I had the distinct opportunity and honor to participate on a team that facilitated and managed a city-wide conversation on racial equity with New Detroit over this past weekend. This project reconnected me with topics and work that always fuels and calls me to look closer at things discussed in the course. This was the first time working with the DWC Group
Cycle Model
The Leadership Summit on Race afforded the opportunity of the ‘community concerned’ in Detroit to convene over two days about leadership toward racial equity in the city and the requirements thereof. People across different sectors examined what is at stake for the city and the region to address this cancerous condition and how it manifest itself in each sector.
Two most powerful components of the summit were the direct dialogue sessions among like and cross-racial groups and the mapping of work style preferences to demonstrate varied expressions of diversity with the use of the 5 Dynamics tool.
Dr. Scott Peck summarizes in his book, The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace, ways in which long-term communities have aligned themselves along the basic parameters of community. This shapes the ways they have dealt with issues.
I provide an example from his writings and my observation this past weekend of Detroit/SE Michigan’s maintenance capabilities.
Size - There is a point in an organization where the size causes greater institutionalized mandates and regulations. The original concept and workability of the community is threatened. If attempted to take to scale it is incumbent of the community to identify their commitments and strategies for ensuring diluting of such doesn’t occur.
Class reference: Grameen bank
Detroit example or concern:
Intensity – Is this an intentional community? How intertwined are the associations with one another? What are some of the things that binds the community and commitment to consistency.
Class reference:
Detroit example or concern:
Authority – Each community has varied degrees of authority that is granted. They range from a traditional authoritative structure – one of a hierarchal nature to the opposite end of the spectrum of being less structured where consensual decision making prevails. There often times is a tension between the distinction between and/or need for leadership over authority.
Class reference:
Detroit example or concern:
Inclusive – The example communities Peck provides show how painstakingly the consideration has to be made of the integrity of the community. The transference of values, beliefs and attitudes to new members is intentional thought through. In both situations there were people that came to the community seeking belonging and appealed to the offerings of the group. It was determined that people need to demonstration some commitment/understanding/adoption of foundational things.
Class reference:
Detroit example or concern:
Individuality – Allowed for diverse thought and the bringing in of different perspectives. Individuality was never allowed to trump the will or the purpose of the community.
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Detroit example or concern:
Nucleus – small group that is in the center, seen as knowledgeable and committed. Different from leadership or authority.
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Detroit example or concern:
Commitment – One of the few indicators that appears to be required at a high level. Identified as necessary for a small group to move to a community
Class reference:
Detroit example or concern:
Structure – the division of labor, communication channels, controlling growth, capital development
Class reference:
Detroit example or concern:
Ritual – the constants of a community that ground the members
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Detroit example or concern:
Task Definition – Clarity about the responsibility of the community; the deliverables; the reason for its existence. The nucleus helps to ensure the community doesn’t get off track and swayed into things that appear similar
Class reference:
Detroit example or concern:
The Cycle Model image reminded me of another image that captures the Corporate Management Model of Mondragon. Mondragon also illustrates many of key principles in Scott Peck’s book, The Different Drum: size, intensity, authority, inclusive, individuality, nucleus, commitment, structure, ritual, task definition.
Mondragon is a pretty amazing example of ‘building a sustainable community. It is now a global conglomerate – a citizen co-operative. It is located in northern Spain. Mondragon was started about 60 years ago by a priest, Jose Maria Arizmendiarrieta — an intellectual activist leader in our terms. It began and remains a unique ‘local’ initiative.
He said…
“The present, however splendid it may be, bears the seeds of its own ruin if it becomes separated from the future”.
“Nothing differentiates people as much as their respective attitudes to the circumstances in which they live. Those who opt to make history and change the course of events themselves have an advantage over those who decide to wait passively for the results of the change”.
José María Arizmendiarrieta
(Ideologist and driving force behind the Mondragón Co-operative Experience)
Here’s more from the MONDRAGON website… (You can download pdf publications from the site.)
MONDRAGON, is a business group made of 264 companies and entities organised in three sectorial areas: Financial, Industrial and Distribution, together with the Research and Training sectors.
MONDRAGON is the fruit of the sound vision of a young priest, Don José María Arizmendiarrieta, as well as the solidarity and efforts of all our worker-members. Together we have been able to transform a humble factory, which in 1956 manufactured oil stoves and paraffin heaters, into the leading Industrial Area in the Basque Country and 7th in the ranking in Spain, with sales of 13,266 million euros in its Industrial and Distribution activities, 12,332 million euros of administered assets in its Financial activity and a total workforce of 81,880 at the end of 2006.
MONDRAGON’s mission combines the basic objectives of a business organisation competing in international markets with the use of democratic methods in its organisation and with special emphasis on job creation, the promotion of its workers in human and professional terms and a commitment to the development of its social environment.
The local environment
Like other human communities, throughout its history Basque society has engaged in many different economic activities within the field of co-operation. One example of such activities is the carrying out of occasional neighbourhood or community tasks, known in the Basque language as Hauzo Lan and often linked to agricultural work. In some cases, such community activities eventually developed into official institutions such fishing guilds or community land use organisations, which played an important role in the Basque economy.
Logically, the advent of the industrial revolution considerably reduced the importance of such practices and institutions, although at the same time it brought with it new examples of economic activities carried out according to the principles of co-operation; such activities included the Consumer Co-operatives, which arose very early on in the Gran Bilbao region, and the Industrial Production Co-operatives such as Eibarresa Alfa, which were inspired by socialist ideals.
However, both the practical experiences and theoretical work underway were interrupted by the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, which seriously undermined all the progress made in this field and plunged the Basque Country into a severe economic and social depression.