On the Giving of Orders: Power and Freedom in Democratic Organizations

Dillon, Jake, Rudy and Amelia discuss the work of management consultant Mary Follett and how to use her ideas to enable democratic  problem-solving and functioning of mass organizations. We discuss several common problems faced when organizing such as how to adequately replace leaders, how the person who does the work leads and how to effectively give orders. We follow by talking about how we can use Follett's ideas on integrating experience and the law of the situation to make leadership increasingly invisible. We also discuss her ideas on the role of experts and managers, power with vs power over and how to better relate to new members of an organization. We end by contextualizing Follett's  ideas with other better known methods such as the Maoist mass line, and how they can be applied to the current debates around Jamaal Bowman.

References: Mary Follett - Creative ExperienceH. C. Metcalf, L. Urwick (ed.) - Dynamic Administration: The Collected Papers of Mary Follett