La prochaine révolution?

« It is a recognition that the vast majority of actual work that gets done in organizations, the vast majority of value actually created, is the result of bottom-up decisions, workarounds and changes (often hidden from management for fear of retribution for violating official policies) made by the thousands of individual workers on the front lines. Those of us who have worked with large organizations recognize that they are substantially incapable of innovation, and that they drive their mavericks, bright thinkers, and imaginative people out, while absurdly over-rewarding (and over-punishing when things go badly) their senior executives. The potential 'facilitated re-democratization' of previously hierarchical organizations could reverse this brain drain and reverse their creative stagnation, to staggering effect.

« [...] As our world enters a period of unprecedented challenges and uncertainties, the success of these people to spread this new way of learning, decision-making and acting could well be pivotal to our economy's and our civilization's ability to cope, improvise and perhaps even survive. (...) The world needs these revolutionary facilitators, these artful hosts, and thousands, millions more like them, self-organizing, connecting, smashing learned helplessness, corpocracy, hierarchy, bureaucracy, and inertia.

« While this list is probably incomplete, here are the qualities and capacities I recognized in these amazing people:

• a thirst for truth, and an insistence on speaking the truth and being honest to a fault
• extraordinary perceptiveness, attentiveness, and presence
• intellectual and emotional sensitivity
• an almost erotic level of passion and energy
• total dedication to their chosen practices, pursued as lifelong practices, through which they seek only to get better (i.e. no expectation of mastery)
• great instincts
• wonderful improvisational skills
• a love of aesthetics, and not inconsiderable artistic and creative talent (my sketchbook yesterday was my struggle to keep up, as they all seem to be able to draw brilliantly)
• a high level of self-confidence, but never arrogance (in fact, humility)
• a desire to be of use and service to others, and the courage to do that anytime, anywhere (though when I asked them they said it was the only thing they could conceive of doing that would have meaning for them, so it wasn't courageous at all)
• exceptional communication skills -- oral, written, and non-verbal
• delightful imaginations
• great trust and respect for each other and for others who are, like them, dedicated to unselfish pursuits
• an aversion to power, and the use of power, and aversion to hierarchy and the cult of leadership
• great intelligence, knowledge and curiosity
• a subtle and gentle sense of humour, sometimes self-deprecating, never cruel or demeaning of others »
  

Dave Pollard