[OSList] Authority Distribution in Open Space

Fri Sep 26 15:49:13 PDT 2014

Fantastic essay, Daniel. I'm a bit freaked out by Harrison talking about
his "translator" after diving into T.S.Kuhn's book where he says paradigm
shifts require "translators" because new and old paradigm holders live in
different worlds, where even common terms may be fundamentally different.

What I struggle to translate is the concept of coercion and authority from
the vantage of "it's all open space". Can we really be coerced? How are we
all already "opting in" to empower the "authorities"?

Could we just be volunteering for the victim part of our stories?

I have some thoughts about this, but I wonder what you would say to such a
challenge to the relevance of "authority" in OST?

Thanks,
Harold

Daniel... You really did it! I think. Your language comes from a place I
don’t know... which is to say that I probably wouldn’t say what you say in
the way that you do (duh). BUT when I run my “translator” it comes out
sounding pretty good! So... I can’t help with the questions you have
raised. Actually I think you are doing pretty well on your own, and
(hopefully) will incite others to a similarly riotous performance. Thanks!

Harrison

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*From:* OSList [mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] *On Behalf
Of *Daniel Mezick via OSList
*Sent:* Thursday, September 25, 2014 9:39 AM
*To:* oslist at lists.openspacetech.org
*Subject:* [OSList] Authority Distribution in Open Space

Greetings to All,

For the past several years I have attended conferences of the Group
Relations community, and encouraged others to do the same. I've studied
their literature, and harvested some important learning as a result. One of
the things I have come to understand a little bit better is the role of
"authority dynamics" in self-organizing social systems.

Link:
www.akriceinstitute.org

Over the past several years I've been using Open Space with intent to
improve the results of my work in helping companies implement Agile ideas
in their organizations. We do an initial Open Space, then the folks get
about 3 months to play with Agile (we carefully use the word
"experimentation" with management,) then we do another Open Space after
that, to inspect what just happened across the enterprise. The initial and
subsequent Open Space events form a "safe" container or field in which the
members can *learn*... as they explore how to *improve* together by
*experimenting* with new practices, and see if they actually work. I call
the process Open Agile Adoption.

Link:
OpenAgileAdoption.com

This seems to work pretty good. It seems to "take the air out of" most of
the fear, most of the anxiety and most of the worry that is created. The
key aspect is *consent*: absolutely no one is forced to do anything they
are unwilling to do. No one is *coerced* to *comply*. Everyone is instead
respectfully *invited* to help *write* the story, and be a *character* in
the story...of the contemplated process change. Open Agile Adoption
encourages a spirit of experimentation and play.

The spirit of Open Space is the spirit of freedom. Isn't it? In the OST
community, we discuss and talk a lot about self-organization,
self-management and self-governance. The Agile community also talks about
these ideas a lot.

So I have some questions. What is really going on during self-organization
in a social system? What are the steps? What information is being sent and
received? From whom, and by whom? Is the information about *authority*
important? How important? Can a social system self organize without regard
to who has the right to do what work? *How do decisions that affect others
get made in a self-organizing system?*

Who decides about *who decides*? How important is the process of
*authorization* in a self-organizing system? Is self-organization in large
part the process of dynamic authorization (and *de-authorization*) in real
time?

What *is *authorization? Can self-organization occur without the sending
and receiving of authorization data by and between the members?

Is Bruce Tuckman's forming/storming/performing/adjourning actually
decomposing the *dynamics of authorization* inside a social system?

The essay below attempts to answer some of these difficult questions. I'd
love your thoughts on it. Will you give it a look?

Essay: Authority Distribution in Open Space
http://newtechusa.net/agile/authority-distribution-in-open-space/

Kind Regards,
Daniel

-- 

Daniel Mezick, President

New Technology Solutions Inc.

(203) 915 7248 (cell)

Bio <http://newtechusa.net/dan-mezick/>. Blog <http://newtechusa.net/blog/>.
Twitter <http://twitter.com/#%21/danmezick/>.

Examine my new book:  The Culture Game
<http://newtechusa.net/about/the-culture-game-book/>: Tools for the Agile
Manager.

Explore Agile Team Training
<http://newtechusa.net/services/agile-scrum-training/> and Coaching.
<http://newtechusa.net/services/agile-scrum-coaching/>

Explore the Agile Boston <http://newtechusa.net/user-groups/ma/>Community.

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