Organizing retrospective 108

This is a post in my series on organizing ”between and beyond.” Other posts are here. This is a retrospective of what has happened during the week. The purpose is to reflect on the work itself. Here is my previous retrospective.

What has happened? What needs to be done?
This week, I’ve continued to post (almost) daily reflections about generative organizing:

• • Monday — Wu-wei is a way to access a deeper generative order for organizing.
    Inspiration: Managing as a Performing Art by Peter B. Vaill.
  • Wednesday — It seems likely that generative organizing requires a psychologically safe workplace.
    Inspiration: Daniel Mezick (@DanielMezick).
  • Thursday — In generative organizing, we have to agree to speak in our true voice from our own naturaleness.
    Inspiration: Leo Zeff and Bill Plotkin.
  • Friday — To enable generative organizing, the ruler does nothing and give people rest.
    Inspiration: Tao: The Watercourse Way by Alan Watts with Al Chung-liang Huang.
  • Saturday —
    Inspiration: The Biology of Wonder by Andreas Weber and Experiencing and the Creation of Meaning by Eugene Gendlin.
  • Sunday — Generative organizing, is ultimately a question of values. The most valuable value is intrinsic value. Disvalue posing as value is non-generative—it’s a perversion of value. It is worse than straightforward disvaluation.
    Inspiration: The Biology of Wonder by Andreas Weber and The Structure of Value by Robert Hartman.

This week, I finished reading:

• • Managing as a Performing Art by Peter B. Vaill. Although written thirty years ago, this is an excellent book, so I will definitely publish a book review. Peter B. Vaill is a most interesting author. He makes, for example, an interesting comparison between Western vs. Taoist management. This is where I found the reference to the next book.
  • Tao: The Watercourse Way by Alan Watts with Al Chung-liang Huang. This book was first published more than fourty years ago, but is also most interesting. I will look more into Taoist management and leadership.
  • The Secret Chief Revealed: Conversations with Leo Zeff, pioneer in the underground psychedelic therapy movement by Myron J. Stolaroff. This book contains a transcription of an interview with Leo Zeff. There are some interesting observations (see this reflection), but I think Michael Pollan’s How to Change Your Mind: The New Science of Psychedelics is a much better book!
  • Matter and Desire: An Erotic Ecology by Andreas Weber. This is a book which Emma Taylor‘s (@generativeOD) recommended a month ago. (Yes, Emma, this is a real joy of a book!)

This week, I started reading:

• Learning as a Way of Being: Strategies for Survival in a World of Permanent White Water by Peter B. Vaill. Again, Peter B. Vaill is a most interesting author!
• The Biology of Wonder: Aliveness, Feeling and the Metamorphosis of Science by Andreas Weber. Andreas Weber is a most interesting thinker too!
• Emotional Anatomy by Stanley Keleman. This is a book recommended by Skye Hirst (@autognomics). It reads like poetry and has fantastic illustrations!

What was good? What can be improved?
Reading Andreas Weber, I became very impressed by his English (since he is German) until I realized that his books are translations. This is my own challenge. I need to spend more time on my own writing—writing in my own true voice—but I need to do this in Swedish, which is my native language.

Related posts:
Organizing in between and beyond posts