Self-Organization????

[Harrison Owen]

At 11:09 PM 11/18/01 -0500, Birgitt wrote:
>For me, I am clear that the conscious Open Space Organization is not a
>self organizing system. IT IS MUCH MORE THAN THAT and I am as clear as I
>can be in my communications that the two for me, do not equal each other.
>I believe that Spirit is all that is, and that all is Spirit and that we
>are connected through Spirit. Spirit is powerful and active and there are
>infinite possibilities. For me, the conscious Open Space Organization
>includes self organization at work but is not limited to this definition
>as a definitive description (or even theory) of either Open Space
>Technology or the conscious Open Space Organization. Spirit is much more
>than that. You may see it as useful to use the theory of self organizing
>systems to explain what happens within Open Space Technology. I see it as
>limiting and a disservice to the wholeness of  Open Space Technology.


I agree, I agree!!! "Uncle!!! Spirit is primary. As the author of a number
of books, 4 of which have "Spirit" emblazoned in the title, I would be on
pretty shaky ground were I to suggest otherwise. Displaying my true colors
as a total pedant allow me to quote myself from the opening lines of my
latest and last, "The Power of Spirit."

This book is about Spirit, and the ways in which Spirit forms and
transforms in organizations. It is written from the belief, and experience,
that Spirit is the most important thing. When the Spirit of a people is
strong, focused, and vibrant, wonderful things can happen. When the Spirit
is down, it makes very little difference how good your reputation, how much
money you have in the bank, or how strong the need for your goods or
services. Not too much happens.

Having said all that, I still find that the theory of self-organization to
be very helpful (but not exhaustive)  when it comes to understanding how
and why Open Space works, how we might work in it -- and more broadly, how
organizations work. There might even be some useful clues here as to how
Spirit works.

>Harrison, I have huge respect for you as you know. And we both know from
>about a decade of conversations and debates between us, that we have
>different perspectives. I think you would be both surprised and
>disappointed if I agreed with you. Over the years, you taught opening
>space for Spirit to show up . I taught opening space to work with Spirit
>that is present everywhere always . You taught that organizations are
>shifting from proactive to interactive and eventually if all goes well to
>the state of inspired. You taught that with use of Open Space Technology
>organizations could make that leap from pro-active to interactive. I
>taught that the inspired organization is always present, exists NOW. The
>inspired organization  simply needs to be uncovered to get the barriers to
>accessing Spirit out of the way. I called this the Open Space
>Organization, and over the last few years as my own learning has evolved,
>the conscious Open Space Organization.

Sure -- No problem. And I would even agree that the Inspired Organization
is a present reality, albeit pretty well covered up. When we are lucky and
intentional the covers slip away, and we experience ourselves as we
actually are -- fully. Our Buddhist friends and others would say that in
the evolution of consciousness we move to find "our original face" which is
another way of saying, "Its all there from the beginning -- just covered up."

>  And then of course was the huge debate we had for years regarding givens
> . I remember when I introduced the importance of givens as essential for
> working with Open Space Technology, you responded by saying that with
> givens I was going to ruin Open Space Technology. I still stand behind my
> belief and experience that it is through clear definition of the givens
> that we define where the degrees of freedom really are rather than where
> they are assumed to be. The givens create the matrix (or womb) for the
> OST meeting to take place.

Truthfully, I think the notion of "givens" is very important. As far as
ruining Open Space -- not a chance. And one of the major "givens" for me
relative to all organizations is  their status as a self-organizing system.
Just as we are all limited by gravity, and violate that limitation only at
our peril -- so also, I think we are "limited" by the "Laws of
Self-Organization" -- which we are just now coming to understand. Which
means that we may not have them right. But I think we are gaining on it.
And is that The Whole Story? Absolutely not. Just a place of beginning.  As
for the grand debate --- You win!

Birgitt, I love your spirit, and your love of Spirit. Keep it up!

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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