I’ve suggested that in networks we come together around a purpose and objectives, and then begin to discover appropriate skills sets and motivations amongst members of a given network .. after which we begin to negotiate what we are going to do and why, who’s going to do what,how and by when, and then make this strategic information available, in full view, to all who are participating in the conversations, exchanges of information and the actual work (which often consists of pointing each other to pertinent just-in-time information that will make achieving the negotiated objectives easier or more efficient).
The more I am working with relationships as the essential element with organizational sturctures that work, the more I am coming to realize that the glue that binds structures together is intimacy, friendship and respect. Maturana and Bunnell in their paper on love in organizations note:
There is something peculiar about human beings: We are loving animals. I know that we kill each other and do all those horrible things, but if you lookat any story of corporate transformation where everything begins to go well, innovations appear, and people are happy to be there, you will see that it is a story of love. Most problems in companies are not solved through competition, not through fighting, not through authority. They are solved through the only emotion that expands intelligent behavior. They are solved through the only emotion that expands creativity, as in this emotion there is freedom for creativity. This emotion is love. Love expands intelligence and enables creativity. Love returns autonomy and, as it returns autonomy, it returns responsibility and the experience of freedom.
When we treat each other well, we are capable of being intellegent, creative and free together. When we don;t treat each other well, intellegence, creativity and freedom eludes us. How much traditional organizational development includes love on the menu?
Certainly Jon has been noticing all of this for a long time as an OD practitioner working with the architecture of organizations and communities. His own charting of the shift from hierarchy to wirearchy might be summed up by the watching autonomous individuals be finally recognized as the real part of any organization. As technology advances our ability to work closer together, we find more and more ways to simply operate as companies of friends, making agreements based on the accountability of the heart.
This is not soft stuff I am talking about here. Working this way is what makes major transformations possible in all kinds of fields and sectors. As long as we have energy tied up in defending our small territories and personal fifedoms, we don;t have a full suite of assets to apply to meeting the challenges facing our organizations, communities and world. Being at peace with friends, working side by side with shared purpose, openness and autonomy is what will enable us to become more intellegent than we have ever been, and will provide us with the tools to meet challenges that seem insurmountable any other way.
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Jean Sebastien Bouchard writes about the birth of Grisvert his new company. He uses the five breaths design model that we teach within the Art of Hosting to tell the story of his journey from idea to launch over two years. ALong the way, he uses Otto Scharmer’s work on Presencing and U Theory and Dave Pollard’s Natural Enterprise thinking to find clarity. To me this is a great story about what is possible with maps, intention, friends and openness.
It’s a brilliantly told case study, a great story and Grisvert is a great offering to the world.
Congrats JS!
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I’ve installed and strengthened my spam filters for comments and trackbacks, so as you comment it may take a while to appear. Please be patient…thanks!
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Going through my email this evening I find that my daughter, sitting in her room three meters away, has sent me this website: The Case Against Time-out – The Natural Child Project.
Now we don’t do time outs at our house and my daughter has informed me that she sent this along because it talkas about things we agree with.
But aside from that, I’m just laughing. Imagine receiving this from an 11 year old who wants you to feel like your parenting choices are valid.
I have great kids.
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If you have upgraded to WordPress 2.6 and your categories are hosed, have a look at this fix, which worked for me. It takes a bit of time, depending on hyour number of categories, and you need to mess around in the database, but it’s fairly straigtforward.
Thanks for the post David!