{"id":3318,"date":"2017-10-12T15:04:02","date_gmt":"2017-10-12T19:04:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/?p=3318"},"modified":"2017-10-12T16:21:47","modified_gmt":"2017-10-12T20:21:47","slug":"sovereignty-or-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/main\/sovereignty-or-service.php","title":{"rendered":"Sovereignty or service"},"content":{"rendered":"

We often talk about an organization having a mission, as if the organization exists as some separate entity with its own individual will. But increasingly I\u2019m wondering if that attribution hasn\u2019t always been upside-down. Organizations don\u2019t have missions. Missions have organizations. And when change is necessary, it\u2019s important to know which changes which.<\/p>\n

\"Handsaw\"<\/a>

cc flickr Neville Nel<\/p><\/div>\n

Of course, organizations in the legal sense are often entities separate from their owners, managers, or staff. Long ago, civil society decided to make them separate, and give them some of the rights of individuals \u2014 to be party to a contract, to establish ownership or obligation for the entity rather than for its parts. But this was always a legal and economic fiction, not a natural fact.<\/p>\n

Somewhere along the way, we started stretching this fiction to consider the organization as some sort of collective organism. And we started talking about the organization having a mission, constructed and confirmed over time by its constituent parts. The mission could be changed, even as the organization remained much the same. Because the organization determined its mission, not the other way around.<\/p>\n

But underneath it all, an organization is NOT a separate, sentient entity that can choose its purpose. It is a tool, a resource, a means by which people get things done. An organization is not an organism, it is a crosscut saw, made useful by its structure and design for a particular range of outcomes. When the crosscut saw no longer fits the task, it doesn\u2019t redefine the carpenter or the blueprint, rather the carpenter reaches for a different tool.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it\u2019s all semantics, but here\u2019s the larger point: When we consider the organization as a primary, sovereign self, our work inevitably turns toward ensuring its success, survival, and sovereignty. But the organization is not sovereign, nor is it a self. It\u2019s a hand tool in service to a larger purpose. Let\u2019s not be so precious, or so self-important, about changing it up or switching it out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We often talk about an organization having a mission, as if the organization exists as some separate entity with its own individual will. But increasingly I\u2019m wondering if that attribution hasn\u2019t always been upside-down. Organizations don\u2019t have missions. Missions have organizations. And when change is necessary, it\u2019s important to know which changes which.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3322,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3318","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-main","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3318"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3323,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3318\/revisions\/3323"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}