Power and Hierarchy in Mindfulness for Change

There's a quote something like: "the closest we can get to no heirarchy is a self-dismantling heirarchy"
Can this be our core principle?
Seems important for anyone in community to be able and free to call out misuse or 'imbalance' of power - how do we create channels/empower EVERYONE to do this? Theatresport roleplay games?

Thanks for raising this @petejakey! I like the notion of explicitly valuing self-dismantling hierarchy, and think its essential that people should be able and encouraged to call out the misuse of power. I was also struck by something Andrew Morrison said to me along the lines of "the centre of the wheel should be empty". I like that idea. My hope is that the principles/DNA of MfC that we're working on will establish a prototype for how the centre can be held with decreasing reliance on "people who have been around longer/doing more and have more context for what's going on".

I find the distinction between actualising hierarchies and dominator hierarchies to be a useful one. I think this is Fredrick Laloux's distinction originally. He's basically saying that actualising hierarchies are natural and useful - for example, I wouldn't want someone who has no mechanical skills to be equal in the hierarchy to a fifteen-year experienced mechanic in the company I was entrusting with repairing my car. Having power over someone else from a title rather than from skill/usefulness is where the potential for harm comes in hierarchy, I think is his gist.

I think in MfC we could develop a mindful relationship to roles and skills, whereby people are fully committed in the present moment to carrying out the task they're responsible for, but not attached to the task and act as kaitiaki or stewards of the task rather than owners of the "job title". I'd also add consent into the mix here - think its important that for decisions, the people who are affected by the decisions are consulted and have the opportunity to give consent. These considerations are being worked into the list of "MfC principles" that are being developed out of the purpose work we did in Hui #2.

If power is a concept we hold in our minds we are equally powerful

Hierarchy that is inclusive caring and wise can liberate and not entrap us all in roles and responsibilities

This is a great question @petejakey what kind of channel were you thinking of - did you have an idea for how this might work? I'd be interested in discussing that further.

I like what you say here Nick @nicklaurence about Laloux's distinction - as I have seen that happen in MfC - maybe in a slightly different way where the people doing the work are setting a direction and that seems fair enough to me but maybe there is a grey area there? I remember Caroline was speaking about those in the margins of MfC - for example those from the first hui who didn't come back to the second and that it was a good idea to get some feedback from them, I don't know if anything came of that? @carolinetaylor Do you know Caroline? I look forward to seeing how we develop MfC principles develop - is there a working group for that? It's been interesting to be a part of working on the Mediation and Conflict Resolution document with others from Enspiral and suggest that we might have something like that. I also think it would be great to have a way to hear all of our voices - though maybe easier said than done.

Yeah, we are setting a direction (although I see it as more of a "context" than a "direction") as a shared-holders group, although have always been mindful to seek consent and include the community in the creation of that context. Have had the intention to be doing work on behalf of the community, and really hope that anyone from the community who disagrees with something we do feels that they can voice that disagreement.

Re the margins comment, the shared-holder group have been doing interviews over the past month or so, and heard some voices from the margins, and have prepared a bunch of questions that will be shared at Hui #3 to invite more people from the margins involved in co-creating MfC. There's no working group on the principles at the moment, it's something we intend to prototype with the community at large at Hui #3 and it may be that a working group could carry it from Hui #3 onwards.

We've also discussed how our intention at the moment is for the shared-holder group to do itself out of a job over time, so that the centre will be empty. Once the basic infrastructure has been set up, any further work on the "commons" (tangible and intangible resources common to everyone in the MfC network) will most probably be done by working groups. That's the intention at the moment - will be updating people on this at Hui #3 - and as always, it's a prototype that is subject to change.

Hi Nick @nicklaurence nice to hear from you and thanks for that - great to get a sense of what is happening in this area!

Love that this has become a discussion and love what I'm reading!

I think the key is empowering everyone to feel that at all times they can question anything, influence anything, create anything, and dissent to anything people put out there. That way, any organic leadership that arises will be questioned and decisions will be developed for the interest of MfC and wider communities. Hopefully people will free to step up and take the lead on something that they are knowledgeable about or feel called to. Hierarchies could exist in a way that is organic, changing, and flowing with the energies affecting the system. This will help us persevere within within the changing and impermanent global system.

I think it's important that some people fall into the role of holding space for the community, but their aim is to say as little as possible and generally speak up when complex issues arise that could negatively affect the community, i.e., conflict.

Differences in quantity and type of power and influence seem to form naturally, and I don't think it's valuable to try to get rid of them. But they can be made explicit. What if there was an exercise where everyone was asked to make some kind of honest statement about their perception of who has power. Even rank people according to how much they perceive them to be the people who are influencing decisions or something like that. Something that says 'who cares how awkward it is, lets make everything visible'.

That makes an objective view much easier to see and discuss. Then people might say, you know what, that person is influencing and goddam I like it.

Or not!