Thank you everyone for your thought-provoking responses! A reflection: the more that I try to control, the more pain and dissonance that I bring to myself and the world.
Thanks Daniel for the inside info on Zappos. Any idea what happened at Medium regarding its Holacracy experiment? Thanks, Jake ________________ When the mind is quiet, the sun of your heart will shine once again, and you will be free of problems. - Robert Adams <http://www.robert-adams.info/> On Fri, Jun 21, 2019 at 8:34 AM Harrison Owen <[email protected]> wrote: > Jake, I think you may be asking the question from perhaps the wrong way > around. My experience is that everything is self organizing. Including all > organizations. Respected, and left to its own devices, Self organization > does a marvelous job. Some wins, some loses, but basically things have > worked quite well since the Big Bang. That would be 13.7 billion years. The > fact that we are here to complain about how bad things are -- is, I think, > a testimony to that success. So all organizations are inherently self > organizing. Problems, however, do arise when one attempts to organize a > self organizing organization (system). That is not only an oxymoron – but > stupid. But that seems to be largely what we have done. Of course it does > provide the beneficial result of creating and paying that group of people > called “managers” whose job it is to organize things – along with > professors and consultants, who supposedly tell them how to do it. So my > bottom line would be that all organizations are self organizing from the > start. Then, sadly, things begin to go downhill. > > > > Could I prove all this? Probably not – in part because I am not quite > clear about how that (proof) might be done, but mostly because I am not > sure it would be worth the effort. And there is a useful alternative, I > think: that wonderful 34 year natural experiment we have all been a part > of. Every time we invite the space to be opened in a non or poorly > functioning organization we really aren’t *doing *anything except > offering the people/participants the opportunity to remember what they > already know, and be what they already are. Self organizing. Amazingly it > seems to work just about every time in spite of the fact that it violates > every single practice and principle of Modern Management. At least I can’t > think of any that escape. Might be something here? > > > > Of course all this could just be another one of my stories – and you know > about storytellers! On the other hand, you might enjoy a fuller version > which you will find in my last book: *WaveRider: Leadership for High > Performance in a Self Organizing world.* Berrett-Koehler published and > Amazon ( amongst others) will deliver. Or you can forget all that and just > open some space… and allow you own experience to shape your conclusions. > Have fun! > > > > Harrison > > > > > > *From:* OSList [mailto:[email protected]] *On Behalf > Of *Jake Yeager via OSList > *Sent:* Thursday, June 20, 2019 7:32 PM > *To:* World wide Open Space Technology email list > *Cc:* Jake Yeager > *Subject:* [OSList] Orgs that Failed to Implement Self-Organization? > > > > Hey everyone, > > > > Does anyone know of organizations that attempted to implement > self-organization but failed? If so, do you know some of the factors that > contributed to the failure? We hear about the successes, like Semco and > AES, but rarely about the failures. I'd like to understand better what the > pitfalls are and also what the success rate is. > > > > Thanks! > > > > All the best, > > Jake > > ________________ > > > > When the mind is quiet, the sun of your heart will shine once again, and > you will be free of problems. > > - Robert Adams <http://www.robert-adams.info/> >
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