Self-Organization???? OS just one of 18?

Harrison Owen owenhh at mindspring.com
Wed Dec 12 08:51:37 PST 2001


At 11:56 PM 12/11/2001 +0100, Michael Molenaar - Tilburg Holland wrote:
>I would like to make a point about my opinion of the essence of Open Space:
>Some might think it's self organization that invokes some human processes
>like motivation and community. I think that's not really true, it's the
>experience of Spirit.

         Why does this have to be an either/or -- why not both/and? The
whole point about Open Space as Self-Organization for me is that we
(humanoids) like (apparently) all the rest of the cosmos are rooted in
fundamental processes which (to some extent) determine our behaviors and
range of responses. That is not all there is -- but is a start. Our growing
understanding of the phenomenon of self-organization allows for a rational
explanation of what otherwise might be inexplicable -- Why does open Space
work??? Is this true -- in some absolute and abstract fashion? Who knows,
but it seems to work (logically) and more importantly for those who use
Open Space, it provides a deeper awareness of the realm we are operating
in, and simultaneously explains some seemingly anomalous  happenings --
such as -- the more we seek to control what goes on, the less successful we
are.
         But not to stop here. For a deeper understanding of Open Space and
our experience in Open Space, I find it useful to consider the realm of
Spirit. The phenomenon of self-organization is only a partial explanation.
Before  all that is Spirit, or what classically would be called
Consciousness.  To deeply understand Open Space and our experience therein
-- we in fact have to go deeper. Actually (to let the cat out of the bag) I
started with Spirit and only later, and quite by accident, ran into Open
Space. My first book, which was written in 1982-3, and published in 1987 --
was all about Spirit. The words "Open Space" do appear, but have nothing to
do with what we now call Open Space Technology. The reference is to what
the Buddhists might call The Abyss, or The Void. How I got from Open Space
as "void" to an approach to meetings, may seem a little strained, but my
reason was that much of what I experienced in The Void I also found
whenever space was opened.
         All of which poses an interesting question -- Does everybody have
to go into The Void in order to experience/understand Open Space? I guess
the answer is Yes and No -- it is all about levels. It is quite possible to
just "do" Open Space. No explanation needed or wanted. Or you could dig a
little deeper into the question -- Why the Hell does the damn stuff work --
when everything (well almost) in our training and experience says that it
couldn't and shouldn't? And I think some sort of an answer starts to emerge
when we open up the discussion to include Self-Organizing systems.  But is
that all there is? to which I must answer, No we are just getting started
-- and it is off to The Void. Is there anything else? Probably. It might
just be pure nothingness... Now try that for a sales pitch in the The
Corporate Board Room!

>There are two sides of Open Space, as I see it:
>The first side is the easy understandable and funny part, which makes it so
>attractive and, YES!, invites almost everyone to go for it. In this it is
>not really special and Open Space has to compete with the other 17 methods
>of the Change Handbook. But if you started to talk about the Shamanistic
>principles on which Open Space is based there would be a problem. So of
>course you usually don't start with this part of the story (at least I don't
>when I talk to someone who might be interested).
>On the second side is the essence (like Birgitt calls this) in which Open
>Space can have a very deep effect on how people work together: they make
>their Action Planning to a success, because they have discovered that they
>are connected on a deeper level in the organization and that the essence is
>not about hierarchy, but about Spirit and that it is really easy to open
>this special communication canal to do so.
>Is it that easy?? Yes and no.
>No if you do the first side Open Space, but the excitement of the experience
>will fade out...

Absolutely! Which is why it has always seemed to me that anybody with a
good head and a good heart can"do" Open Space, but it probably takes a life
time to get to the bottom of things.

>Now I'm stopping, because this is getting to far for the moment, I'm writing
>an article on comparing Open Space and Organization Constellation but it's
>not ready yet.

I will look forward to seeing it.



Harrison


Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, MD 20854 USA
phone 301-469-9269
Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com
Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
Personal website www.mindspring.com/~owenhh

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