Power, hierarchy and OS

[Larry Peterson]

I've opened many spaces with many levels of a hierarchy present -- 3, 4, 5.
One key is the pre-work conversations with both the senior and middle
levels.  It is middle management that often has the biggest issues because
they are called upon to make things happen and often don't have power to do
more than what they are told.  So it is the conversations with formal
leaders, the clarity of the theme and what will be done with the results and
the encouragement given to all levels to become genuine leaders that create
the conditions for all to "play" and be productive.  

Wave Rider pushes this further in recognizing that it is all
"self-organizing" at all levels anyway -- that is the real performance and
leadership happens through the interaction of the people and when the formal
structures constrain or reduce that interaction then level of performance
possible is substantially lessened.  I believe those who claim OS can't work
in such circumstances are often those who are OK with those constraints --
for one reason or another -- who are more comfortable with the culture of
hierarchy.  Or, they are not willing to do the pre-work.

Larry


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




-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Jon Harvey
Sent: November-26-09 2:49 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: [OSLIST] Power, hierarchy and OS

Hallo

I went to a meeting of community cohesion practitioners today (UK) and had a
really great time - lots of good ideas, research trails to chase and lovely
people. Of course it would have been better to have used OS as the process
of the day - which of course I suggested for the next meeting... 

But then we started a debate - with no time to explore it - as to whether OS
is always applicable to meetings where there are people present with very
different levels of power and authority. The presumption by one person was
that hierarchy would get in the way of the flat structure of OS - such that
the less powerful would not feel as empowered to have the conversations they
wished and needed to etc... He was advocating (although I may well have this
wrong) more structure & perhaps capacity building in adavnce to ensure a
level playing field etc where everyone's voice would be heard.

I was left frustrated - as this is a topic that interests me as I have some
sympathy for the point of view. Equally, I take the view that the law of
mobility means that the even the least powerful have vote with their feet /
wheels etc to move to other topics of conversation. And Open Space is what
it says on the tin - it is open to all - and part of our job as facilitators
is to make this abundantly clear.

So I promised to start a debate here on the OSLIST to see what others may
think. I have also just posted a link to here for people from the Community
Cohesion network (on the forum part of their website) so we may get some new
members too.. (if you want to check out the host organisation - here is the
link:
http://practitioners.cohesioninstitute.org.uk/PractitionersNetwork/About all
can join)

So to start the ball rolling:

1) Do less powerful people get less (or more) from Open Space?
2) How does hierarchy interact with the OS process - if at all?
3) Are less powerful people less inclined to go with / show their passion
and nominate topics for discussion - if so - what do you do about that?
4) If the subject is all about variable power (and in community cohesion it
often is...) - does that make OS more or less applicable?
5) Am I over complicating all this?!

I look forward to your thoughts.

Many thanks

Very best wishes

Jon


____________________________________________________________________________
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