Vision 04… Occupy Together and Leadership

a Moment for Wisdom…

Vision

ON LEADERSHIP:

“Outstanding leaders appeal to the hearts of their followers – not their minds.” 

Unknown

“The greatest thing you can do for another is not just share your riches, but reveal to them their own.”

Benjamin Disraeli

“I cannot understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the old ones…”

Nicola Tesla

a Moment with Sharif…

Greetings;

One of the constant mantras of the “Occupy Together” (OT) phenomenon is its “leaderless” nature.  I support and applaud this… to a point.

Anyone who has come to my workshops over the past ten years knows I’ve been an advocate of “Emergence” – defined as “leaderless distributed networks of information and power”.  In an Emergence, it is the system that learns, grows and adapts… without any kind of “authority” telling the various agents what to do.When it happens, it is startling, it is beautiful, and it is POWERFUL.

So, the question of whether OT needs “leadership” is tied to the question: “Is OT an Emergence?”  The answer to that question is a firm “NOT YET”.  And, because of that, OT is in definite need of leadership.But, a very different kind of leadership than what we’ve been used to.

First: upon what do I base my “not yet” assessment?  An Emergence has five very important factors.  In an Emergence…

1.   The group has a large number of independent actors, all sharing information.

2.   There is a lack of control over any individual’s behavior.

3.   The actors share a common vision, simple values, and/or rules.

4.   The actors have largely interchangeable roles.

5.   The actors have the same goals and objectives.

OT clearly has #2 and #4.They clearly do NOT have #3 and #5.  (I’m not sure about #1…)  Without vision/ values/ goals/ objectives, OT NEEDS LEADERSHIP.A very different kind of leadership: Emergent Leadership.

We know the role of old-style leadership: tell the sheeple what to do.  Whether it’s the “boss” on the shop floor, or the old-style politician wheeling and dealing in the corridors of power, leadership equals control, and control equals power.

Not in an Emergence.Someone grabbing a bullhorn and “telling” the Occupy forces what to
do would be met with derision, silence, scorn or pity.  (Perhaps all of the above.)  OT is – and should be – allergic to “control”.

Here’s a quote from Stephen Johnson, author of the book “Emergence”:

“Without an active leader who takes responsibility for building a network, spontaneous connection between groups emerges very slowly, or not at all.”

So, what are the five key elements of Emergent Leadership? 

1.   Encourage/ stimulate lots of actors (help build critical mass).

2.   Articulate simple, consistent rules.

3.   Articulate simple, deep values and goals.

4.   Articulate simple, appropriate roles.

5.   Assume NO direct command and control.

Is there any evidence of this kind of “Emergent Leadership” happening in OT?  Well,
YES!  LOTS!  Just look for the “worker bee” spark plugs in any of the encampments.  (These are the folks with the dark circles under their eyes, from working day and night.)  They’ve got dark circles, because most of their time is spent swimming against an “anti-leadership” tide.

Leadership, Consensus, and Democracy

Let me give you one example:  while in Los Angeles, I sat in on an Assembly, for the Media committee.  It was painful to watch.  The majority of the participants were knowledgeable, intelligent, articulate, and attempting to self-discipline into a sense of order.  They really wanted to accomplish something, and had sacrificed their time and energy for “the cause”.

They were plagued by people wandering in from the edges of the group, not really part of it.  The wanderers would hear half a sentence they didn’t like, then bombard the group with their “opinion”.  The wanderers would take the group out of its focus, then wander off again.

This was amazingly frustrating for the group.  Sometimes, the wanderers would bring up points that had been settled just ten minutes earlier.  And, some of the wanderers seemed more intent on “making their point” than getting any work done.  (One didn’t even know the purpose of the meeting – but that didn’t stop him from having an opinion!)

People were leaving the group in frustration – the wrong people.  One young African-American man said to me as he was leaving, “I’ve been here for hours, and we’ve gotten nothing done.  People just keep walking up and talking!  They don’t even know what this committee is about!”

For OT to be successful, they MUST begin to rein in this kind of behavior.  There are a lot of really focused, dedicated people involved in OT.  And, there are some people who just want to hear the sounds of their own voices, people who are attention-starved, people who are not interested in participatory democracy – they are only interested in spreading their own narrow (and largely discordant) point of view.Just blurting out whatever you want, whenever you want to, is NOT democracy.

The Danger of No Vision

Trying to do direct democracy and consensus without a unifying vision is frustrating at its very best, impossible at its worst.  This is why I developed a “Catalyst Leader Training Program” over a decade ago – to educate the kinds of leaders that are needed at this time in our history.  A Catalyst-Leader is more facilitator and cheerleader than controller – a person with no ego-need to command or demand others to act.  The goal of the training program is to develop a more Taoist style of leadership, so that, when the Catalyst-Leader acts, the people say, “we did this ourselves!”

OT must let go of the “anarchist” notion of “no leadership”, to allow an Emergent “Catalyst Leadership” to develop: no attempts at “control”, but a firm hand on agreed-to processes, and a clear eye on a positive vision of a future that works for all.

Peace,

Sharif

PS:  My complete powerpoint presentation on “Emergence” is available on the Commonway website:  http://www.commonway.org/sites/default/files/powerpoint/T-S_Jan-Feb_2009_Relational_World/EmergencePowerpoint/img0.html [Note: the second slide is black… click past it.]

PPS:  A note to my committed “anarchist” friends: I really do sympathize with the sentiment of anarchy, and I believe that “Emergence” goes a long way toward creating the kind of world you envision.  However, the “leaderless distributed networks” of Emergence are NOT “anarchy” in its classical sense.  And: I sweep the political philosophy of “anarchism” into the same dustbin of history as ALL other theories developed by dead white men (capitalism, socialism, communism…).  Given the world we now inhabit, a world that our grandparents could not even IMAGINE, we can do better than the dead white guys, however well-meaning they were.  Given the problems of our time, we must.

Vision Exercises:

This week’s “Vision” exercise:

This exercise is simple: participate in the OccupyCafe”!  What is it?

OccupyCafe.org – a linked phone and online forum space for conversations among everyone “who cares about what is happening on Wall Street and around the world.”  Its phone mode uses the advanced MaestroConferencing system that enables activities like breakout groups and hand-raising.  Topic conversations begun on the phone can be continued in the online forum, and vice versa.  The first phone call is Monday morning.  (I will be one of the “animators” for the conversations.)

The “grand opening” is this Monday, 10/24 from 11am-2pm Eastern, via your phone.  Please use this link to register.
http://myaccount.maestroconference.com/conference/register/QGE64BZNGH8ITQ5Y

If you get this late, do not despair.  There’s a lot going on at http://www.OccupyCafe.org

Acknowledgments:

All photos by Sharif Abdullah, unless otherwise noted.