Agreed. It was Mary Parker Follett who said, "purpose is the invisible leader." Indeed, purposeful groups self-organize. Within this group, the "leadership mantle" devolves and rotates through those combinations of individuals who have the vision, skill or drive to realize that purpose. It's rarely one person who is the leader. "Top" person, in these cases, refers to people with authority (legal, political or organizational) to make the risk-filled decisions...or not to make them, as is the case.
Once that manifest purpose is lost (as is often the case), then we rely on structure and formal roles for leadership. "Top" can then be a symbol for stasis or for change. This is why some "leaders" prefer to lead by avoidable crises, as a means to generate purposeful behavior (including their own). I've come to believe that leadership is the capacity of a community to successfully adapt itself to a changing environment, and the process of developing that capacity (to paraphrase "The Dance of Change"). Open Space is often successful (I think) because it identifies the purpose for coming together and provides the safe space for people to join and organize themselves around that purpose. The boundaries and delegated authority for OS set by formal authority (when it's appropriate), the purpose and the space create a place for people to be powerful, visionary and risk-takers. That's capacity for change. Doc ------------------ 'Love is helping others to complete themselves'- Bill O'Brien (The Dance of Change) Richard Charles Holloway - P.O. Box 2361, Olympia, WA 98507 USA ----- Original Message ----- From: "uwe.weissflog" <uwe.weissf...@t-online.de> - I too > think it is not right that we allowed ourselves to believe that the leaders are > a special group of people. They are not. > * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html =========================================================== osl...@egroups.com To subscribe, 1. Visit: http://www.egroups.com/group/oslist 2. Sign up -- provide an email address, and choose a login ID and password 3. Click on "Subscribe" and follow the instructions To unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@egroups.com: 1. Visit: http://www.egroups.com/group/oslist 2. Sign in and Proceed
