organizing with networks, teams, self organizing and empowerment

Organizing with Networks, Teams, Self-organizing and Empowerment 2012

1 Author: Kaj Voetmann, www.kajvoetmann.com

ORGANIZING WITH NETWORKS, TEAMS,

SELF ORGANIZING AND EMPOWERMENT

Written by Kaj Voetmann, www.kajvoetmann.com

Networks and teams have become central in the way we organize ourselves inside and between

organizations. With Kurt Lewins idea that there is nothing as useful as a good theory, it is

remarkable that both the concept of networks and the concept of teams often are defined very

implicit and seldom are used consistently.

In this article I will address some of the reasons creating this situation. The main reason is that we

in the western hemisphere is in the middle of something Peter Senge calls Galilean shifts, where

our traditional worldview no longer is sufficient to explain phenomena like networks and teams.

Peter Senge identifies three major Galilean shifts:

1. THE PRIMACY OF THE WHOLE. The defining characteristic of a system is that it cannot be

understood as a function of its isolated components. First, the behavior of the system doesn't

depend on what each part is doing but on how each part is interacting with the rest. Second, to

understand a system we need to understand how it fits into the larger system of which it is a part.

Third, and most important, what we call the parts need not be taken as primary. In fact, how we

define the parts is fundamentally a matter of perspective and purpose, not intrinsic in the nature of

the "real thing" we are looking at.

2. THE COMMUNITY NATURE OF THE SELF. When somebody asks us to talk about ourselves, we

talk about family, work, academic background, sports affiliations, etc. The self is not a thing, but a

Organizing with Networks, Teams, Self-organizing and Empowerment 2012

2 Author: Kaj Voetmann, www.kajvoetmann.com

point of view that unifies the flow of experience into a coherent narrative a narrative striving to

connect with other narratives and become richer.

The constitution of the self happens only in a community. The community supports certain ways of

being and constrains the expressions of individuality to certain patterns of behavior. A systems

view of life suggests that the self is never "given" and is always in the process of transformation.

3. LANGUAGE AS GENERATIVE PRACTICE. We invent structures and distinctions to organize the

otherwise unmanageable flow of life. That organization allows us to operate effectively, but it can

become a tranquilizing barrier to exploration and creativity. The more efficient a model of the

world turns out to be, the more it recedes into the background and becomes transparent. The more

successful the model's strategies, the more the "map" of reality becomes "reality" itself. The

danger of success is that the thinking behind it can become entrenched and disregard the

necessary context of its effectiveness. When a model loses its "situation" and generalizes its

validity to universal categories, it sooner or later stalls our capacity to deal freshly with the world

and each other.

TRADITIONAL VIEWS ON ORGANIZATIONS

The traditional way of perceiving organizations is that an organization has a clear boundary to the

environment, that it is relatively stable and that all the people are organized in small well defined

jobs, which creates a well ordered hierarchy.

In these organizations there are departments, where a series of well connected jobs are

supervised by a manager. And teams are nothing like departments and the leader of a team has

very different responsibilities than the traditional manager of a department.

In the traditional views on organizations there are some ideas about leadership and cooperation:

All leaders (and employees) are expected to be in control of things

Some of the assumptions behind the idea of being in control are:

The future is known and looks like the past and present

The premises for the present set of well functioning solutions are stable

The solutions and tasks have to do is defined correctly and are non-negotiable

The way the tasks are solved is efficient based on the criteria, that was instrumental

in the choice of the solutions and tasks

Everyone who is affected directly or indirectly agree that the way the tasks are

done is efficient

Organizing with Networks, Teams, Self-organizing and Empowerment 2012

3 Author: Kaj Voetmann, www.kajvoetmann.com

The structures of society both local, national and international are unchanged

These assumptions are nowadays part of an on-going dialogue and negotiation between more and

more people, who often lives far away from the head quarter of the organization.

THE SPIDER PLANT AS A METAPHOR FOR NETWORKS AND ORGANIZATIONS

In this article I will introduce anoter way of perceiving organizations, which is much closer to the

everyday life most people live in organizations. An everyday life, where today doesnt look like

yesterday and where the idea that one person can be in control of everything are no longer

realistic.

Nature is a good metaphor for the everyday life most people experience in and around

organizations. Gareth Morgan has described the metaphor of a Spider Plant in his book

Imaginization, and I have updated it to 2008. A Spider Plant looks like this:

Figure 1. A Spider Plant Illustration: Hans Mller/mollers.dk

Organizing with Networks, Teams, Self-organizing and Empowerment 2012

4 Author: Kaj Voetmann, www.kajvoetmann.com

Figure 2. Another Spider Plant Illustration: Hans Mller/mollers.dk

Figure 3. Mother plants collaborating

THE LIFE OF A SPIDER PLANT

A spider Plant begins its life as a small offshoot, which can grow to become a big and beautiful

plant and begin to make new offshoots. The offshoots produce new offshoots and so on. This

growth can be an example of a new organization, which grows from very small to very large

organization. It can also be an example of a project that starts with an idea, which have no access

to soil, water or fertilizer, but over time it will grow big and then it will spread into many offshoots

and often it'll transform itself to a new operating unit.

Organizing with Networks, Teams, Self-organizing and Empowerment 2012

5 Author: Kaj Voetmann, www.kajvoetmann.com

Figure 4. The first offshoots Illustration: Hans Mller/mollers.dk

Figure 5 Growing up Illustration: Hans Mller/mollers.dk

The spider plant can also be an image on an early morning, when the organization actually doesn't

even exist, but then life is filling it up and it grows up until people begin to go home again.

Organizing with Networks, Teams, Self-organizing and Empowerment 2012

6 Author: Kaj Voetmann, www.kajvoetmann.com

Figure 6 Dying plant Illustration: Hans Mller/mollers.dk

The metaphor also introduces the idea that the plant and its offshoots can die or some parts can

die while others survive and thrive. It even makes it possible for an offshoot to become an

independent plant.

Figure 16. Creating new independent plants Illustration: Hans Mller/mollers.dk

Organizing with Networks, Teams, Self-organizing and Empowerment 2012

7 Author: Kaj Voetmann, www.kajvoetmann.com

UMBILICAL CORDS

To ensure that the life forces can flow back and forth between the different parts of the plant

there are strings or umbilical cords that contain several channels dealing with different life forces.

One channel contains shared mission, vision and values, which holds the business and the social

community together. Another channel contains the infrastructures and the mutual

accountabilities, which builds on the trust that is necessary when you put part of your own

destiny into the hands of other people. A third channel contains the resource flow that the

mother plant exchanges with the offshoot. A fourth channel contains the information flow

between the mother plant and the offshoot and a fifth channel distributes the contributions and

the gains developed in the life of the plant.

STRING CONVERSATIONS

In the daily life of the organization there is a need for many kinds of conversations between

people who works inside or outside the organization. These conversations take place through

physical and cordless strings between the different parts of the plant. Originally these

conversations took place by people walking around and talking to each other or writing to each

other. Today lots of this physical activity has been replaced by many kinds of conversations

carried by many different technologies. In the traditional organization distance was a great

challenge especially because of the delay created by the physical transportation between the

participants in the conversations and the hard process of writing down and decoding written

messages.

Mission, vision and values

Infrastructures and accountabilities

Resource-flow

Information-flow

Contributions and gains

Figure 7. Umbilical cord with several channels Illustration Hans Mller/mollers.dk

Organizing with Networks, Teams, Self-organizing and Empowerment 2012

8 Author: Kaj Voetmann, www.kajvoetmann.com

Figure 8. String conversations Illustration: Han