Fancy or Plain

[Don Ferretti]

As Bob Dylan once said, "you say it fancy or you can say it plain". I think self-organization in the context of an "Open Space" is that people will do what matters to them all by themselves in a very organized way, without a lot or any traditional pre-planned or even spontaneous facilitator interventions.  An organization can be  two people.

>>> Tim.Sullivan at gems5.gov.bc.ca 11/15/01 11:55AM >>>
The conundrum of the term "self-organizing" when thinking about
organizations (which are social) is: What is the "self" of an organization
or social phenomenon? That's one idea. Another is: I would say it is the
radical difference between biological organisms and social organizations
that must be considered for a truly explanatory, predictive theory to be
developed; not the similarity between them. Kaufman's simulations of
molecular based processes to model the arising of self-organizing systems
(ie organisms) is useful, but does it capture all the characteristics of
social systems? Again until we consider the radical differences between
organisms and their eco-environments and social organizations and the
meta-systems that constitute their environment, we will not have truly
powerful understanding for organizational change and transformation. I
suggest that because humans have the capacity for self-reflexive
communication, and because social organizations exhibit that same capacity,
reflexivity is an emergent property of social organizations, which manifests
as the tendency for radical transformation. ( e.g Wilber's appropriation of
the meme levels of Spiral Dynamics...evolving memes suggests dynamic
evolution) Something we don't see in biological organisms. Organisms change
structure (form) but the underlying organization is the same eg
DNA-protein-cell membranes etc. Whereas social organizations not only
exhibit different forms, they can exhibit radically differing states of
awareness (meme-levels).

Tim Sullivan

-----Original Message-----
From: Larry Peterson [mailto:larry at spiritedorg.com]
Sent: Thursday November 15, 2001 10:48 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: Self-Organization????



I generally that Harrison has got it mostly right on this one.



I think "self-organization" needs also to be put in context.  I don't have
time for a long or well thought out statement, but here are a few points:



-Self-organization describes the natural, emergent processes of complex
systems.  And the conditions for it can be enhanced or not.  Using Ken
Wilbur (and Harrison's adaptation) it is a description of what happens in
the lower right quadrant, what the collective exterior of all complex
systems do.



-Awareness of it is at the "interactive" level of organizational
consciousness.  It is the growing recognition that organizations are in fact
organisms - living.  Self-organization is part of what living things do.  It
is a useful metaphor for shifting up the spiral (dynamics) form "orange"
consciousness (proactive) to a "good" green consciousness (interactive,
connected)



-The scientific phrase, "self-organizing" is still "flat land", it does not
acknowledge the other quadrants.  From a spiritual perspective, at other
levels of awareness the self that self-organizes and the Self (and my self)
are one.



Larry



Larry Peterson

Associates in Transformation

Toronto, ON, Canada

416.653.4829



 <mailto:larry at spiritedorg.com> larry at spiritedorg.com

 <http://www.spiritedorg.com> www.spiritedorg.com

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