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On 30 November 2015 at 14:24, Rosa Zubizarreta via OSList
<[email protected]> wrote:
Hi Daniel, congratulations on an amazing piece!
As you mention, "authority" is a very loaded subject...
My understanding is that the group relations perspective, holds
(along with Koos!) that as adults, the ultimate authority for
anything ultimately comes from ourselves. WE are the ones who
"authorize" formal authorities -- without our own willingness to
continue to authorize them, their authority would disappear. Is
that your understanding, as well?
AND... as you point out, things are a bit more complex than that!
For one thing... as children... we were all helpless to one
degree or another, and so I would hesitate to say that we were
'authorizing' our parents or whatever crazyness was happening in
our families of origin...
then, as adults... our feelings of helplessness often get
triggered by our dysfunctional economic systems... for example,
in a situation where jobs are few and far between, someone might
well feel quite insulted at being told that they are
"authorizing" their boss who happens to be a bully. The person
who is being bullied, may not be in a position where they have an
easy option of changing jobs...
(A side note... one fascinating piece of work in this regard, is
Michael Lerner's book "Surplus Powerlessness"... in it, he lays
out the perspective that by promoting the "American dream"
ideology of "everyone can achieve anything they want", and
concurrently systematically ignoring all of the many real
constraints to our freedom, we contribute to creating a culture
where people end up blaming themselves for not achieving their
dreams -- and thus, end up feeling MORE powerless, than if we
were to acknowledge the real constraints and focused on the
small-yet-ever-present "windows of possibility"...)
Anyway, I would say that yes, as adults, we are the ones who
authorize any authorities, including both the informal
authorities as well as the formal authorities. To whatever degree
that we are uncomfortable with our own authority, we are
participating in the creation of a leaderless world, to our own
and others' detriment -- since too many people in positions of
formal authority are not, in fact, leaders; and to whatever
degree they /are/ leading, they are NOT leading us toward a world
that works for all.
Conversely, to the degree that we become more comfortable with
our own authority, we are contributing to a more leaderful world....
and of course, OST is a wonderful way to bring out the leader in
each person, as it encourages each of us, to be the author of our
own experience.
with all best wishes,
Rosa
*/Rosa Zubizarreta/*
/meet me at my DiaPraxis website <http://diapraxis.com>
and on my Listening Arts blog <https://rosaz.wordpress.com/>/
On Mon, Nov 30, 2015 at 7:05 AM, Daniel Mezick via OSList
<[email protected]> wrote:
Hi Michael,
Thank you for your reply. Regarding "unauthorized" or not
formally-authorized OST in organizations, remember, I am
framing the discussion inside the wider context of a typical
business corporation, one trying to improve by considering
some changes. I am not talking about any other context. OST
is often used for Agile retrospectives for example. I am not
talking about that.
So the context for discussion I am suggesting is the context
of a typical business corporation, one trying to improve by
considering some enterprise-wide (or division-wide) changes.
A wide-scope change.
Typically, these changes are a "push from authority" without
respect to what the people who do the work want, think or
feel. Many Agile frameworks (most notably "SAFe") are
implemented in this way. As push.
Open Space offers a refreshing alternative to mandates,
"push", and formally authorized coercion. Or so it seems.
Since most formally authorized leaders cannot commit to the
so-called "risk of Open Space," the wide-scope OST usually
(almost) never happens. Meanwhile, everybody knows the issues
and that they might never see the light of day in any kind of
formally authorized way.
Now, getting back your comment, yes: anyone can hold an Open
Space event at any time, about any thing, for any reason. At
issue is what happens next. Perhaps a group can meet to
discuss HOW to get some attention to key issues from formally
authorized leaders. Etc. As you yourself say, "folks knew
full well that formal authorization was needed and had
figured out ways addressing that need."
What I'm really, really interested in is deconstructing OST
in authority terms, and advancing that know-how, so that it
can be reduced to explicit knowledge that others can access
quickly in service to...progress. That essay is my naive
attempt to actually begin the process.
Daniel
On 11/30/15 6:26 AM, Michael M Pannwitz wrote:
Dear Daniel,
somehow, I dont see what has happened in almost all os
gatherings I have facilitated: people deciding to act and
actually going ahead with it after the gathering not being
formally authorized.
As this happened regularly I wondered how those
self-authorized activities fared or got along with formal
authorization. Eventually, I found out that folks knew full
well that formal authorization was needed and had figured
out ways addressing that need.
I wondered about Beth. Did she and her group simply
suggested something formal authority should do or was she
and others involved in implementing the stuff they were
interested in?
Invariably, I as facilitator would intervene with some
off-handed remark about "suggestions" or "recommendations"
or what xyz should do pointing out that there is nothing
wrong with that but ....
cheers
mmp
On 30.11.2015 12:15, Daniel Mezick via OSList wrote:
Hi Koos,
Thanks for your comment on personal passion. There's this very
interesting paper on the various authority types (informal,
formal,
personal) which is pretty good, I am including it here if
you want to
check it out.
I hear you when you say "I can initiate that process of
authorizing
myself by taking responsibility for my passion." This is
exactly what we
hope will happen inside company-sponsored OST events.
Within the context of Open Space held in an organization
that wants to
explore an enterprise-wide change, we can expect the
following to be
true, if the event is to work well:
1. Formally Authorized Leader. A person formally and highly
authorized
by the organization sends an invite with a theme. This
"formally
authorizes" the time and space for the gathering.
2. Proceedings and Intent to Act- with Inclusion. That same
person
welcomes everyone on event-day, and at the opening,
encourages the
generation of proceedings, and signals that those
proceedings will be
inspected and acted upon, not just by the formally
authorized leaders
(the so-called "higher ups") but also with the new and
emerging leaders
who have identified themselves during the event ("be
prepared to be
surprised.") In other words, the people present are being
invited to
have their say, document it, and expect that these issues
are going be
input into a formally authorized and inclusive process of
deciding,
acting, and improving things.
Now, absent these two facts, how "important" is the OST
event? How much
"action" can ensue?
1. Formally Authorized Leader. No formally authorized
leader issuing the
invite? Or someone /without enough authorization to
matter?/ The signal
is clear: this theme (and this event) is /not important/ to
the people
who make the decisions.
2. Proceedings and Intent to Act- with Inclusion. Since no
one in the
room has enough formal authority to implement plans
suggested in the
proceedings, we can reasonably expect nothing whatsoever to
ensue in
formal terms after the meeting. This, because people who
/could/ do
something about it (those formally authorized by the
organization) "do
not care."
So- the highly authorized Sponsor (or Host) is essential.
Otherwise, in
authority terms, the OST event and what happens there just
doesn't
matter from an organizational point of view. It cannot have
much of an
impact.
Much ado about nothing?
Here's that paper I mentioned earlier:
https://www.it.uu.se/edu/course/homepage/projektDV/ht09/BART_Green_Molenkamp.pdf
I notice that most people prefer to avoid discussing
authority. Since
our families are the first place where we encounter this
concept and
develop our relationship with it, perhaps it is true that
discussing
authority can be very triggering. Thanks for sticking your
neck out and
I certainly hope to hear back from you and others on this
thread.
Daniel
On 11/30/15 12:57 AM, Koos de Heer wrote:
Hi Daniel,
Thank you for an interesting line of thought. What I am
thinking is
that there is also the aspect of a person standing up and
speaking for
a passion that they have (be it in the form of raising a
topic or just
speaking in a break out session) and in that way claiming
authority.
In your essay, authority seems to always come from someone
else. And
of course authority only is there when others believe it
to be there.
But the initiative to bestow authority on me does not
always come from
others. I can also initiate that process of authorizing
myself by
taking responsibility for my passion.
Koos
*Van:*OSList
[mailto:[email protected]] *Namens
*Daniel Mezick via OSList
*V**erzonden:*maandag 30 november 2015 0:13
*Aan:* [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>
*Onderwerp:* [OSList] What's authority got to do with Open
Space ?
What's authority got to do with Open Space ? Apparently
nothing at
all, at least on the surface...
Wait. Once we peek under the surface, what do we actually
find?
This completely heretical essay attempts to answer at
least part of
that question.
The context is the use of Open Space in a large business
enterprise,
convened with intent to explore the potential for making a
very big,
very complex enterprise-wide change.
{Please note, the word "authority" might trigger feelings of:
/soul-sucking bureaucracy/, unfair and /_illegitimate
leadership
hierarchy_/, and the like. Some "triggered" readers may
want to
opt-out of continuing at this time...)
Authority Distribution in Open Space:
http://newtechusa.net/agile/authority-distribution-in-open-space/
Open Space is a most interesting format for "gathering,",
also known
as "meeting."
What exactly is going on in Open Space?
--
Daniel Mezick
Culture Strategist. Author. Keynoter.
(203) 915 7248 <tel:%28203%29%20915%207248>. Bio.
<http://www.DanielMezick.com/> Blog.
<http://www.NewTechUSA.net/blog/>
<http://www.NewTechUSA.net/blog/> Twitter.
<https://twitter.com/DanielMezick>
<https://twitter.com/DanielMezick>
Book: The Culture Game. <http://theculturegame.com/>
Book: The OpenSpace Agility Handbook.
<http://www.amazon.com/OpenSpace-Agility-Handbook-Daniel-Mezick/dp/0984875336>
<http://www.amazon.com/OpenSpace-Agility-Handbook-Daniel-Mezick/dp/0984875336>
--
Daniel Mezick
Culture Strategist. Author. Keynoter.
(203) 915 7248 <tel:%28203%29%20915%207248>. Bio.
<http://www.DanielMezick.com/> Blog.
<http://www.NewTechUSA.net/blog/>
<http://www.NewTechUSA.net/blog/> Twitter.
<https://twitter.com/DanielMezick>
<https://twitter.com/DanielMezick>
Book: The Culture Game. <http://theculturegame.com/>
Book: The OpenSpace Agility Handbook.
<http://www.amazon.com/OpenSpace-Agility-Handbook-Daniel-Mezick/dp/0984875336>
<http://www.amazon.com/OpenSpace-Agility-Handbook-Daniel-Mezick/dp/0984875336>
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--
Daniel Mezick
Culture Strategist. Author. Keynoter.
(203) 915 7248 <tel:%28203%29%20915%207248>. Bio.
<http://www.DanielMezick.com/> Blog.
<http://www.NewTechUSA.net/blog/> Twitter.
<https://twitter.com/DanielMezick>
Book: The Culture Game. <http://theculturegame.com/>
Book: The OpenSpace Agility Handbook.
<http://www.amazon.com/OpenSpace-Agility-Handbook-Daniel-Mezick/dp/0984875336>
_______________________________________________
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