John -- as always, your work is an inspiration! Wouldn't it be fabulous for Haiti to become a model of emergent governance?
Harrison -- Great topic! Assuming the human species makes it through the challenges ahead, I believe emergent governance will be one of the reasons we survive. It's exciting to see the beginnings of it happening at scale. Years ago, I read Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. It's depressing in that he tells the tale over and over of people rising up to take power into their own hands and being beaten down by the elites. Yet, when I finished the book and looked across the broad sweep of history, what I saw was a pattern of increasing numbers of people having a say in the decisions that affect their lives. That makes me wildly optimistic. My own experience with emergent governance is Spirited Work -- a learning community of practice that gathered quarterly in Open Space for 7 years . It was the brain child of Anne Stadler, who some of you may know as an early member of the Open Space community. Spirited Work provided a working model of emergent governance. We used the law and principles of Open Space as the foundation of how the community operated. We ultimately adopted the term "steward" for the people who took responsibility for governance. Anyone could step into stewardship -- whoever comes. When we, as stewards, weren't sure about the best direction for a decision that affected the community, it went up in the marketplace during a quarterly gathering. When the stewards made a decision that didn't work for people, it also ended up in the marketplace. We solved a financial crisis and handled all of the issues that arose in the community through the practice of Open Space. That experience taught me more about working with emergent decision making and governance than anything I've ever done. At the heart of it was, not surprisingly, the idea that when people take responsibility for what they love, their actions become an act of service. In other words, the needs of individuals and the whole are both met. I just pulled up a paper from 2003 that Anne Stadler and I wrote about the experience. Below was our answer to the question What are the essentials for emergent organization and leadership?" Enjoy! Peggy From an unpublished paper called EMERGENT ORGANIZATIONS: Living the patterns of whole systems Using what we have learned from Spirited Work, we believe there are three aspects critical to an emergent organization.Together, they form the boundaries that give order to the whole. It is within these bounds that chaos is free to roam. In fact, it is because of these boundaries that leadership and appropriate structures can emerge as there can be no form without something to give shape. The essential aspects that shape an emergent organization: A guiding purpose and principles that define the whole; A guiding organizational pattern with roots in natural cycles; A stewarding group that reflects the diversity of the whole. A guiding purpose and principles that define the shape of the organization. Purpose is the glue that binds any organization or community together. Without clarity of its fundamental reason for being, there is no center to guide individual and collective action. When the central purpose dissipates, the boundary dissolves and the organization dies. When central purpose is clear, it acts as an attractor for whoever cares to get involved. Principles name universal truths. They are conditions that always exist but can be amplified by conscious attention. We are particularly struck by an insight from a computer model called the Boids[1]. This model demonstrates that highly complex group behavior can be achieved through individual, autonomous action guided by a few local directions. A handful of principles created enough order for appropriate structures and leadership to continually evolve, bringing out the best of both individuals and the collective. Perhaps the most fundamental principle we have found is to take responsibility for what you care about. This simple, autonomous act in the context of a purpose that guides the whole causes extraordinarily complex, intelligent and caring behavior to emerge. A guiding organizational pattern that has its roots in natural cycles. Some examples of such patterns are Angeles Arrien’s Four Fold Way, the Native American medicine wheel, five element acupuncture theory, Ken Wilbur’s all quadrant, all level model. These frameworks provide a systemic view of the overarching functions of every organization or community. A periodic organization-wide gathering on each aspect of the pattern provides continuous evolution of how the organization operates, as collective understanding about how it really works is open for examination. Paying attention to these underlying patterns plays an important role in continually transforming beliefs and behaviors. For example, translated into the language of organizations, the four-fold way could be seen as: Leadership & Governance (Warrior) Organizational Health (Healer) Vision and the Art and Science of Work (Visionary) Continuous Learning (Teacher) A stewarding group that reflects the diversity of the whole. This group experiences the intensive version of the work of the organization. They become a mirror of whatever issues or questions are facing the whole. As a result, they also become a model of how to stay open through the transition from a traditional organization. It is almost a guarantee that at some point things will get messy! This occurs as people begin to realize that their assumptions about leadership, organizational structure and power are no longer valid. Through the periodic gatherings on the underlying systems of organization, people experience their environment in a new way. This group keeps the organization open rather than shutting down in fear by meeting regularly to reflect on what’s surfacing, what they are learning, how they can best support the whole. Having some guides who have been through the territory is enormously useful to help the stewards stay open to the unknown. By experiencing conflict and uncertainty in this microcosm, the whole organization benefits from what is learned. Over time, this group is best formed through a self-selected commitment to lead a cycle through the pattern. [1] Reynolds, Crag. Flocks, Herds, and Schools: a Distributed Behavioral Model. SIGGRAPH '87. Or check Reynold's website on Boids: http://www.red3d.com/cwr/boids/ The Boids is a computer model that describes the flocking behavior of birds. This model demonstrates that when each boid has direct access to the whole scene's description and follows a few local principles within its control, the desired system emerges. The basic flocking model consists of three simple steering behaviors: 1. Separation: steer to avoid crowding local flockmates; 2. Alignment: steer towards the average heading of local flockmates; 3. Cohesion: steer to move toward the average position of local flockmates. Developed by Craig Reynolds, Boids "...captures the global behavior of a large number of interacting autonomous agents." In other words, when individuals follow a few simple principles, complex system-wide behavior emerges. _________________________________ Peggy Holman [email protected] 15347 SE 49th Place Bellevue, WA 98006 425-746-6274 www.peggyholman.com www.journalismthatmatters.org Enjoy the award winning Engaging Emergence: Turning Upheaval into Opportunity "An angel told me that the only way to step into the fire and not get burnt, is to become the fire". -- Drew Dellinger On May 21, 2012, at 4:01 PM, Harrison Owen wrote: > John -- Thank you my friend. I will read with interest. Of course I will now > be confused by the facts. Always difficult to deal with, but I will try. And > in the meantime, carry on in the great style that becomes you! > > Harrison > > Harrison Owen > 7808 River Falls Dr. > Potomac, MD 20854 > USA > > 189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer) > Camden, Maine 20854 > > Phone 301-365-2093 > (summer) 207-763-3261 > > www.openspaceworld.com > www.ho-image.com (Personal Website) > To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of OSLIST > Go to:http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org > > From: [email protected] > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of John Engle > Sent: Monday, May 21, 2012 4:42 PM > To: World wide Open Space Technology email list > Subject: Re: [OSList] emergent governance > > Thanks for the interest Harrison and others in this project. Here's the > document with deliverables Habitat For Humanity put in their Call For > Proposal and our plan for each. > > http://www.haitipartners.org/wp-content/uploads/Santo-governance-project-for-web.pdf > > Also, here's information about a 6-month contract we just finished with USAID > that also used Circles of Change, which includes open space: > http://www.haitipartners.org/what-we-do/projects/usaid-grant-brings-circles-of-change-to-northern-haiti/ > > USAID was extremely pleased with outcomes and we received a wonderful letter > of reference. > > Thanks again for interest. > > John > ______________________________ > John Engle - On the ground regular updates at > http://www.haitipartners.org/the-blog/ > > _______________________________________________ > OSList mailing list > To post send emails to [email protected] > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] > To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: > http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org
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