[OSList] Fwd: reporting back from MIX...

Rosa Zubizarreta via OSList oslist at lists.openspacetech.org
Mon Nov 24 06:48:45 PST 2014


Hi Ashley!

Thanks for your question... great motivation to begin typing up a few notes.
Here are some of my favorites...

*Vineet Nayar:* (paraphrase) Key role of CEO is to say "I don't know" (and
to really mean it!);
 to NOT have all the answers, so that others will have room to contribute.
(bit reminiscent of OS, no? :-)

Core values of CEO: honesty, humility, openness, vulnerability. He started
off a bit slowly in his talk,
and then really warmed up in a very powerful way. His book is called
"Employees First, Customers Second." I've not read it yet, but I plan to...

*Frederic Laloux: *His book "Reinventing organizations" is good, and, I
really enjoyed him as a speaker.
'Hacking the decision-making process' as key, in all the transformative
orgs he's studied;
offered a model of a "third way" betw. hierarchical decision-making &
consensus decision-making .
Calls it the "advice process"... seeking to expand the range of each
person's self-discretionary activity, while at the same time,
creating opportunities for input and alignment.

Also spoke about how "no hierarchy" does NOT mean flat, but that more
precisely it means no "power" hierarchy;
no one holds power over another ('command authority'). "When you take out
power hierarchies, lots of natural hierarchies appear, based on
passion, contribution, skills, expertise, etc.  We all become both leaders
as well as followers of someone else.

His 3 key questions for an org seeking to transform are: 1)  "what would
leadership look like, if no one had any 'command authority'?
2) Does everyone have a voice in the decisions that affect them? 3) Can
innovation arise from anyone, at any time?

*Heiko Fischer,* Resourceful Humans -- What would it look like, if
organizations were as creative as the people inside them?
His main point was, *ask your own people*... "How would *you *organize, if
you could organize this organization the way you want it to be?"
Offer them range of possibilities to start the conversation so that they
can see a spectrum... yet each organization will need to find
its own solutions, based on its unique character.

Someone asked, "was it terrifying, to give up all that power?" He said,
"YES! We had to fight our own demons, in order to surrender to what we knew
we had to do. As soon as we let go, it all came together... "

Described process of getting there, with one organization; began with doing
constellation work with entire executive team, asking them to respond
non-verbally to question "how clear is the CEO's vision to you?" by
physically standing in different locations of room. How honest and shocking
the responses were...

>From that physical experience, was able to start an authentic conversation. "We
tend to focus on increasing motivation and increasing competency, but the
third leg of the stool, enabling, that is hugely important -- *removing*
the restrictions that are in the way of people doing what they already want
to do, and are already capable of doing. To do this, leader needs to
surround themselves with people who will honestly challenge him or her."

*James DeJuilo* from Tongal was great  -- creativity set free, by
crowd-sourcing filmed content...
a community that has a company attached to it, instead of the other way
around...

*Helen Bevan *and *Jackie Lynton*... very energizing.... crowdsourcing org
change inside huge bureaucracy...

*Leerom Segal* and *Jay Goldman* from Klick Health -- "Technology Eats
Bureaucracy"...
creative applications of data and tech to empower people.
Book: "The Decoded Company" Collaboration software: Genome

and last but not least, my absolute fave...

*Alanna Krause* from Enspiral and Loomio.
moving from the "tyranny of structurelessness", to tyranny-less
structures...

Enspiral is network of social entrepreneurs, some of  whom developed Loomio
(open-soutce collaboration software)
to support own transparent decision-making process, including collaborative
budgeting.
Article: When Business Met Occupy: Innovating for True Collaborative
Decision-Making
<http://www.mixprize.org/story/when-business-met-occupy-innovating-true-collaborative-decision-making-and-true-empowerment>

main job of leaders: 1) give good ideas a place to go, and
2) recognize and value facilitation.

***

Ok... that's it for now...

enjoy!


*Rosa Zubizarreta*

*Diapraxis: Facilitating Creative Collaborationhttp://www.diapraxis.com
<http://www.diapraxis.com/>*


On Sun, Nov 23, 2014 at 11:32 AM, Ashley Cooper <Ashley at mycelium.is> wrote:

> Rosa,
>
> Thank you so much for this summary. Are there any talks that you would
> highly recommend that we watch?
>
> Appreciatively,
> Ashley
>
> --
> Ashley Cooper
> ​Co-Founder & ​
> Learning Architect
> www.mycelium.is
>
> Now accepting APPLICATIONS for the *Mycelium 12-week Winter Learning
> Journey*.
> Find out more here <http://mycelium.is/learningjourney/>.
>
>
> On Sat, Nov 22, 2014 at 7:44 PM, Rosa Zubizarreta via OSList <
> oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> In spite of the old-style format, I found the MIX
>> <http://mixmashup.org/mashup/events>to be an extremely inspiring
>> gathering.
>> Below some extracts from an e-mail I wrote to a friend...
>>
>> ***
>>
>> The conference format was (almost) completely didactic, lecture-style,
>> jam-packed, hardly any breaks. AND, as challenging as that was, the content
>> itself was extraordinary, completely inspiring, beyond awesome. How's that
>> for a contradiction?
>>
>> The MIX folks are extremely bright, dedicated, and passionate about
>> finding people and organizations that are totally breaking the mold with
>> regard to new organizational forms. This includes young companies that
>> started this way from scratch, as well as older companies that were
>> originally hierarchical and have transformed in some significant way. They
>> are doing their best to promote these organizations/networks/initiatives
>> and their work.
>>
>>
>>
>> So, great people from all over the world… successful non-hierarchical
>> companies from all over the world….really good stuff! The MIX folks are
>> aware that this work isn't completely new, that there have been innovative
>> examples of successful non-hierarchical orgs at different times. At the
>> same time, they also believe we are at a tipping point, where we need to
>> have new organizational forms become much more widespread -- and, they are
>> doing their best to help make that happen, through sharing the stories of
>> successful examples, highlighting how each one is a unique journey, and
>> pointing to underlying principles.
>>
>>
>> Very little room was allotted for participation from attendees, except
>> during the lab day. At the same time, it was great to be hearing from the
>> folks who have actually created these new organizations, or initiated
>> change efforts within older organizations. It seemed that many of the
>> presenters had actually opened space in their organizations in drastic
>> ways, not as external consultants coming in but as founders and leaders
>> and/or internal change agents. I was moved by their honesty and
>> vulnerability, and by their openness in sharing their challenges and ups
>> and downs and work-in-progress.
>>
>>
>> I can imagine the trade-offs the conference organizers may have been
>> struggling with...  likely they wanted to offer as many of these stories as
>> possible, yet at the same time were not wanting to make it a longer
>> conference. Recently Chris shared a design on the AoH e-mail list, in a
>> thread about working with experts, of having people work in ten different
>> groups doing collective story harvests. Something like that could have been
>> useful here, and/or useful for the next one-- especially if followed by a
>> way for people to share the harvests with one another afterward.
>>
>>
>> And, the organizers may or may not be ready for that... seems like there
>> was some feedback about designing a more participatory event after the
>> MashUp two years ago. Maybe it's still percolating? Anyway, what a
>> fascinating mix we ourselves are as humans, such a bundle of gifts
>> and challenges (still-unopened gifts), all mixed together! And all of us
>> having so much to contribute, and so much to learn...
>>
>>
>> In sum, I found it a highly valuable experience, paradoxes and all, and
>> very much appreciated the opportunity of meeting a community of passionate
>> innovators, who share a deep respect for a diversity of perspectives and a
>> diversity of paths...
>>
>>
>> with all best wishes,
>>
>>
>> Rosa
>>
>>
>>
>> *Rosa Zubizarreta*
>>
>> *Diapraxis: Facilitating Creative Collaborationhttp://www.diapraxis.com
>> <http://www.diapraxis.com>*
>>
>>
>>
>>
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