Autonomy.

Robert Greenleaf concluded his essay “Servant Leadership in Churches” with some thoughts on the power that autonomous people have in our organizations.

“While I would like to see more non-servants converted to servanthood, my greater hope is that more of those who are natural servants, who get joy out of serving, will become aggressive builders of serving institutions. Within these institutions the opportunity may seem larger for those in higher status positions, but as more and more people, regardless of their status, are asserting their autonomy and articulating their beliefs, literally everyone who is inside and who has some force as a person can be an institution builder.”

It is this ability to be self-governing, to be autonomous that is the topic of the next Tradition I would like to write about.

Tradition Four: Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or the organization as a whole.

For individuals to achieve autonomy, the groups to which they belong must also be autonomous. Real change in organizations occurs because of the autonomy that is the source of creativity. Restrictions, rules, dictations, and governance from outside the organization restrict this creativity. As Greenleaf indicated, this autonomy empowers the individuals that make up a group to speak their mind and participate in the creative process. This is the tradition that grants freedom of choice to the groups to meet their own needs.

This tradition also links back to the first tradition in that the only time group autonomy is overruled is when the common welfare that guides the organization is threatened. There needs to be clarity about why the group has come together and what it is the group hopes to accomplish.

So how do we encourage autonomy in our organizations?