Participatory Leadership | Models
Working with Vision and Purpose, Chaordic Path, Chaordic Stepping Stones, Convergence-
Divergence, 5 Breaths of Design, Organizational Paradigms, Taking Social Innovation to
Scale
 WORKING WITH VISION AND PURPOSE

VISION - Where do we want to go?

Definition:

The act or power of seeing

A vision statement is sometimes called a picture of your organisation in the future but it’s so
much more than that.
Your vision statement is your inspiration, the framework for all your strategic planning.
A vision statement may apply to an entire company or to a single division of that company.
Whether for all or part of an organisation, the vision statement answers the question, “Where
do we want to go?”
What you are doing when creating a vision statement is articulating your dreams and hopes
for your business.
It reminds you of what you are trying to build.

”It is not what the vision is it is what it does that is important

- Peter Senge

THE PURPOSE OF PURPOSE - Why we are all here collectively?

Discovering purpose is to discover why something exists. Often we hurry to get into action,
before we properly understand why we need to take action. Gaining clarity on purpose, and
especially gaining collective clarity is setting the right course for taking action. A purpose,
therefore, becomes a navigational tool like a compass as it helps us to discover the direction
of travel for our efforts so they can be of service.
Purpose can also been described as ‘the glue’ that brings people’s contribution and efforts
together. This is because it defines why we are working towards something and why it is
worth working on this together. In fact, purpose becomes an invisible leader as it both
connects different actions taken and supports everyone to know why their contribution is
valuable.

Collective clarity of purpose is the invisible leader

Purpose to be a useful navigational tool in seeking the way forward contains three elements:

Higher Intent – why action is needed for the greater good in service of life, e.g. “We are not
forming coalitions of states, we are uniting men” - Jean Monnet

Statement of Purpose – what effort is needed here and what is being pursued so that
direction of action can be set, (does not define the destination, instead it invites and inspires
others to participate with clarity
Intention – The will to be in pursuit of grounding the higher intent through the actions we
take regardless of the challenges that might arise

When these three elements are aligned and collectively understood – the greater good of
why we need to take action, the clarity of what we are pursuing in order to ground the higher
intent and the will to do this regardless of the conditions – then purpose becomes a powerful
attractor that allows people to put their individual efforts to work together on making a
difference for all.

In an organisation or a community, many purposes co-exist, and often not enough effort is
given to interconnect these purposes so that it can often feel that different and conflicting
purposes are at play. It is therefore important to remember that different purposes are at play,
for example:
- the purpose of the stakeholders that the organisation serves
- the purpose of the whole community / organisation
- the purpose of the core group
- the purpose of each member of the core team

In the light of this, the following questions may inspire your collective inquiry into your shared
purpose:
- What is our collective purpose?
- What is the purpose of our function, team, project?
- How does my purpose and the purpose we are all here to accomplish align?
- What is the purpose that is at the heart of this work and that will align us all to accomplish
it?

Putting effort, therefore in gaining clarity and specifically collective clarity on purpose is a key
strategic action that if overlooked, usually ends up with entanglements, confusion and even
conflicts instead of achieving outcomes that make a difference. Seeking purpose is not
something to be done once, either. As action is taken and more is discovered as a result,
coming back to check in with purpose – are we still on course or do we have a new one
arising is a wise thing to do.

A Statement of Purpose defines,

with absolute clarity and deep conviction,
the purpose of the community.
An effective statement of purpose will be a clear, commonly understood statement of that
which identifies and binds the community together
as worthy of pursuit.

When properly done

it can usually be expressed in a single sentence.

Participants will say about the purpose,

If we could achieve that, my life would have meaning.

- Dee Hock
 The Challenge of Walking The Chaordic Path

There is a path to take between Chaos and Order that leads us to the new - to collective learning
and real-time innovation. Instead of relying on controlling every detail in our organisations or
communities from the top down, many leaders today see the need to access the collective
intelligence and collective wisdom of everyone.

We are beginning to understand and treat organisations and communities more like living systems
than static machines. After all, the chaordic path is the story of our natural world – form arises out of
nonlinear, complex, diverse systems. New levels of order become possible out of chaos.

This “chaordic confidence” – the capacity we need to stay in the dance of order and chaos –
supports a generative emergence that allows the new, collective intelligence and wise action to
occur. In this space of emergence, we leave our collective encounters with something that not one
of us individually brought into the room. This requires us to stay in a transformative shift, though we
may want to veer toward either chaos or order.

And in fact, we will move between chaos and order – this is the generative dance, an oscillation
often seen in the natural world. A balance between two seeming polarities, which instead
complement each other.

As we tread the line between chaos and order, individually and collectively, we move through
confusion and conflict toward clarity. We are all called to walk this path without judgment – some will
feel more comfortable with chaos, others with order. Both are needed as, together, we walk the edge
between these two toward something wholly new.

On the far side of chaos is chamos – despair. On the far side of order is control. When we move
toward either of these extremes, the result is apathy or rebellion - the very opposite of chaordic
confidence, where the new cannot be born.

So, the question becomes – How much order do we need? How much chaos would be helpful here?
There is a path toward common ground, co-creation, and wise and strategic action. There is a
“sweet spot” of emergence with tangible results. We call it the Chaordic journey....a path less
travelled.
 The Chaordic Stepping Stones

When there is a call, and we have

understood the need to work in the chaordic
space of generative emergence, it helps to
have a tool to plan our work together. Over
the years many of us have worked with clear
strategic steps we take when walking the
Chaordic path. We call these the chaordic
stepping stones. These steps allow us to
create conversational processes that are
rooted in real need that are sustainable for
the community they serve and the people
working within them. These steps can be
used both as a planning tool and to help
understand what you are discovering about
an organization, community or initiative.
They are all interdependent, although in
working with these as a planning tool, it is most common to begin with need.

Desiging meetings and processes

In designing a meeting or a process, each of these stepping stones is activated by asking key
questions. In beginning to design work together we can select from these questions (or create
others) to help us explore each stone as we lay it in place.

Need
The need is the compelling reason for doing anything. Sensing the need is the first step to
designing a meeting, organizational structure or change initiative that is relevant. The need is
outside of our work: it is the thing that is served by the work you are doing.

• What time is it in the world now ?

• What time is it for our initiative now ?
• What are the challenges and opportunities we are facing ?
• What do I really need to be able to understand and work on in the world?
• What is the need that this project can uniquely meet?
• What does the world need this conference to be?

Purpose
From the need flows the purpose. Purpose statements are clear and compelling and the guide us
in doing our best possible work.

• If this work should live up to its fullest potential, what do you dream (or vision) is possible?
• What is the purpose we can adopt that will best meet the need?
• What could this work do/create/inspire?
• What is the next level for the for our work? Where should we be heading?
• What is the simplest and most powerful question we could keep at the core of our work?
Principles
Principles of cooperation help us to know how we will work together. It is very important that these
principles be simple, co-owned and well understood. These are not principles that are platitudes or
that lie on a page somewhere. They are crisp statements of how we agree to operate together so
that over the long term we can sustain the relationships that make this work possible.

• What are the principles we want to enact at for our learning networks?
• What is it important to remember about how we want to work with the participants in our
initiative?
• What do we think is most important to remember as we design to meet the need and
purpose?
• What unique ways of doing work and being together can we bring to this work.
• If our team should live up to its fullest potential - what do you dream (or vision) possible
for this team?

People
Once the need and the purpose are in the place and we have agreed on our principles of co-
operation, we can begin to identify the people that are involved in our work. Mapping the network
helps us to see who is in this work for us and who will have an interest in what we are doing.

• Who is in the room?

• Who is not in the room and how do we bring them in?
• How do we leverage relationships to propagate the ideas generated by our work
together?
• Who will be interested in the results of our work?

Concept
As we move to a more concrete idea of what our structures are, we begin to explore the concepts
that will be useful. This is a high level look at the shape of our endeavour. For example, if our need
was to design a way to cross a body of water, we could choose a bridge, a causeway or a ferry.
The concept is important, because it gives form to very different structures for doing our work. In
our work together we might explore here the different kinds of structures including circles and
networks and really understand what these are, how the operate, how they are embedded with
various contexts and cultures and what implications each has for our work.

• What are the shapes that we might choose for our work?
• What is the deeper pattern of our work and what organizational forms are in alignment
with that?
• How might we activate our principles to best do our work?

Limiting beliefs
So much of what we do when we organize ourselves is based on unquestioned models of
behaviour. These patterns can be helpful but they can also limit us in fulfilling our true potential. We
cannot create innovation in the world using old models and approaches. It pays to examine ways in
which we assume work gets done in order to discover the new ways that might serve work with new
results. Engaging in this work together brings us into a co-creative working relationship, where we
can help each other into new and powerful ways of working together, alleviating the fear and
anxiety of the unknown.

• What makes us tremble, and what do we fear about new ways of working together?
• Who would we be without our stories of old ways of working?
• What will it take for us to fully enter into working in new and unfamiliar ways?
• What is our own learning edge in working together?
Structure
Once the concept has been chosen, it is time to create the structure that will channel our resources.
It is in these conversations that we make decisions about the resources of the group: time, money,
energy, commitment, and attention.

• Who are we becoming when we meet and work together this way?
• How do we support the aspirations of the group?
• What is the lightest structure that will serve our purpose and need?
• What role might the Core team play when the project is over?
• How do we wisely combine the various organizational concepts to support our work and
sustain the results?

Practice
The ongoing practice within the structures we build is important. This is the world of to do lists,
conference calls and email exchanges. The invitation here is to practice working with one another in
alignment with the designs we have created.

• What do we need to do to sustain our work together?

• What is our own practice of working in networks?
• How do we leverage relationships and support the work that arises from them?
• How do we sustain and nourish our relationships and collective aspirations?
• What commitments are we willing to make to contribute to the success of our endeavour?

Harvest
There is no point in doing work in the world unless we plan to harvest the fruits of our labours.
Harvesting includes making meaning of our work, telling the story and feeding forward our results
so that they have the desired impacts in the world.

• What are the forms of harvest from our work that best serves the need?
• What intentional harvest will serve our purpose?
• What are the artefacts that will be the most powerful representations of what we have
created?
• How will we carry the DNA of the our work forward?
• What are the feedback loops that we need to design to ensure that learning and change
accelerates itself?
• How will we stay open to emergent learning?
• What are the questions we need to carry about what we are learning by meeting this
way?
 Divergence and convergence

This model is a basic pattern of learning. All groups who are trying to do something new go
through the three zones of this model. In the divergence zone, people explore ideas, and
become aware of diversity and become aware of possibilities. In this zone the group needs
to be open and share ideas.

In the groan zone, new ideas emerge, ideas that seem not to be the property of anyone in
particular but rather the groups as a whole. This zone is called the groan zone, because
individuals and groups enter a period of struggle as they try to integrate what they are
learning. In this zone groups need strong relationships in order rely on one another to get
through the struggle. Good process matters here.

In the convergence zone, excitement and clarity builds and decisions become clear. Groups
need processes that take them to meaning making, clarity and decision making for
sustainable results.

This is a map of the journey learning groups take. When you use this map to design
processes, you will find yourself becoming more aware of what is needed in any given time.
When the group hits the groan zone you will know it and you can shift your focus to
supporting the relationships. Sharing this map with a group before a powerful conversation
helps participants to co-own the journey together, and not be surprised by the dynamics that
arise.
 5 ‘Breaths’ of Design

When we notice the diamond, we can see that it forms the basis for entire projects. This map shows
five diamonds linked together, each one leading to another. These five diamonds represent five major
stages in project design. In practice it feels like these are breaths, each one leading to the next

Birth of the callers – The first breath is the birth of the callers. When a person or group is inspired to
create a project, the calling breath happens. The callers come together and decide whether or not to
act on the sense of things. If there is a need to go ahead, the callers often form the core team for the
project and hold the intention all the way through.

Creating the ground – If the project moves ahead, the next stage is to create the ground of principles,
process and people. In this breath, the chaordic stepping stones can be used to help guide the
planning for the rest of the process.

Giving form and structure – The third breath is the active design of the project, be it a meeting, an
initiative or a whole new organization. In this breath the core team designs what is needed and begins
the invitation process.

Conversation – It is finally in the fourth breath that stakeholders come together and begin to work.
This breath might be one meeting or a years-long engagement. This is the meat of the work

Practice – As the project becomes a way of life, the core team might start to fall away and the legacy
is released to the community. Founders leave, new leaders emerge and the original project's intent is
met. From here, a whole new breath can begin, and the cycle continues.
 U-MODEL
“Presencing” is bringing into presence, and into the present, your highest potential and the
future that is seeking to emerge. Your highest future possibility is related to your own highest
intention…it’s being an instrument of life itself, to accomplish, in a sense, what life wishes for
me to accomplish. - 'Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future – Otto Scharmer

For more information:

- www.theoryu.com
- www.presencing.org
- www.ottoscharmer.com
 Organizational paradigms

Throughout human history the living system of human

organization has created many ways of organizing itself to
get work done. We notice that these ways of working
together can be captured within four organizational
paradigms. Each of these paradigms is alive and familiar
to us, and each has its strengths and weaknesses. When
we are designing process, projects and organizations, it is
worth paying attention to the different roles of these
paradigms so that they can be used wisely.

Circle – Our oldest organizational form. In a circle,

people come together equally to provide a multiplicity of
perspectives on something. Circles are powerful for reflection, for harnessing collective insight and
for making decisions. To work, people in circles need to have equal access to information, power
and responsibility.
Hierarchy (the triangle) – Hierarchy is another ancient form. When things need to get done and
someone has more responsibility than others, hierarchy is an efficient way to channel action. In a
small and dynamic hierarchy, a leader is assisted by helpers. The helpers don't need to have the
same information as the leader in order to do the work.
Bureaucracy – Despite its bad rap, the gift of the bureaucracy is that is can bring stability and
efficient ways of distributing resources. Bureaucracies that work well act like irrigation systems,
ensuring that all parts of an organization are “watered” and that resources don't flow too fast. To
slow down the flow, bureaucracies retain accountabilities from the bottom to the top in exchange for
a flow of resources from the top down. This form, used wisely, is a brilliant adaptation of the way
energy flows in a natural system.
Network – Networks are formed by actors who actively choose to be in relationships with others.
Actors are autonomous and only engage in relationships that mutually serve partners. Networks are
incredibly fast ways to organize complexity. In nature the network is the prevalent form of
sustainability. Increasingly, human networks are becoming the prevalent form of organizing on the
planet led and abetted by the internet. Networks thrive when sharing and reciprocity is present.
Huge amounts of work can get done very efficiently by networks, because actors can find exactly the
partners they need for any given time.
The fifth paradigm – What could the next paradigm in human systems be? How will we integrate
these four systems in a post-networked world? As we work with each of these four paradigms, we
get hints about what it might be like to work at the next stage of human evolution.
 A fifth paradigm
At the center, always, is our purpose. Typically, a core team will gather in a circle around a
purpose, which will be based on meeting a need that is felt in our life contexts. As we gather
around the core purpose, we begin to form relationships with others in the circle that, as we map
the connections, start to show up as a network. But while these relationships can help us all with
our individual work, they do not necessarily allow us to manifests our shared purpose in the
world, which will typically involve making things happen. The first step might be to develop
actions to sustain the core team. So individual members take responsibility for different aspects –
like organizing meetings or raising funds - other members step up in a support role and this leads
to the formation of triangles. The triangles will be dictated by the central purpose. Hierarchy
forms in response to central purpose – not somebodyʼs ego!

Once the core team is sustainable, the next step is typically to open up the conversation to the
wider community that feels the need that informs the purpose at the centre of our circle. A
triangle from the core team might then get together to call a larger-scale assembly, which might
become a circle of supporters for the larger project. The inner circle is reaching out to the next
level, which will in turn reach out to a wider community, creating concentric circles rippling out
into our society, each circle connected to the others by triangles animating action informed by the
core purpose.

The pattern of core purpose, circles, triangles and networks repeats again and again. Another
typical finding is that as the core team goes out into the community and the conversation
expands, the core purpose is informed by a broader perspective and is adjusted accordingly, to
accommodate the next level of scale and action.

It is important to understand that what we are describing here is not a deliberately designed
model, but the description of a pattern that has emerged naturally and spontaneously throughout
the global hosting community as we have collectively developed our work of hosting in ever-
larger and more complex adaptive systems.

Example of a fifth paradigm: the Food

And Society Conference organized by
the Kellogg Foundation in the USA
 Taking social innovation to scale
Margaret Wheatley & Deborah Frieze

Despite current ads and slogans, the world doesnʼt change one person at a time. It changes when
networks of relationships form among people who share a common cause and vision of whatʼs
possible. This is good news for those of us intent on creating a positive future. Rather than worry
about critical mass, our work is to foster critical connections. We donʼt need to convince large
numbers of people to change; instead, we need to connect with kindred spirits. Through these
relationships, we will develop the new knowledge, practices, courage and commitment that lead to
broad-based change.

Systems Have Life Cycles: They have a

beginning, middle and end. We can see many of our
modern systems seem to be failing to sustain
themselves in the complexity of our times.

In Living Systems, change happens through

Emergence: In nature, change never happens as a
result of top-down, pre-conceived strategic plans, or
from the mandate of any single individual or boss.
Change begins as local actions spring up simultaneously in many different areas. If these changes
remain disconnected, nothing happens beyond each locale. However, when they become
connected, local actions can emerge as a powerful system with influence at a more global or
comprehensive level. (Global here means a larger scale, not necessarily the entire planet.)

Working Intentionally with Emergence: When

separate, local efforts connect with each other as
networks, then strengthen as communities of practice,
suddenly and surprisingly a new system emerges at a
greater level of scale. This system of influence
possesses qualities and capacities that were unknown in
the individuals.

Lifecycle of Emergence:
Networks: commitment to self; fluid membership; fluid roles
Communities of Practice: commitment to advance field of practice; focus on creation and
dissemination of knowledge; distinct roles
Systems of Influence: pioneering efforts suddenly
become the norm

Creating the Conditions:

- Start anywhere, follow it everywhere.
• The leaders we need are already here.
• We have what we need.
• We are living the worlds we want today.
• We make our path by walking it.

See full article ”Using Emergence to Take Social Innovation to Scale “or more details