Self-Organization...More...

[Jeff Aitken]

Great thread, you all.

I've been working on the notion that when we participate in Open Space
Technology we are acting as hunters and gatherers do -- following our
intuitive and rational capacities across a diverse and shifting landscape
into situations that seem meaty (or may bear fruit)...then returning to the
circle around the fire to share what we found for the nourishment of all.
In a multi-day OST I often use the metaphor of a group moving thru the wide
forest by day and then meeting in a clearing at night and the next morning.

I see "open space" as exactly that - a large, open field filled with issues
and opportunities. We are individually invited to make our own journeys
thru this open space, working alone, in pairs, or in small groups as the
situation requires, in service to the whole group as well as ourselves.
It's a wise way to make sense of a shifting, chaotic environment.

Maybe this is one way to see why open space helps people and organizations
in modern societies develop the wherewithal to respond to chaos. Perhaps we
are re-learning capacities that have been dormant because of the controlled
environments we have attempted to live in for several generations. (Then
again, is there anything so hunter/gatherer as taking a family thru a
shopping mall during Christmas season?)

Hugh Brody's book Maps and Dreams contains wonderful descriptions of the
holistic work of hunting/gathering. It's a current practice of life for
many thoughtful, technology-using, and spiritually competent people. If
humanity is evolving, we are all evolving together, and I don't want to
disregard the experience of those outside our familiar circles, because we
will probably need it.

Jeff

-
Jeff Aitken
NOTE NEW PHONE STARTING 11/15: (01) 707-769-8155
Petaluma CA USA
JA at svn.net

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