorry to have posted so frequently these last few days.  i
rather prefer invisibility.  it's a fine line indeed between letting go on
the one hand and letting you know that openspaceworld.org really is my
invitation, not my empire.  think what you will about me, but rest assured
that if there is something you want to contribute online, i'd be glad to
help you find a place for it, at openspaceworld.org or elsewhere.

and yes, i guess it is my site.  i didn't think that was a big secret.  i
bought the name, hacked the code, invited the stories, posted them, and
tried to keep them organized -- with help from many others along way.  i
think it's fair to say that i've been the chief leader of the site.  it's
been me personally inviting contributions, it's been my gift, my practice
and one of my ways of honoring the generosity of harrison and so many others
in this community.

at the same time, i have never called it "my site" because that is not how i
think of it -- and not how i wanted anyone else to think of it.  it is
something i give away every day i work on it.  it's your site.  you've seen
the thing and how it's developed over the years.  what you haven't seen is
the many questions that have come, and the many emails i have sent back,
teaching, inviting, encouraging.  i'm not the only one doing this, of
course, but the site is part of my practice, it's not my asset.  i have my
own personal/professional site for business.  openspaceworld is my gift to
all of you, and even more, to all those who will never join the oslist.  and
because my gift is itself merely an invitation, an offer to post what you
send, i don't feel particularly "in control" of anything.  but i do feel it
is my duty to defend what is posted there -- because those postings and
linkings are your gifts.

when the site started, i wrote a two-page executive summary description and
a few paragraphs of welcoming text.  later i wrote a four-page article.
most everything else of any consequence was submitted by somebody else,
including more than a dozen translations of my original text.  yes i've done
some cleaning and organizing, but open access?  my god, it's been nothing
but one big open bulletin board all along!  indeed, the rule in the blog is
that i can't actually post my stories about my own work.  if i have a story
about myself to post, i send that to somebody else -- so we *all* need to
ask somebody else to post our stuff on the site.

if i speak about my journey very easily in openspace-isms... it is because
everything i do in connection with the sites is measured against what i know
about the story and practice of opening space.  i think about this stuff a
lot.  i don't experience your  messages, kaliya, as non-violent
communication and i don't know why any of this had to be said in order for
you to do what you are now beginning to organize.  you say you've been
telling me these things for years, but i honestly don't recall a single call
or email to me directly, to inquire, discuss or offer any of this, except
those three lines when i emailed you to ask about your ideas.  i've already
changed the out-of-date description you've flagged as offensive.

for all the talk about open, accessible wiki... what some of you may not
know is that the last time anybody got really upset about the site, it was
because it *was* a wiki.  at that time, i was criticized for too much wiki
and too messy.  but the fact is that i rather like the mess.  i think it's
true to our process.  so are the 22 languages on the homepage.  the site is
not controlled.  i am not really in control of anything -- except that for
three years of running it as open, accessible wiki format, i got up every
morning and deleted spam postings.

thanks to everyone who's emailed and called off-list.  and to everyone who's
read this far.*
*
*Special thanks... ** to the authors, editors, translators, wiki gnomes,
donors and other helpers who've contributed to this site
since 1999, especially Raffi Aftandelian, Tova Averbuch, Brian Bainbridge,
Ashley Cooper, Chris Corrigan, Artur Ferreira da Silva,
Carol Daniel Kasbari, Koos de Heer, Gerardo de Luzenberger, Gabriela Ender,
John Engle, Ted Ernst, Wendy Farmer-O'Neil, Doug
Germann, Diane Gibeault, Elwin Guild, Beck György, Michael Herman, Thomas
Herrmann, Peggy Holman, Sheila Isakson, Tim
Lannan, Jean-Yves Lord, Christy Lee-Engel, Elena Marchuk, Esther Matte,
Gerard Muller, Ingrid Olausson, Funda Oral, Barry Owen,
Harrison Owen, Michael M Pannwitz, Stanley Park, Brian Rogers, Véronique Dos
Santos, Mikk Sarv, Agneta Setterwell, Filiz Telek,
Siona van Dijk, the Open Space Institute USA, and the photographers who've
shared 6000+ photos at Flickr!**

**

*

--

Michael Herman
Michael Herman Associates

http://www.michaelherman.com
http://www.ronanparktrail.com
http://www.chicagoconservationcorps.org
http://www.openspaceworld.org

312-280-7838 (mobile)

*
*
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