The Wisdom Council -  Tools of Self Organising Systems The way we design organisations is related to how we think organisations work - either consciously or unconsciously. Morgan1, in Images of Organisation, describes eight possible organisational paradigms. I would like to explore two of these in the context of self-organising; the organisation as a mechanism and the organisation as an organism. It seems to me that the image of an organisation as a mechanism dominates much of our organisational life.  With its roots in the Military, and more recently Scientific Management, this approach to organisational design produces too many demotivated and uncommitted people surviving in lifeless organisations. People don't feel a necessary part of the whole because this style of organisation sees them as replaceable elements of production. Our hierarchical and command and control structures are not producing the commitment, creativity and communication that are increasingly needed for organisations to survive. Nor are they enabling the organisational intelligence to surface so that response to challenges from the external environment utilise all the available knowledge and wisdom. But what alternatives do we have? The problems created by seeing organisations as machines have led many people to look in other directions for suitable models. Nature itself has been one source of ideas for thinking about organisations. There seems to be more power in seeing organisations as organisms or living systems, capable of self organising and existing in a wider environment on which they depend for the satisfaction of various needs. In 'A Simpler Way', Wheatley and Kellnor-Rogers ask "How could we organise human endeavour if we developed different understandings of how life organises itself?" The authors put forward some beliefs about human organisations and the world that they come from: ·       The universe is a living, creative, experimenting experience of discovering what's possible at all levels of scale, from microbe to cosmos. ·       Life's natural tendency is to organise. Life organises onto greater levels of complexity to support more diversity and greater sustainability. ·       Life organises around a self. Organising is always an act of creating an identity. ·       Life self-organises. Networks, patterns and structures emerge without external imposition or direction. Organisation wants to happen. ·       People are intelligent, creative, adaptive, self-organising and meaning-seeking. ·       Organisations are living systems. They too are intelligent, creative, adaptive, self-organising and meaning seeking. In this search for learning about how Nature organises, it is seen that the many indigenous people of the world have this information. Many would, I'm sure, recognise their world in these statements. Living close to the Earth, to nature, for hundreds and thousands of years they have developed a deep understanding of how all of life organises itself. If we are looking for practical tools to help us make the most of our organisations self-organising capability, it makes sense to explore those cultures who have developed and tested them over time. In particular I want to explore two tools from Native American Earth Wisdom Teachings and their applications in Western organisations - the Talking Stick and the Wisdom Council. The Talking Stick We have all sat in meetings where we have to fight or interrupt to get our word in. We have all experienced not listening (or being listened to) as we work out our next smart answer as a reaction to someone else's words. The use of a talking stick can improve listening and ensure that everyone's words are heard.   Any object can be used as a talking stick and its power comes from everyone agreeing to follow the protocols. Only the person holding the talking stick can talk. When they have finished and before handing it on, the speaker will say 'I have spoken' to which people respond 'ho' as a sign that your voice has been heard.  I have used a talking stick at many meetings and it is always noticeable that the quality of the conversation is so much higher as people listen more deeply to what is being said and respond from the understanding that this creates. The Wisdom Council Another approach derived from Earth Wisdom, is the Wisdom Council. Eight pairs of Chiefs, and their 'societies' of the people explore an issue or recommendation from one of eight perspective so that wholeness and balance is ensured. The Chiefs and the Eight Perspectives are:         What's Different? The Wisdom Council is more that just the eight perspectives. It is tempting for the Western mind to reduce these to a checklist and introduce them as the latest quick fix fad for business. The power of the Wisdom Council is also in the process and the principles which underpin it, including listening, respect, agreement and holding the question. Its power also comes from the opening it creates for people to bring their heart as well as their head to the issue. An enactment of the Wisdom Council will typically involve eight pairs of Chiefs (one male and one female) each pair representing their 'society'. They will have collected information from their society and the whole people and it is the recommendations based on this input which they will bring forward to the Wisdom Council. Each pair of Chiefs will bring forward their recommendations in turn, starting with the Heyoehkah Chiefs. When they have completed their report they will turn to their society, sitting behind them, to ask if everything has been covered. When used in an organisational setting, the Wisdom Council brings many benefits. Not only is an issue or recommendation explored from a much wider range of perspectives, but self interest and functional infighting are reduced or eliminated. Everyone is encouraged to think about the whole. The organisation is not reliant only on the eight pairs of Chiefs for its information. It is able to draw on the knowledge, experience and intelligence of the whole people to create the wisdom needed to improve its decision making. The Chiefs do not represent their own views but those of the people. The process encourages communication and, in particular, listening. People have been involved and have a much greater ownership of and commitment to decisions that are reached. Implementation is likely to be much more successful under these conditions. For an organism to be healthy and vibrant it must hear from all its constituent parts. A 'ground of trust' needs to be created before everyone will feel safe to contribute - from their heart as well as their head. Only when people have clarity around their purpose and direction - and ideally have co-created these - can they really identify what's needed and collaborate to achieve it. Experience with the Wisdom Council I got the opportunity to run a Wisdom Council at the AMED Conference this year (1998). As part of the Open Space thread, I offered o run a Wisdom Council during the 10.00 -12.00 session the following morning and 7 people signed up for it. Before the session I decorated the room with a brightly coloured blanket, candles and flowers in the centre of a circle of chairs. This changed the energy in the room and created a lot of interest and 17 people, around a third of all participants, turned up for the Wisdom Council. At the start of the Council we used a process called 'Stringing the Beads' - as we sit in circle, each person in turn speaks their name into the circle and says a little about what called them to this session. This is important to creating the 'ground of trust'. It is vital that an organism hears from all of its 'parts' and that everyone is valued equally and their voice is heard. We used a talking stick to ensure that every member of the circle had uninterrupted time to say what they needed. The next task was to decide on an issue to be explored. Working in small groups, each group came up with one or two issues that were important to them at that time. The highest priority was selected using a process of 'Ten Stones' where everyone had ten stones to allocate to their priorities with 4 stones cast for the highest priority, 3 for the next and so on. By this process the group selected the question "What's needed to rescue the conference".   After an explanation of the eight perspectives, participants chose the one they were drawn to and met in their 'societies' to begin work. Using pre-prepared questions to help focus on their perspective, they looked into the selected issue. Although it was a short session much wisdom still came forward when the Chiefs presented their recommendations to the Council after exploring the question 'What's needed to rescue the conference'. Here are a few examples: The Heyoehkah Chiefs, from the perspective of Freedom and Creativity recommended that the feedback of this session should not be confrontational - perhaps a sketch or a role play, something that used humour and humanity to get the concerns of the group across. The Peace Chiefs, from the perspective of Present Condition and Appreciation, reminded the Council that all conferences have their ups and downs and the present condition was normal for this stage of a conference. They recommended that scouts be sent out to see the mood of the other groups. The Woman Chiefs, from the perspective of Maintenance and Balance, considered the conference in the context of AMED's future and decided that the body is dying (not enough new members) but the spirit/vital force was well. They recommended that AMED 'find the children', the next generation so that the 'new butterfly' of AMED can emerge. After the recommendations of all the Chiefs had been heard we had a closing 'Stringing of the Beads'. There was a need for three members of the Conference Planning Group to leave right away to attend their meeting. They were unsure what the group would want them to take from this session to the next. But it was quickly agreed that, as they had heard the 'voices of the people' they were equipped to say what they felt needed to be said. Feedback from Participants Feedback was collected at the conference and afterwards using a short questionnaire. Participants said they came to the session out of "curiosity" and, in some cases, a feeling that there would be greater energy in this session than the others. They found it "enjoyable", "intriguing" and "exhilarating". Despite its Native American background, the process was considered to be "practical" and the eight perspectives contributed to a feeling that the issue had been explored at depth. There was surprise about the "formal structure and rules which provided tight framework in which to allow the imagination to expand". This is a good observation about how self-organising systems work. It is not that there are no rules - this would produce anarchy - but there are just a few basic principles from which a large number of possible outcomes can develop. It was felt that the issue that was worked was quite difficult and "had the potential to explode into something quite uncomfortable. But the process won through, took the heat away and produced a calm consensus as an outcome" There was concern about how executives would react to the Wisdom Council with "reservations about convincing hardened corporate barons to turn their offices into lodges!" But overall people saw a useful role for the Wisdom Council in organisations: "Helping people explore beyond the current horizons" Nick Allen "Wise decisions start with effective listening and countless misunderstandings indicate that listening is extremely difficult in any situation. The Wisdom Council seems powerful, practical and profound method of ensuring that the often unheard talent in a room is given the air to enable well-considered, balanced outcomes to emerge." Terry Gibson "Its an interesting way of looking at complex decisions and probably helps to reduce some of the confusion and tensions around issues that generate quite a bit of heat. A lot depends though on who leads the Wisdom Council and what they bring" Andy  Leigh "It was amazing how an analysis and a possible solution emerged so easily and quickly. The strength of this method for organisations is that there are a number of perspectives which can be considered and combined" Sandra Clyne An International Perspective Ehama Institute, an American not-for-profit organisation, is pioneering the use of the Wisdom Council and Earth Wisdom Teachings, around the world in businesses and communities. In the US, Lucent Technologies, US Airforce, Honeywell, Hewlett  Packard and the World Business Academy are amongst many who have used the Wisdom Council to improve decision making in their organisations. Lucent Technologies brought 460 of their Marketing people to Miami at the beginning of April 1997 for a Wisdom Council sitting, which included the entire management, during which corporate targets were decided and team building developed. "Most of the people learned to listen and ask questions instead of approaching a problem with a prepared answer", says Kathleen Baier, Quality Manager of the $23 billion multi-national. An independent questionnaire by the University of Massachusetts found that the staff thought the experience was challenging and that it released energy that improved relationships and communication. In the UK it is early days. However we have one organisation that is considering piloting the Wisdom Council as a way of creating cross-function groups or 'societies' to look into organisational wide issues, for example the introduction of 360o Feedback. References 1. Morgan, G. Images of Organisation, Sage Publications Inc., Thousand Oaks, 1986 2. Wheatley, MJ and Kellner-Rogers, M, A Simpler Way, Berrett Koehler, San Francisco, 1996 Accepted for publication by AMED (Association for Management Education and Development) for the February 1999 issue of Organisation and People magazine. Top © The Wisdom Meme 2007