by Flemming Funch
I'm very interested in emerging order in human systems. Meaning, self-organization amongst humans. Or, how a bunch of people might get something useful done, voluntarily, without being forced to do so. I'm most particularly interested in what might emerge amongst people of good will who are fully aware that they're free to make their own choices, and who live within a system that ensures that it remains like that.
History has shown that humans can do a lot of things by being organized. But most organization has so far evolved around the idea of getting a lot of people to do the will of one. Maybe the one is a handful of people, like a board of directors, or a family, or a government, but the principle is the same. Persuade or coerce or bribe or charm a lot of people into acting in a hierarchy as extensions to the will of its rulers.
That's not necessarily a bad thing, if those in charge are fairly wise and benign. And, certainly, it will allow great manpower to be used in a very focused manner. Bridges and dams can be built, national standards can be agreed upon, etc.
But such hierarchical arrangements don't really tap the aggregate intelligence of those who participate in them. The majority of people aren't really doing what they're inspired to do, or what they would like to do, or what they know would be better to do. They do mostly what they have to do, or what they can get away with, in order to receive the payment they've been promised, or to avoid the punishment they would get if they didn't do it. A fairly small percentage of the people in most organizations are highly inspired and working with their own purposes in alignment with the purposes of the organization.
Imagine for a moment that MOST people would be working on exactly what they're called to do, being highly inspired and motivated, using their skills and their wisdom to the fullest, and doing so together with the people they're most aligned with, together creating synergies way beyond what any of them individually could accomplish. Imagine these people choosing this FREELY, following their passions and their excitement, living their dream, doing what is most meaningful and fulfilling to them, and joyfully discovering that there are others who are doing the same, whose activities dovetail remarkably with their own.
It is probably obvious that we can't *force* that to happen. We can maybe create an environment or a social order or a set of principles or an economic arrangement, or all of those, that might make it more likely to happen more often.
It is also quite clear that it won't automatically happen just by removing all rules and announcing that people are free to do what they want.
I don't know what it is that will make it happen. I can guess at some of the components, but I don't know the triggers.
Freedom of movement and great creative diversity is probably required. Like the evolutionary intelligence of nature. Lots of parallel experiments going in many different directions, and the free range of movement to allow those things that work to flourish and those things that don't work to fade away.
The basic environment might look chaotic and its rules might be so open ended that they sound meaningless. Anything goes. Do what you're inspired to do.
But the point is not the chaos. It is not the end point. Maybe the starting point. A nurturing creative chaos that anything can emerge from.
In our current human minds we might think of chaos as just a random mess. But that's rarely what it is. In nature chaos is often just complex phenomena that we don't understand. We then think we understand them once they change state and turn into something simple. But we failed to see the emergent pattern in the chaos.
It might be like a chemical solution where various elements are mixed together in a liquid. One moment it might just be a twirling milky mess, but if we drop just one drop of the right kind of catalyst into it - bing - the whole thing crystalizes into obviously very aligned and organized forms.
As to human systems - groups of people - I'm very curious about how that might happen.
For a group of people to get anything done, they must be aligned somehow. They must arrange themselves so that synergy takes place. If they mostly bump into each other, and only cooperate on some points, they might still get something done, but not a lot. Most companies work well enough to create a profit for their shareholders and a living for their employees, even if the majority of the people are sitting dozing off at the desks and thinking about lunch.
But what if a group of people were aligned as laser light is aligned. Coherency. Instead of just bouncing around and bumping into each other, the photons all go in the same direction. Suddenly it is a hugely different phenomenon.
The thing I'm interested in with people is what is possible when it is voluntary, and when alignment and coherency is found to actually exist, and not just faked or forced.
I'm interested in *discovering* the order that might emerge in a group of people. That's an important distinction. Not what I might think up that I can persuade a bunch of people to go along with. Rather, noticing a potential that is emerging within a group. Nurturing it, allowing it to emerge, celebrating it, riding its wave.
Does that make sense? I want to see the self-organizing coherent order that might emerge. As opposed to somebody trying to force the order, by making up their mind in advance about what it is "supposed" to be and persuading others to carry it out.
The reason I'd like to see that is because I think it is thousands of times more powerful than any hierarchy that is built out of manipulation and coercion and propaganda.
To me it is the difference between whether it happens in the real world or just in somebody's head. The old way is that a few people make a plan and then persuade many people to act as if they agreed with it, even if they didn't. Its a "supposed-to" kind of organization. A lot of things need to be glossed over to make it look like it fits.
The alignments I find exciting are those that happen in the real world. I.e. where things actually are aligned, where the pieces actually fit together, and they obviously work better that way. I.e. people loving what they're doing and having great results together, without needing any guards at the door, or any prospects of unemployment.
So, I'm very supportive of Open Space and creative diversity. I will protest whenever anybody tries to monopolize an open space or tries to enforce the way they in particular think things are *supposed* to be. But I'd LOVE to find out what the whole group is about, what hidden magic is about to emerge. And if everybody finds out that they're all aligned, that would be absolutely fabulous. And if various pockets of people find that they're aligned and that they can take action together, that is fabulous too.
So, NO to coerced conformist order, and YES to free emerging order. The former spells violence, the latter spells peace.
But we aren't there yet. We haven't learned to find and trust the way nature works within ourselves. So most structures that appear to be sort of working now are of the hierarchical kind, and the open space kind of structures are mostly looking sort of chaotic. I think the perceptions will change. The Internet is our greatest example of voluntary self-organization, and we're only just beginning to imagine what might be next.
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