Missing Group Technology

Life and vitality are brought into the area of groups by the application of self-determination by the individual. First, the individual decides what goal or goals he would like to achieve in his neighborhood, city, county, state, country, or even the world. A purpose is a route or path leading to a goal. His next step, then, is to determine or discover or decide on a purpose to reach the goal. By this point it will usually have become apparent that achieving the goal is beyond the reach and capabilities of the individual himself. This is where groups come in. A well-formed group can be much more efficient than the same number of individuals acting in parallel, and its life can extend as long as is needed to achieve the group goal.

A group operating at a high level of causation is a servo-mechanism that is used to forward a purpose determined by an individual. Self-determination gives it life. It exists to follow a purpose to achieve a goal. The better the goal is, the more it will inspire others to participate, form up the servo-mechanism, and forward the purpose to achieve it. Once the goal has been achieved the group is disbanded. Group resources can be reformed around a new purpose, or they can return to a common "pool", where they can be drawn on to forward other purposes to reach new goals.

So how are these servo-mechanisms formed? Here are the pieces that should be included:
 Self-determination. All participants should have a self-determined desire to achieve the goal. This gives life to the group. Group members should have the understanding that a well-organized effort by a number of persons will go further in following the purpose than the same number of people working by themselves in parallel.
 A system of interconnected and coordinated poles of functionality that channels the self-determination of group members, rather than cuts across it, and whose activity is aligned with and forwards the purpose of the group.

The models for the system are the anatomy of living organisms. The poles of functionality are the organs, and in the context of groups are termed "hats". The framework or form of the system is determined by analytical agreements which should be codified into a set of policy.

The policy of a group is the set of agreements between members that are actually being acted upon. The agreements actually being acted from determine the form of the group. In an aberrated group they may be quite different from officially issued policy. The set of policy is equivalent to the set of genes in a living organism. In an aberrated or unhealthy organism there will be some part of the organism where the genes are not being followed completely or where some outside force or agency is applying a counter-intention or counter-force to that dictated by the genes, and which is causing the application of the genetic patterns to be thwarted to some degree.

There is a spectrum of policy that runs from completely general, that could apply to any group, and any purpose, to more specific, to the most specific policy that applies to a particular job in a particular section of a particular group with a particular purpose line. A given hat can be thought of as a "stack" of policy, with the lowest part of the stack formed by the most general policy, and the higher levels being more and more specific.

A set of policy should be coherent and aligned with the group purpose. The complete set of policy can be thought of as a "framework" which defines a "space" in which safety and freedom is guaranteed for the individual to apply his self-determination. This safety and freedom allows the individual to more easily and fully apply his self-determination, which allows higher levels of group causation to be achieved. At the same time that the individual is protected from arbitrary counter-action, disturbance or distraction by the environment, the environment is protected from misuse of misapplication of the self-determination by the individual. A well-formed, coherent set of policy defines channels and boundaries within which self-determination can be applied, so the environment is then protected from arbitrary activity on the part of the individual. It's a win-win situation. The only "losers" are those crazy enough to value contra-life activity and purposes.

Teamwork is a high level of adherence to a known, coherent set of policy defining hats organized to effectively forward the group purpose line. A group member who operates out of agreement with such policy is disruptive to the morale of the group. An exception to this is where the set of policy is incomplete, or incoherent in a particular area. If an individual acts in a way that aligns more closely to the group purpose line than the existing policy set dictates, then morale is improved. In such a situation the policy set should be upgraded to incorporate this new successful action. Morale can be defined as a feeling of well-being or satisfaction from an understanding and knowledge of the fact of a self-determined purpose being successfully forwarded.

A set of hats is something that each group member can help to build, grow, correct and maintain. Of course, there are specialized hats that are focused in each of these areas over the whole group, but each group member also can be responsible for these activities in his own immediate area.

Have you ever seen a Chinese celebration where a dragon parades down the street? It is a good analogy for a group. In fact, to the Chinese people the dragon is a symbol for themselves as a people. There are several people animating the dragon. They are at different positions, have different responsibilities, but they are all interconnected by the fabric of the suit. In effect, as they march down they street in coordination, they ARE the dragon. They have set their individual, personal identities aside to don assume an identity which is a part of this interconnecting dragon skin. They now interface with each other in a manner defined by the dragon skin/body rather than from personal viewpoints. The dragon is virtually alive, but all the life is coming from those underneath the fabric.

So they march down the street. The people along the side of the street see a "living" dragon. The dragon reaches the end of the parade. The people inside now take off the skin. They clean it, fold it and store it for future use. They are now done with the group purpose line. They have reassumed their own viewpoints now, possibly, or maybe the viewpoint of another hat, such as citizen. Anyway, they have left the dragon "hats" back "in the office", and are not going to carry them home. The dragon suit is ready for future use. All of those participating were in agreement with staying inside the suit and following the "dragon way", at least temporarily. It would not have gone down well if one of them had abandoned their post in the middle of the parade and left their part of the dragon dragging on the ground, or torn a hole in the side as they ran off to do their own thing. The dragon suit is ready to "live" another day.

As an aside, it is interesting to note that no other cultures that I know of have similar activities in their festivals/parades/parties where a group of individuals assume a larger identity together. The Chinese culture is also many thousands of years old-- much older than any western culture. Is there a correlation? Probably so.

A vital point to understand, especially in America, is that operating from the viewpoint of a hat, which is using an interface to other group members that conforms to the “dragon skin”, or to group purposes and policy, is completely impersonal. There is such a thing as warmly impersonal. A group member operating wholly “on hat” should also be “on purpose”, and so is as warm as the purpose of the group is warm.

It is true that in social groups the individual operates to some degree, if not completely, from his personal viewpoint. Social groups are groups, but low-level ones. There is not so much form or order to them. While there usually is some sort of uncodified, low-level “policy” in effect regarding dress and conduct, and possibly some specific topic of interest, there is much more arbitrary interaction unaligned with such an interest. You can think of social groups occupying the bottom end of the scale of group causation. The family is the first group that a child encounters, and it is a usually mostly a social group.

So on the bottom of the group causation scale there is more randomness, more arbitrary action by the individual unaligned with group policy, and in fact there may be little or no group policy in effect. On the top end of the scale is a group with a coherent body of policy that is completely aligned with its purpose, and with the purpose leading directly to its goal. All “hats” are manned, or at least there are personnel who can wear them when needed. All group members have a complete, self-determined understanding of the “policy stacks” relating to any hat they wear. There is an awareness on the part of each group member of the “dragon skin” that includes his hat, any hats he supervises, and at least the hats which directly interface with those hats. He has an awareness and understanding of what things or people are dealt with, how it is done, what communications are needed. He is able to operate in his area as well as maintain or correct any structure that supports production, and even build more structure that supports production in his area.

There is NO arbitrary activity in a well organized group. All required job actions and activities have been planned for and codified in policy, or plans that conform to policy. When something new enters his domain he does not ask himself what he should do with it. His job is first to get into communication with the reality of what is coming in so that he can identify it. Once it is identified he has a certainty already in place of what to do with it. He just does it. Decisions should not have to be made in a well organized work activity. Arbitrary action and decision points always slow things down. That is to be avoided in any work flow. Any and all decisions required should have been foreseen and incorporated into policy or plans that conform to policy. If any new decisions are seen to be required in a work area it is a sign that more organization is needed there.

A causative group will take care of its “dragon skin” so that it is always available to be easily worn by group members, new and old. Each hat should have a write-up available that includes general and specific actions, duties and pertinent technology. The write-up “stabilizes” that hat. It captures the sometimes hard-won knowledge necessary to successfully wear it, and makes such knowledge available as a reminder to the original wearer and also a way to allow knowledge transfer to any new wearer.

Since all such hat write-ups, taken collectively, are the “DNA” of the group, they require special care and attention. There should be a central repository for them, or copies of them. One of the duties of a manager should be to verify that these write-ups are available, up-to-date, and in use in his area. Such verification can be part of a periodic review process.

The scale of group causation runs from the personal, social group to the completely organized, impersonal group. Movement in a pro-life direction is movement UP the scale.

In a well organized group work environment there is often still room for personal interaction by those who desire it—for instance around the water cooler or the office printer, or at break time. There should be an awareness in these cases that such interaction is part of the private life and has nothing at all to do with the work process or forwarding the purpose of the group.

There is a common confusion here regarding names. A name actually has a dual role. Within the context of a private life it is an identifier, but within a work context a name is an indexer that relates a body to a hat. If you want something done with a certain group you first ask which hat would deal with that function. Hopefully there is some kind of index available that relates a name to any hat. Once you have the right name you know which body to go to or communicate with to get what you need to do done.

Some cultures deal better with this confusion than others. In America there has been more and more fixation on personal interaction in recent years. It used to be, even in America, that when a customer went into a sandwich shop or a bakery he would take a number in order to be served. When the servers called his number he would step forward and give his order. When his order was ready his number would be called again. This was in conformity with a higher level of group causation. There was an awareness and assumption of the hats of customer and server. In America these days it is more usual for the server to ask the personal, or first name of the customer, bringing the whole interaction DOWN to the bottom of the scale of group causation. It is a movement in the contra-life direction, but for some odd reason it makes many Americans “happy”.

In Germany it is not unusual to work for years with a colleague without ever using or even knowing his/her first name. The first name is reserved for the private life. It is easier to stay focused on a higher level of group causation this way.