Here are a few self-organizing groups I’m learning with/from this week… 1. A touching and cute self-organizing group (love the response of all the different adults in the video): 2. A brave self-organizing group within my neighborhood: The Mitchells trying to save their already paid-off home from foreclosure the end of October 3. A very visible collection of self-organizing groups right now. There are tons of … [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.
You asked me “Also, have you seen “evil” self-organizing groups?” From my perspective, evil is a word that belongs in the hands of someone far, far wiser than me. I’m not qualified to use it to describe living beings. No living being I personally know fits that description. Self-org groups have taught me that it’s pointless to negatively judge distant others, because I’ll never have the full story. Today, for me, evil self-organizing groups don’t exist, because for me self-organizing groups are self-aware groups of people surprised and delighted by what they become and do together. For me, these groups are an “us” that we’re only just beginning to recognize.
Hi Cathy, I just got back from a 4-day, technology-free vacation at the Sleeping Lady Lodge near Leavenworth with the women of my book club. Nice to get away with girlfriends! Thank you for asking these four questions and prompting me to reflect on our time together at lunch last week. My own self-organizing groups always do this for me (and always ask the best … [Read More]
Hey Doug, thanks for asking me to get more clear on this subject! I’ve only recently started thinking about this idea, which is why I am fuzzy speaking about it. What I believe I see so far has to do with perceived location of the self. That is, in the moments in which I/we think: “individual self” I am capable of leading my individual self … [Read More]
This was my official schedule yesterday: Take a bus, then ferry, to Bainbridge Island to spend the bulk of the day brainstorming ideas with one of my own favorite self-organizing groups (my friend Doug and I, a forming consulting group) Have dinner with another favorite self-organizing group (my husband and I) Spend three evening hours in the park near my house rehearsing dance moves with … [Read More]
Self-organizing groups are—themselves—leaders. They are different—new to many of us—and the people within them, and close to them, notice. One difference is that everybody within the group is a leader and a follower. Also, many nearby others and observers of the group are also leaders—especially those who decide to slow down and pay attention to the group because they notice that it’s different. Certainly those … [Read More]
Last week I spoke to three groups at the International Society for Performance Improvement annual conference about how to rapidly foster self-organizing work groups. First attendees identified their own self-organizing groups by writing down the names of people and groups who came immediately to mind for them in response to the following statements: I get more from the group’s spontaneity than I do from my … [Read More]
If a visitor from another galaxy landed on planet earth today—watched our news programs to learn about us and conducted an objective examination of the overall health of human institutions and state of our oceans, air, and planet from the outside—what would they say about us as human beings? There’s overwhelming evidence that we humans are arrogant, self-centered, and dangerous to ourselves and the planet … [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]
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