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This Month's Article

Organization or Organism?

Many social movements as well as businesses begin life as organisms and die as organizations. An organization is a static structure while an organism is living and dynamic. Organizations survive because of a set framework of rules and expectations, while organisms survive due to their ability to adapt to changing conditions.

Over the past several years we have seen corporations and institutions that have been icons of our culture die (or suffer paralysis) because they did not change soon enough to meet new realities. Their structures and paradigms fossilized and became obstacles to adapting to a changing world. Political parties and religions have similarly fallen into disrepute and incompetence when they fail to adapt to current social, political, environmental and economic needs and conditions. The very structures that supported them as they grew have become weak crutches in their old age. At the same time, they are obstructing innovation and necessary solutions.

When the anti-war movement gained in popularity and effectiveness in staging protests during the Vietnam War, the FBI was working very hard to find its central leadership. They became very frustrated that that movement didn’t appear to really have a structure or central group of directors. It was a loose confederation of many groups that communicated (before cell phones, twitter and the internet!) and supported each other. A group would call a rally and many people just showed up. It was a movement that showed its power through spontaneous action, consistent with the logic of their anti-war appeal: “What if they gave a war and nobody came?” The organization of the movement was organic — people just did the jobs that needed to be done according to their interests, abilities and acceptable level of risk. Everyone found his or her place. When the war was over most of the anti-war groups just disappeared.

Today we are engaged in a different kind of war — a war of planetary survival. The psychology of this war is characterized by the slogan, “Think globally and act locally.” There are an abundance of groups working for ecological sanity and sustainability. They are united by a common vision of a healthy and secure way of life for the planet and the human race. At this point the movement is very creative and organic, made of small groups of visionaries who are striving to solve our common problems within their communities and within the limits of available resources. When people act as an organism they do a job with little ego or selfish interest, since the life of the greater organism is paramount to their motivation.

The organizations that grow out of this organism are for managing human and material resources, and for developing strategies to work together to accomplish their respective roles, their piece of the puzzle, within the body of the big picture. When a movement is an organism, each organ or organization must be dynamic and adaptable to the changing conditions on the ground. The new “soldiers” are self-motivated, flexible and problem solvers. They are open to new approaches and are team players. They are not afraid of taking risks and are willing to learn from their mistakes.

The new and successful organizations take their managerial style from this model of a living organism. They succeed because of their relevance to the needs of the time. Such management is pro-active because their vision relates to promoting the well-being of the greater whole. This describes their reason for existence, and their willingness to continue to adapt and improve. If any organization could answer “NO” to the question, “Is the world better off because we exist?” then it is not an organism that the life of the greater organism needs. A civilization made of groups that have the qualities of a healthy organism is urgently needed to heal our social and environmental illnesses, and to prepare us to meet the needs of the future.

© 2010 Richard V. Sidy

 

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