Self-organizing systems

[Michael Herman]

okay, i'm back... whoa!

should add, too, that i'm back from 10 days with his holiness the dalai lama...
so i do got Spirit!

been reading mostly quietly, savoring this whole unfolding, and still have much
more to read, but i did want to jump into the lobbying game...

for me, calling what is emerging the open space org seems destined to push
practitioners, in some cases devotees, of other processes away.  let me explain
my alternative...

last february fast company printed a cover story "how digital is your
company".  they said that every time you change the strategic question, you
have to rethink the four basics of business:  finance, talent, customers and
speed.  they said that THE strategic question once was 'what business are you
in?' then 'what's your business model?' and today, TA-DA... 'how digital is
your org?'  BUT they said that the best companies today were doing the digital
question fifteen years ago.

so i go back to my little harrison/ken wilber/angeles arrien-inspired model.  i
map the four basics pretty easily onto the four conditions for open space, the
fourfold way and wilbers four quadrants -- BUT what i really want to know is
what is the NEXT strategic question that the next round of best orgs are
working on NOW?

'how inviting is your org?' is what i come up with.  what i'm suggesting in my
own writings these days is that the successor to the 'learning organization' is
the 'inviting organization'  which operates in open space, but doesn't need the
name 'open space' any more.  what's more, the coolest thing to me is that while
we must DO things at work, but we want to BE inspirited there, too...
'inviting' is something we can do AND be, as people, managers, organizations,
whatever, anytime... and the result looks like open space everytime, with or
without the technology part.  i'm now describing my work as a practice in
invitation and have started to post some things about this in the forums at
global chicago.
<http://www.globalchicago.net/forums> (in the 'inviting orgs' forum)

so, one vote for 'the inviting organization'...and now back to my reading!

michael



Birgitt Bolton wrote:

> Harrison,
> Having just cautioned that people might have a struggle if we mention Spirit
> on the website, and I don't disagree with that, I am sure your usual sense
> of humour has kicked in here when you say that the new title of your coming
> book has shifted from "Organization for a New Millennium: Self-Organization
> at
> Work." to -- "Spirit in Organizations --
> Opening Space for Inspired Performance." I am still lobbying you to simply
> call it the Open Space Organization. This is simpler. Then people who really
> are passionate about the current concepts of self organization can get
> excited when they get to that part, and others who get excited about Spirit
> can get excited about that part, and those who know that the two are really
> about the same thing can also get fulfilled. You have tackled a hard subject
> and done an excellent job, final edit not withstanding. I just think your
> book is really about the Open Space Organization and none of us really knows
> why it works. I think we can say that we observe self organizing within the
> context of the Open Space event. I think we can say that there are moments
> of self organizing within the Open Space Organization. I think too that we
> have seen inspired performance. I am not sure that inspired performance and
> the self organizing system are one and the same. Although both and are
> elements of some bigger unknown mystery. Of life.  How's that for lobbying
> :-)?
>
> Warmest regards,
> Birgitt
>

--

Michael Herman
...inviting results in evolving organizations

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