Fully human groups
I read something in Maslow this morning that has advanced my thinking. He speaks of people becoming fully human; it is a scale with a normative end.
This triggers thinking about groups: when are people in groups, or more precisely, groups of people more human and less human? They are more human to the the extent they: encourage creativity; develop the use of all capacities of the individual and the group; engage more of the person; engage more of the inter-dynamics of the persons between and among themselves. For sure there are others.
The point is reflected as we turn it around and compare various alternative scenarios for getting people together and ask of each how good they are at getting people to the fully human end of the scale? For instance, consider lecture, seminar, workshop, The World Café, and Open Space Technology: where is each on this continuum of the fully human group?
Do we want each group to be fully human? Certainly we do if we are trying to develop a movement in society, and if we are trying to get something done in large scale and short time frames. What if we purpose to create a tyranny? What if we want to change a way of thinking from say, prejudice to inclusiveness? When would we want not to have fully human groups?
:- Doug.
