Governance of an inter-organizational network is a fascinating thing. Effective governance quickly brings one in touch with an inherent tension. Networks in order to reach the full potential of the network form as opposed to more traditional forms need to be open to emergence. Emergence is an entire subject in itself, but for me it means that the various elements of the network are able to configure themselves to address the challenges faced by the network - internally and externally. Such an emergent enterprise depends on a congruent set of norms and practices of collaboration and of distributed leadership.
At the same time, my research into networks has identified the valuable role played by central leadership and facilitation. In effect, central leadership and facilitation help to create and hold the container where emergence can play out.
The fascinating issue is how the people who are the leaders and facilitators see themselves. On the one hand, in helping to support a network based on emergence, these people do need to be imbued with the values that support emergence, such as collaboration, distributed leadership and a very light touch. At the same time, they cannot take a laissez-faire attitude toward their role responsibilities of guiding the network. These responsibilities include helping to obtain resources of various types and of supporting clusters or communities of practice to move up the learning curve in terms of the skills of their members. They often play a strong, initial convening role.
It is easy to imagine people in the role of leader or facilitator having an ongoing identity crisis. They might ask, "If I am helping this entity to solve contemporary challenges in a contemporary way, why am I still using traditional approaches?" This identity crisis could play out in terms of their external behaviors as well as their internal attitudes.
I will not in this post act to deprive people in these roles or in other network roles of the experience of engaging in what can likely be a highly generative existential pursuit of identity. The learning involved can prove to be important to the individual as well as the network. I am reminded of Robert Kegan's work on adult developmental stages and how among the later stages is one where one creates as object many of these different pulls, learns that the individual is not any one of these pulls and learns how to hold all of them in their mind at the same time.
I will be interested in hearing of the experiences that others have in grappling with this issue.
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