May 24 2009
Becoming a Movement (Reshaping the Culture of Our Organization) -Cyril Raoul Hakim-
For over ten years I have been active as a member and functionary of a Political Party while also studying many more other organizations’ cultures (local and abroad), I have become increasingly aware of a qualitative difference among these organizations including mine. Most are just simply organizations, a place where people gathers and (some) with assets, together they serve a purpose. Some of these organizations survive and enjoy sporadic successes while some just merely exist.
Of course there are other kinds, those that are exist and have been meeting certain but long lasting needs and have strong legitimacy in society. Muhammadiyah the oldest Muslim organization founded by KH Ahmad Dahlan with very humble beginnings it emphasizes in education and recently health, until today has educate millions of Indonesians through its thousands of schools and universities ; the most owned & operated by a singular organization in the world. Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) founded by a meeting of 422 Palestinian national figures in Jerusalem in May 1964 following an earlier decision of the Arab League, its goal was the liberation of Palestine through armed struggle, in 1988, the PLO (under Yasser Arafat leadership) officially endorsed a two-state solution,thus in the 90s a Palestine autonomy territory was recognized, later its political wing (al-Fatah) and until today is the recognized legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was established in Shanghai by Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao in June 1921 (inspired by the Russian Revolution), with Mao Zedong as its central figure (until his death in 1976) through several ‘revolutions’ (i.e., The Great Leap Forward & the Cultural Revolution)today the CCP has become the only leading Party in mainland China and as we know how China has come so far from its poorer & insignificant days 100 years ago, to have become a superior nation today, both in military and economic power. These are exceptional organizations that we can more precisely call movements.
A movement is defined as a group of people who have come together to achieve a purpose common to all, or according to Max De Pree (’leading without power’ 1997) a movement is a collective state of mind, a public and common understanding that the future can be created, not simply experienced or endured. Movements are easier to recognize from the inside. There is harmony in relationships and constructive conflict of ideas. There’s a sense of urgency–movements are never casual, quoting Mao Zedong :“A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another.” Alongside the normal tensions of organized life, there is a high level of trust.
Most of us are not fortunate enough to belong to these kind of organization. The question is now, can we intentionally reshape the culture of our organization to become a movement. Several changes should be met in order for the change to occur.
Spirit-lifting leadership is one of the first things required in movements. Leadership that enables, enriches, holds the organization accountable, and in the end lets go.
Next on the list is competence. Competence in relationships as well as technical competence, because in the end even character cannot replace competence. A movement is expected to be highly participatory, competence in both mentioned above are necessities.
A movement requires a high sense of creativity. As situation changes, world shifting, creativity is important as a process of discovery to bring about the necessary change of ways of a movement. Creativity and the recognitions of results by creativeness is very important, sometimes they look like they come out of nowhere but really most of the time revolutionary surprises are the ones that are able to bring about change. For this, there should be a strong commitment to substance over bureaucracy, because most of the time bureaucracy stands in the way of change.
The above requirements are may just be the starting points where we should start in order to reshape the culture of an organization to become like Muhammadiyah, the PLO or even the CCP. But, everything must start somewhere, I believe strongly that if we can change the ways of the organization we belong to, the path of success and a better world are cleared.
