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This paper was not published. It arose as a result of the Tavistock Group Conferences that we ran in Dublin during the late 1970s on the theme of responsibility and leadership. This paper, written in February 1980, represented my views as a result of those experiences. WHEN a group is formed, once the process of transaction commences between the individual elements and a boundary is drawn around this process then, given that these elements are living biological units, a higher-order system inevitably begins to come into being. Within this system the individual elements – that is the human units which make it up – can no longer be considered as separate entities. Some degree of merging necessarily commences and transactions begin to take place across the boundaries of the individual elements as the new higher-order system begins to organize itself and create its own being; that is, the process of autopoiesis of this new system begins to take place. Nevertheless, to describe it in this way or in this order of sequence is already incorrect, for it suggests that our existence as humans first begins as separate individuals, whereas in fact we enter life already embedded in a group setting. We come into being within a higher-order system such as a family, tribe or community , etc. Our individual being only emerges gradually out of the group matrix, nor could we even come into existence other than out of a process of relation within a higher-order group system. This is simply to point out that human reproduction is not a function of the individual autopoiesis but of the autopoiesis of the group. This qualification having been made, it is nevertheless true that once individuals have come into existence then the process of forming higher-order group systems is continually taking place. Once a group is formed, there is inevitably some degree of merging or blurring of the boundaries between individuals. This allows a transfer and 21. Management of Responsibility 291 exchange of energy between individuals to take place, within the newly-formed boundary of the higher-order system; i.e. the group. This transfer of what is normally inside one individual into another would appear to take several forms. There can be coalescence of emotion, so that the whole group takes on a characteristic emotional tone – whether of anger, sadness, elation or whatever but a transfer of emotion can also take place into one particular member. This person then appears to carry emotion of a specific kind for the group as a whole, whether of pain, anger or sadness, while other members appear to show and experience less feeling than usual and may feel quite apathetic and disinterested. Thus a shift of energy, as well as feeling, appears to take place, so that one person or a pair carry all the activity, thinking or leadership for the group at a particular time; or a particular individual may find his attitudes or his views changing as the group moves on. He may find himself believing and hence behaving in quite a different way to what he or others would have expected of him as an individual separate from the group process. Wherever we look in reality, whether inside an atom or inside a human being, we find opposing positive and negative forces. These are held in dynamic balance with varying degrees of stability. This would seem to be a basic principle of reality. If we look at any particular reality we inevitably find these opposing dynamic forces existing within a boundary. In any particular body or thing, not only do the opposing forces balance one another but they are bounded so that they do not normally spill over from one body into the next. There are several comments to be made about this. This balancing of energies or forces has been found to be the nature of reality, in so far as we can discern it, inside the atom. It was also the underlying principle discerned in ancient times by the Taoist sages and in eastern philosophy generally. In very early times these ancient scientist–philosophers in India and in China came on this principle of a balance of forces or energy within all reality. These energies have been given various names – positive/negative, right/left, male/female, good/bad, etc. – but the essential point in reality is, as a Taoist would put it, ‘Every reality is in a state of contradiction trying to resolve itself’. Therefore, a...

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