Last week we discussed how relational, interpretive and action tactics could be strategically and motivationally woven together as campaigns. We also lose the capacity to mobilize common resources on behalf of those interests. For democratic organizations, responsiveness and renewal are directly tied to legitimacy of dissent. Accountability only works if linked to open debate of different points of view.
Unanimity is associated with better performance, but poorer decisions.
The challenge is to design an organization in which interests and resources are concentrated enough to assure effective action, but diffuse enough to assure a capacity for change. The dilemma described above cannot be resolved, but we can learn to manage it. The more we share the responsibility for doing the work, the more getting the work done depends on our collaboration. The more our collaboration is required, the more accountability we can exercise. If the work can be done with five people, only their collaboration is required so only they can exercise real accountability.