The development of the ideal-based organization in seven phases

Ideal-based organizations, like commercial ones, develop along a seven-phase path. Why then this separate discussion? Because they progress through the phases in a different manner. Ideal-based organizations are founded by one or more people on the basis of an ideal, a strong conviction, or a truth. Think of Amnesty International, Greenpeace, political parties, etc. They usually have a clearly identifiable vision and mission that is directed toward the outside world. And their primary purpose is not making a profit.

Below are the seven phases of the ideal-based organization. The basic characteristics are of course the same as those of a commercial organization.

Phase 1 The theocratic organization

For a good example of phase 1 we must go back to the time of ancient Egypt. The Egyptians believed that the earth was flat and that the center of the earth was Egypt, of which the priest-king, or pharaoh, was in turn the center. He represented God on earth. Everything: soil, people, and life belonged to the pharaoh. At that time there was as yet no consciousness of oneself as individual.

In our time there are still remnants of the theocratic phase. An example is an organization such as the Roman Catholic church, in which the Pope is Christ's representative on earth and therefore infallible.

Phase 2 The autocratic organization

An ideal-based organization is often founded by a charismatic personality with an ideal. It is characteristic of phase 2 that all staff members and volunteers put themselves in the service of the ideal. Working together toward the realization of the ideal creates a strong bond among the members. There is little or no room for the personal element - in the sense of personal needs or different opinions. Everything and everyone stands in the service of the common ideal and complies with it, generally with the setting aside of oneself.

Phase 3 The bureaucratic (or professional) organization

As the organization grows and the number of staff members increases, the ideal-based organization also goes through a development from phase 2 to phase 3.

It is characteristic of phase 3 that everything is focused on achieving goals and results with the help of systems that promote clarity and efficiency. Examples are descriptions of tasks and functions, staff-development systems, and a clear organizational structure in which people can be held accountable for their responsibilities and competences.

Phase 3 is essentially focused on putting the organization (whether commercial or ideal-based) on solid footing in a good, healthy manner, so that it can optimally fulfill its task.

In ideal-based organizations the transition from phase 2 to phase 3 is often problematic:

All attention and energy are focused on the goal outside the organization and little attention is paid to internal processes and the needs of staff members.
The leading personalities see themselves more as guardians of the ideal than as managers of processes of work and change.
Among workers in an ideal-based organization there is often a resistance to down-to-earth matters such as money and management systems. They are afraid that these will limit their personal freedom as well as their spontaneity and creativity. Another characteristic is that ideal-based organizations often neglect to provide further training for their staff members, especially in the area of leadership and management skills.

All this is why in many ideal-based organizations in phase 3, phase 2 essentially continues in a slightly different garb.

Phase 4 The transforming organization

In phase 4 the ideal-based organization also is involved in reflecting on where it now stands. This means looking again at its mission, identity and vision: 'What is (again) the reason why we are here? For what purpose are we here? What is our contribution to the larger whole? What about the (professional) training and coaching of our staff members? What are the responsibilities and competencies of the members or donors? Does the structure from phase 2 still fit? Or must we do something fundamentally different?

On the basis of these questions, the process of transformation in an ideal-based organization means that the organization again brings itself in line with its ideals, core values, and identity, and that the entire organization is again defined from the inside and, where necessary, changed and restructured. This usually leads to the belated introduction of good management- and planning-systems, whether or not forced to do so because of government regulations.

Phase 3 must then as yet be gone through. Only then can the ideals and values that have been formulated anew acquire a refreshingly new form in phase 5.

Those who do not renew themselves in time, fossilize. In this kind of organization external criticism is often ignored and viewed as an attack on the ideal. (Criticism, after all, is a threat to the unity of phase 2.) If problems nevertheless arise, the leaders are inclined, out of fear and ignorance, to deal with the crisis and chaos conservatively, repressively, and sometimes even manipulatively. This makes the atmosphere unsafe and actions careless.

In such an atmosphere the staff, members, or donors sooner or later turn their back on the organization, association, or party and withdraw their cooperation or cancel their membership.

Phase 5 The organization based on moral values and principles

Ideal-based organizations, like commercial organizations, are still barely or not at all in phase 5. This is in part because there must be enough leaders who are personally and relationally in phase 4 or 5.

The characteristics of organizations in phase 5 are:

They have a vision and a mission based on fundamental values and principles.
Mission and vision create enthusiasm and involvement on the part of the employees and give people a common direction while allowing them at the same them their own input.
Individuals are stimulated to perform and develop initiatives as if they were co-owners of the organization.
They usually show a strong decentralization of decision-making power, flat hierarchies, and little bureaucracy (servant leadership), a surrender of power and status (the ability to set one's ego aside).
Feeling, inspiration, and spiritual insight are valued.

Phase 6 The organization as new community

What does an organization in phase 6 look like? It is not yet possible to give an extensive description of an ideal-based organization in phase 6, but a number of elements can be mentioned.

In our time, which is characterized especially by the development of phase 3 (the personal 'I'), the needs and impulses of the will spring especially from the own ego, i.e., from the question whether we ourselves benefit from something or not. In phase 6, on the other hand, these impulses are directed toward the needs of the other and his or her development, and are entirely selfless and free. The accent lies on a brotherly or sisterly manner of dealing with one another. Through this, an entirely new sense of affection and solidarity will develop among staff members, and thus an entirely new sense of community. It will be characteristic of the organization that the individual and his or her development, needs, and ideals stand at the center and that the others – beside their own development – are focused on supporting the others in order to be able to properly give form to the shared ideal.

Phase 7 The organization as contributor to world development

In phase 7 everything – including individual development and brotherly/sisterly cooperation with one another – focuses on the contribution the organization will make to the development of the greater whole: society, the world, humanity, nature, the earth. What this phase will look like in the future we cannot know yet. One thing we can say is that economic, social, and ecological interests will be brought into balance and kept in balance. Only this will make the future possible. In today's 'sustainable enterprise' we already see a harbinger of this phase.

Phase 5-6-7

Thus in phases 5, 6, and 7, the ideal finds also in ideal-based organizations and in the people involved a new content and form. This is also necessary because each individual must find him- or herself on the basis of his or her own core in the anew-formulated ideal (phase 5). Only then a contribution can be made out of the inner, individual power of consciousness to the development of the other (phase 6) and the larger whole such as society or the earth (phase 7).

Inner battle

I must repeat here what I stated earlier: phases 5, 6, and 7 will only develop in the right sense if we also learn to recognize and deal with the activity of the dark forces. The dark or negative forces do not want the development through the process of transformation in phase 4 to continue and progress successfully. They do everything in their power to oppose it.
This is why in phase 4 there is a battle between the powers of the negative on the one hand, and the powers of light, consciousness, and love that aim at progress, on the other. The dark forces have their point of contact in the ego, the part of the personality that is directed toward the subjective self. Their aim is essentially to continue phase 3, but in the negative sense. The powers of the consciousness and love, by contrast, spring from the spiritual core essence. The inner battle, which begins especially in phase 4 and gathers force in the subsequent phases, calls for continual (self)reflection, self-knowledge, and making, again and again, conscious choices - in other words, for an increase in the power of the spirit in people.

In several phases simultaneously

As is the case in personal and relational development, the ideal-based organization also finds itself in several phases simultaneously. The organization therefore also has the task to become conscious of where it stands now on the developmental path, where it wants to go, and which aspects still lag behind. Where do old ways of thinking, old, unfree (reaction)patterns and structures that have outlived their time, still persist? The task is to bring them further along in the sense of phases 4 and 5 and to develop them.

Commercial and ideal-based organizations closer together

Ultimately the aspirations of the ideal-based and of the commercial organization will come close together when in phase 4 and 5 shape is given to the values, principles and ideals of these organizations in a structure based on people in a new, supportive way.

Adapted from: Transforming People and Organizations: The Seven Steps of Spiritual Development by Margarete van den Brink (Temple Lodge Publishing, Forest Row, U.K. 2004).

For more examples of organizations and leadership in phase 4 and 5, please see Articles and Related Articles.

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