Doug - thanks for the question. Larry - good to see you back on deck! Good healing to you.
I think this is a very interesting question. Larry is saying that formal leadership articulates the direction and boundaries. On the face of it, this makes sense. For example, certain person(s) are charged with an authority for stewarding the mission of the organisation (say, as laid out in the Founding Stories of the Community, the Constitution, or the Articles of Association; others have been given authority to sign cheques; some people have been given the legal capacity to hire and fire). And would it also be true to say that the "mission" of the organisation is often quite broadly defined, so we then end up with the tension arising out of discussion of specifics? So one person says, "I think the mission, as defined in the legal documents, means we go in "x" direction" and someone else says, "I think the mission means that we go in "Y" direction". How do these tensions get worked through in a self organising system? If the formal leadership holds the "direction and boundaries" too tightly then we risk being back into a "command and control" situation where self organisation goes underground. But if the direction and boundaries don't have enough clarity then we don't have a furnace/container in which tranformation/innovation is encouraged and everyone is sloshing around not knowing where they are going (a friend of mine once called this a "democratic swamp"). So I guess my question is HOW the formal leadership (say, the potential Sponsors of Open Space) go about the process of articulating direction? How does this direction get arrived at in the first place, who decides and on what basis? Michael Wood -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu] On Behalf Of Larry Peterson Sent: Thursday, 30 October 2008 11:36 PM To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Subject: Re: Wave Rider: Who is the self organizing? Doug: I can't reply for Harrison, but I have some thoughts on the importance of "leaders" in self-organizing processes. I think it is about articulating the direction and the "boundaries" within which self-organization happens. I've recently been reading "Reinventing the Sacred" by Stuart Kauffman -- it is a tough scientific read so I'll read it again. He does make a strong scientific case for "self-organization" from molecules up -- including biological and human systems (like economies). He provides some "proof" that systems are not reducible to quantum/physics phenomena. He states that cells (for example) self-organize the next level of boundaries within which self-organizing processes happen and without the boundaries it wouldn't happen. Boundaries are clearly semi-permeable with their environment, but real enough to give some definition to the reality. "Leaders", maybe, in human systems are those people who articulate both the frame and the direction well enough to help create the conditions for more effective self-organization in that direction. Formal leadership can also help by committing resources in a certain direction. Certainly the role of formal leaders in organizations where I have opened the space have been key to both event success and longer term engagement of others. The other book I've read is "Hot, Flat and Crowded" by Friedman. He clearly believes that to more intentionally address the climate change crisis upon us, a new regulation frame has to be created by formal leadership -- governments. (He has some understanding that this creates the conditions for innovation.) Otherwise, it will continue to be too easy and cheap to use fossil fuels that we will not make the switch and the next 20 years are critical to reduce the carbon and the number of climate change calamities that will befall us (and keep us alive as a species). Certainly the crises won't be eliminated. Now that my surgery is over and healing is on my agenda, I'm hoping to read and think and contribute more. Larry Larry Peterson & Associates in Transformation Toronto, Ontario, Canada mailto:la...@spiritedorg.com 416.653.4829 http//:www.spiritedorg.com -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu] On Behalf Of douglas germann Sent: October-28-08 10:29 AM To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Subject: Wave Rider: Who is the self organizing? Harrison-- If we self organize our work, why do you make such a point that we did not do it ourselves? (eg, Wave Rider, p 133) I suspect the answer has to do with debunking the notion that someone did it for us: The Leader. However, in point of fact, the people organized it, organically and largely unconsciously. That's what I am seeing. In other words, you seem to be saying, in the realm of humans working together, it was not done by just a few of us, but by all of us. Yes? But if just a few of "The Leaders" did it for us, is it not because we abdicated our role in the process to them? So even that is self organizing? When we are speaking of human enterprise, who is the self who organized? :- Doug. * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist