In OST work we may find ourselves declaring that 'no one is in control'. I think that's probably largely true in my own experience. I rarely feel like I'm in control of anything, and certainly not of anyone else. Realising this has been very liberating.
And yet what are the full implications of this statement? I'm supporting people in a large hierarchically structured organisation where a lot of staff feel very disempowered. In effect, they feel 'controlled'. How? Fairly simple things like if they resist the punishing demands being placed on them (do more with less), then their contracts will not be renewed. Or we might take a more dramatic example of places where people find their liberty curtailed at the end of a gun. They may also feel like they are being 'controlled'. At one level these are people are 'free' to resist but at the likely cost of their job, or their life. So when we say 'no-one is in control', is the corollary of this statement that 'we all have freedom and exercising that freedom might be very painful'? Michael Wood Perth, Western Australia
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