The Need for Disorganizing.
“In the ultimate test, the only reality to be trusted, that which shelters decision – making with sensitivity and compassion so that one sees and feels what fits the situation, is the prompt of the human spirit – from the heart.”
Robert Greenleaf included this line near the closing of a speech he gave for a convocation address for a university that was included in the book “Servant Leadership – A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power & Greatness.” The speech titled “Servant Responsibility in a Bureaucratic Society” discusses how individuals can thrive in what has become a bureaucratic society. Greenleaf was aware that the creative power of the human spirit becomes stifled when we become too organized, too bureaucratic, and too hierarchical.
The Alcoholic Anonymous Ninth Tradition is the basis for one way to ensure that guidance from the heart flows through a group, yet allows for the formation of specialized gatherings to ensure service is accomplished.
Tradition Nine: The group as such, ought never be organized: but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
This is the tradition that takes on the rules and regulations of organization that place the power of control into the hands of a few and empowers the group to accomplish great things. This does not mean there is no guidance or order that guides the group. The Traditions are examples of guidelines that encourage meaningful creation to occur. The founders of A.A. wrote in their clarification of this Tradition in the book “The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions” that “It is clear now that we ought never to name boards to govern us, but it is equally clear that we shall always need to authorize workers to serve us.”
So how do we begin the disorganization?
Links to the other posts in this series follow.
Tradition One.
Tradition Two.
Tradition Three.
Tradition Four.
Tradition Five.
Tradition Six.
Tradition Seven.
Tradition Eight.
Robert Greenleaf included this line near the closing of a speech he gave for a convocation address for a university that was included in the book “Servant Leadership – A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power & Greatness.” The speech titled “Servant Responsibility in a Bureaucratic Society” discusses how individuals can thrive in what has become a bureaucratic society. Greenleaf was aware that the creative power of the human spirit becomes stifled when we become too organized, too bureaucratic, and too hierarchical.
The Alcoholic Anonymous Ninth Tradition is the basis for one way to ensure that guidance from the heart flows through a group, yet allows for the formation of specialized gatherings to ensure service is accomplished.
Tradition Nine: The group as such, ought never be organized: but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
This is the tradition that takes on the rules and regulations of organization that place the power of control into the hands of a few and empowers the group to accomplish great things. This does not mean there is no guidance or order that guides the group. The Traditions are examples of guidelines that encourage meaningful creation to occur. The founders of A.A. wrote in their clarification of this Tradition in the book “The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions” that “It is clear now that we ought never to name boards to govern us, but it is equally clear that we shall always need to authorize workers to serve us.”
So how do we begin the disorganization?
Links to the other posts in this series follow.
Tradition One.
Tradition Two.
Tradition Three.
Tradition Four.
Tradition Five.
Tradition Six.
Tradition Seven.
Tradition Eight.
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