I've opened many spaces with many levels of a hierarchy present -- 3, 4, 5. One key is the pre-work conversations with both the senior and middle levels. It is middle management that often has the biggest issues because they are called upon to make things happen and often don't have power to do more than what they are told. So it is the conversations with formal leaders, the clarity of the theme and what will be done with the results and the encouragement given to all levels to become genuine leaders that create the conditions for all to "play" and be productive.
Wave Rider pushes this further in recognizing that it is all "self-organizing" at all levels anyway -- that is the real performance and leadership happens through the interaction of the people and when the formal structures constrain or reduce that interaction then level of performance possible is substantially lessened. I believe those who claim OS can't work in such circumstances are often those who are OK with those constraints -- for one reason or another -- who are more comfortable with the culture of hierarchy. Or, they are not willing to do the pre-work. Larry Larry Peterson & Associates in Transformation Toronto, Ontario, Canada la...@spiritedorg.com 416.653.4829 http://www.spiritedorg.com -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu] On Behalf Of Jon Harvey Sent: November-26-09 2:49 PM To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Subject: [OSLIST] Power, hierarchy and OS Hallo I went to a meeting of community cohesion practitioners today (UK) and had a really great time - lots of good ideas, research trails to chase and lovely people. Of course it would have been better to have used OS as the process of the day - which of course I suggested for the next meeting... But then we started a debate - with no time to explore it - as to whether OS is always applicable to meetings where there are people present with very different levels of power and authority. The presumption by one person was that hierarchy would get in the way of the flat structure of OS - such that the less powerful would not feel as empowered to have the conversations they wished and needed to etc... He was advocating (although I may well have this wrong) more structure & perhaps capacity building in adavnce to ensure a level playing field etc where everyone's voice would be heard. I was left frustrated - as this is a topic that interests me as I have some sympathy for the point of view. Equally, I take the view that the law of mobility means that the even the least powerful have vote with their feet / wheels etc to move to other topics of conversation. And Open Space is what it says on the tin - it is open to all - and part of our job as facilitators is to make this abundantly clear. So I promised to start a debate here on the OSLIST to see what others may think. I have also just posted a link to here for people from the Community Cohesion network (on the forum part of their website) so we may get some new members too.. (if you want to check out the host organisation - here is the link: http://practitioners.cohesioninstitute.org.uk/PractitionersNetwork/About all can join) So to start the ball rolling: 1) Do less powerful people get less (or more) from Open Space? 2) How does hierarchy interact with the OS process - if at all? 3) Are less powerful people less inclined to go with / show their passion and nominate topics for discussion - if so - what do you do about that? 4) If the subject is all about variable power (and in community cohesion it often is...) - does that make OS more or less applicable? 5) Am I over complicating all this?! I look forward to your thoughts. Many thanks Very best wishes Jon ____________________________________________________________________________ ___ Jon Harvey Director www.jonharveyassociates.co.uk +44 (0) 7771 537535 +44 (0) 1280 822585 j...@jonharveyassociates.co.uk Helping you connect the prose and the passion to deliver superlative results http://smallcreativeideas.blogspot.com/ for ideas about how to improve public & third sector services http://jonharveyassociates.blogspot.com/ for articles & ideas about leadership and organisational change http://twitter.com/JonSHarvey for ideas and questions to help build a more creative, fair and ambitious world Jon Harvey Associates Ltd Registered Office: Chandos House, School Lane, Buckingham, MK18 1HD Company Number 6661588. VAT Registration Number 936 2921 11 Please consider the environment before printing this email. Thank you. * * ========================================================== 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
