In no particular order: Being part of the community feels even better than being part of your smaller self-organizing groups You notice that there is no end to the community Community purpose has become your individual and group purpose You experience remarkable difference within the community—many people who look, think, and act nothing like you—yet you feel completely safe within the community You recognize yourself … [Read More]
I’d like your help defining what self-organizing community means. What does this mean to you, based on your own experience and imagination? Drop me an email (lori@collectiveself.com), or a comment here, or an idea on twitter or facebook, or if you’re close by, let’s go to coffee to talk about it. My deepest thanks in advance.
Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays are the three days each week that I consciously prioritize my family, my close friends, and my individual well-being over my work as a self-organizing groups researcher. I minimize my connection with the broader world on these three days each week—don’t use the internet (unless in service of my family, such as finding the perfect recipe for chocolate cake) and don’t … [Read More]
This week I had lunch with a friend who I worked with at Microsoft almost a decade ago. She’s an amazing person—a dedicated employee, wife, mother, and daughter. And, like many people I know, she’s also frustrated, extraordinarily busy, and tired just trying to keep up. As our lunch drew to an end, she floored me by saying: “Lori, you don’t just have work/life balance, … [Read More]
Continuing from How do self-organizing groups make decisions? (1 of 2) … Short answer: These groups don’t make decisions. They find decisions, together, the instant that group members recognize and embrace their collective self. Long answer: Self-aware self-organizing groups don’t make decisions or design and plan things in the traditional sense. Within these groups, individuals become so close that together—as a collective self—they become able … [Read More]
Well, my Steelers lost. Sigh. Continuing from Sustaining a self-organizing group for 20+years (1 of 3) From my perspective, this 20-year long, 100+ member group appears to sustain itself because the group is contagious (in a good way). Group members themselves are drawn to it, and the group draws nearby others to it as well. Together group members: Keep learning. Within this group, members appear … [Read More]
Check out these two 3-minute videos of Seattle’s umbrella/singing-in-the-rain flash mob from this Saturday. The first video is a spontaneous performance in which group members decided to head over to a downtown shopping center and spread some holiday joy: Umbrella/Singing-in-the-rain mob. This video captures their performance in the Pioneer Square neighborhood. As you share the experience, what can you say about these people? what can you … [Read More]
In the 25 groups I’ve studied and been part of so far, here are the reasons mentioned for group formation. To: Change the way the organization plans and designs its products (working across silo’d product teams instead of within silos) Help all of our kids (those we had in common that year) to graduate by working more closely during one school year Help group members … [Read More]
Three years ago when I was asked this question for the first time, off the top of my head I said something like “That with the right group of people, I can do anything.” Luckily for me, because I’m a researcher, that impromptu comment was recorded. I got to listen to it over and over for an entire year as I sought to understand what … [Read More]
Across the differences in the self-organizing work groups I’ve studied and been part of, there are also commonalities. One apparent commonality is the internal experiences that people have (and how people feel) as they let go of these groups. Here are eight internal experiences you might have as you let go of your self-organizing work group and its work: Feeling a deep internal sense of accomplishment and pride … [Read More]
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