Energy Analysis is a different way of viewing how organizations work. Instead of seeing people in particular “jobs” — which are random portfolios of roles inherited from earlier empire building, task dumping and power grabs — we examine the energy flows through the whole unit. We also look at the type of energy involved.

This method always points up people placement, expertise and role confusion as the main sources of rigidities in any large organized group.

Energy analysis is a simple enough procedure, but breaks away from our normal worldview in which people are the natural drivers and shakers of all corporate activity rather than the specific expertise operating at critical decision level. At first sight, it can leave you a bit disoriented.

Then, out of the blue, a perfect example of an energy-driven corporate entity landed with a thud in my lap : the European Commission.

Basic background
The EU Commission is a board of quasi civil servants, drawn from the political classes of EU member states, and based in Brussels. Unlike normal secretariats it exercises considerable executive powers by proposing new Europe-wide legislation which eventually becomes legal throughout the community.

It has steadily amassed a lot of influence and control, backed by a tame supreme court which almost always supports the central orthodoxy. Its methodology has been “salami-slicing”, taking power in small increments that they think will not be noticed by busy people, but will accumulate over time into a vast control console for the whole of Europe.

Despite its power, the Commission is widely regarded as a political graveyard for national politicians who see it as western Europe’s equivalent to the Siberian salt mines of the old Soviet Union, where out-of-favour opponents were conveniently deposited. Britain’s commissioner, Peter Mandleson, a friend of Tony Blair, was twice forced out of the British Cabinet for alleged dishonesty. He now controls trade negotiations for all 27 countries in the EU.

The same scenario applies to most of the other commissioners.
/Basic Background

Now just imagine what all that negative energy will do if concentrated in one supranational body given the power to use it.

Naturally, that resentment and the loss of status back home will translate into a process of stripping power from national governments and lodging it in Brussels. This will be seen — possibly unconsciously — as compensating commissioners psychologically for the assumed shabby treatment they had received from national politicians.

In short, the Commission will inevitably become a kind of politburo, hoovering power to the centre and spewing out hundreds of thousands of prescriptive “directives” for the folks back home. It will be job justification and revenge politics writ large by a powerful bunch of losers.

And that’s just what has happened over the past 35 years, ever since the UK joined an inoffensive “Common Market” with “no political or sovereignty implications”. The energy map of the institution predicts perfectly how it has evolved over the decades.

Now, with a new constitution, the transition from common market to legal jurisdiction is almost complete, with not a referendum of the people in sight. And it’s all been driven by the energies funnelled into the Commission by short-sighted, short-termist national politicians.

Clearly, we should take a hard look at the energy makeup of the Brussels Commission and the Court of Justice.

Energy Analysis is a useful tool in any organization, especially when aimed at finding the points of maximum competence for taking critical decisions.