Lessons in Self Organizing Social Systems

Last week, I had a chance to reflect on eleven years of the Retrospective Facilitators Gathering.

A bit of background on RFG: I started the Gathering in 2002 with Diana Larsen and Norm Kerth.  Each year, the different set of volunteers organize the Gathering.  Continuity comes from linking the immediate past organizer, the current year organizer, and the next year organizer as part of the organizing group.  Most years that’s worked reasonably well.

We’ve used light weight planning and a market place for sessions from the start. But over the years, I and other organizers learned more about self-organizing systems.  We lightened our planning even more. We planed the parts that need planning– the venue, and supplies, for example. Those aspects that don’t need close planning emerge organically.  But what emerges depends on setting the initial conditions, and attending to containers, differences and exchanges.

Based on a decade of experiments and experience, some considerations for setting the conditions for self-organizing social systems.

1. Initial conditions shape interactions for the life of the group.  Small actions can have a big effect, particularly those that amplify the sorts of differences that create division.

2. When structures and espoused values contradict each other, people sense the incongruity–and respond, often in incongruent ways.

3. The more people in implied (“organizers”) leadership positions take responsibility for the decisions and welfare of the group, the less responsibility the group will take for their own decisions and welfare.

As you think about the teams and groups that you work with, how do these factors show up?  How might you apply them now?

Republished with permission