Rumbling on performativity_Frits Simon
Rumbling on performativity_Frits Simon
Rumbling on performativity_Frits Simon
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Self-knowing<br />
At the end “all knowing is self-knowing” (Stacey and Griffin, 2005: 22). In this case my<br />
self-knowing leads to realizing that my nuisance with the results is caused by some<br />
epistemological fallacies. Labelling the outcome as c<strong>on</strong>tradictory implicates a covert<br />
desire for truth or c<strong>on</strong>sistency. It denies that every interacti<strong>on</strong> changes the nature of<br />
the total c<strong>on</strong>text and that people d<strong>on</strong>’t act according to some systematic or basic rules<br />
(Groot, 2010a). The impact of social psychological mechanisms, such as c<strong>on</strong>tagi<strong>on</strong> and<br />
cognitive diss<strong>on</strong>ance, even underlines the inevitably dynamics of local interacti<strong>on</strong>s.<br />
Not <strong>on</strong>ly a covert desire for truth or c<strong>on</strong>sistency may have troubled me, but maybe<br />
even a tacit l<strong>on</strong>ging for succeeding in managing other people according to my own<br />
rules. Inadvertently - maybe incurable - I was thwarted by what from a complex<br />
resp<strong>on</strong>sive process-perspective is called the doubling fallacy: supposing that you can<br />
take an external positi<strong>on</strong> towards your situati<strong>on</strong> (Stacey, 2007).<br />
The members of the learning group really challenged me to live through what kind of<br />
job I have. I was challenged to reflect up<strong>on</strong> my <strong>on</strong>going co-creative efforts and the<br />
apparent acceptance of this way of acting in an organizati<strong>on</strong> where clear results are<br />
expected. Some<strong>on</strong>e suggested that I was the organizati<strong>on</strong>al joker or fool, the <strong>on</strong>e with<br />
a large degree of freedom to act. The discussi<strong>on</strong>s led to at least for myself provocative<br />
reflecti<strong>on</strong>s <strong>on</strong> who I am as an adviser, where I stand for and what I am (un)able to do.<br />
These reflecti<strong>on</strong>s might help me to sort out up till now hardly understood aspects of<br />
my positi<strong>on</strong> as an adviser to the board.<br />
4.8 A joker: a versatile or protean sense-maker?<br />
The above reflecti<strong>on</strong>s uncovered that my co-creativity is a decisive prec<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong> for<br />
doing my work, but as such not solely the effective purpose or outcome of my work.<br />
The effective outcome of my work has other dimensi<strong>on</strong>s. An associati<strong>on</strong> came to my<br />
mind with the work of Machiavelli, some<strong>on</strong>e whose work I read a l<strong>on</strong>g time ago. He<br />
wrote that the wisdom of a leader depends <strong>on</strong> the people he surrounds himself with.<br />
The leader supposedly makes a wise decisi<strong>on</strong> if he chooses people who aren’t egocentric<br />
(Machiavelli, 1513).<br />
Starting to look up<strong>on</strong> my positi<strong>on</strong> from within the organizati<strong>on</strong>, or more specific from<br />
within the network of people I am closely working with, I come to see some up till<br />
now cloaked dimensi<strong>on</strong>s, at least for me.<br />
An undefined positi<strong>on</strong><br />
Formally my positi<strong>on</strong> is the positi<strong>on</strong> of a director resp<strong>on</strong>sible for the development of a<br />
l<strong>on</strong>g term strategy for the UAS. Practically I have a rather undefined positi<strong>on</strong>. It is a<br />
pers<strong>on</strong>al positi<strong>on</strong>, created when in 2008 I got this positi<strong>on</strong> and which will vanish when<br />
I get another positi<strong>on</strong>. Also the fact that I am allocated in the office of marketing and<br />
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