Category: Quotes
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A 2500-year-old perspective on rules
When the greatness of the Tao is present, action arises from one’s own heart. When the greatness of the Tao is absent, action comes from the rules of “kindness and justice.” If you need rules to be kind and just, if you act virtuous, this is a sure sign that virtue is absent. Thus we…
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A 2500-year-old perspective on leadership
With the greatest leader above them, people barely know one exists. Next comes one whom they love and praise. Next comes one whom they fear. Next comes one whom they despise and defy. When a leader trusts no one, no one trusts him. The great leader speaks little. He never speaks carelessly. He works without…
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Med holländska ögon på svensk företagskultur
I SvD 2014-11-03 jämför Callette Terhaerdt kulturskillnaderna mellan holländska och svenska företag. Det finns två stora skillnader. Holländska företag tar beslut snabbare och är mer hierarkiska än de svenska. “Holländare är öppnare, direktare, snabbare och intensivare än svenskar. Här [i Sverige] är folk mer tillbakadragna och allt tar längre tid men beslut kan å andra…
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Empowerment is a red herring
The following is a quote from Harrison Owen on the World wide Open Space Technology email list October 14, 2014. “I know we talk a lot about empowerment, but I have come to the conclusion that it is really a red herring, and most painfully so in those situations where you actually try to do…
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Pre-conditions for self-organization
The following is a quote from Harrison Owen on the World wide Open Space Technology email list October 14, 2014. I have changed the formatting. “The essential pre-conditions for self-organization are: A Real business issue (something that people really care about). High levels of complexity such that no single person or group has a prayer…
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Original wisdom
Robert Wolff has spent a lifetime with indigenous people from many parts of the world. He lived with the aboriginal Sng’oi of Malaysia during the years he spent in Malaysia as a government psychologist. He fell in love with this people and their immense inner dignity, humanity, and sense of connection to all creation. His…
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Ackoff on consensus
I have written previously here that I am convinced that sociocratic principles can be implemented in many ways. Below is an additional example from Russel L. Ackoff on the use of consensus which sounds very sociocratic to me: “Decisions made by a majority of participants usually create a dissatisfied minority.” “Decision-making by consensus avoids such…
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Beliefs influence results
Peggy Holman writes in Open Space Technology: A User’s NON-Guide, pp. 48—50, that different methods can work in a given situation but what matters most are the beliefs of the facilitator. “My belief (and I don’t have sufficient empirical evidence for it to be more than an opinion) is that while method may be one…
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Thinking like a plant
“Living thinking can vitalize every area of human engagement.” ~Craig Holdrege, Thinking Like a Plant, p. 10 Here are some brief remarks by Craig Holdrege on how we can model our thinking after living processes. See also other publications by Craig Holdrege.
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Facilitating an Open Space
Harrison Owen wrote the following on the OSLIST Email Community in April 17, 2014: “So in the peculiar situation of facilitating an Open Space: Why do we do it? Doubtless each person will have to answer that one for themselves, but I am very clear why I take on the role of facilitator. My purpose…