Holding Space in Emergent Systems
Chris Corrigan
chris at chriscorrigan.com
Tue Apr 30 11:42:22 PDT 2002
Love is another one of those things that fails in the telling.
Years ago I had an insight into love that has stuck with me. I was in a
group talking about communication tools and someone drew a couple of
concentric circles, and then drew a line between the two outermost circles.
We talked about this as a form of communication. Then we drew the line
deeper and deeper and added another, so that now we had two lines moving
between the circles. Finally we extended both lines to the centre of both
circles and i immediately blurted out "That's love."
So, I feel like I know it when I see it. :-)
Chris
Birgitt Williams wrote:
> Chris,
> I will answer and gladly, but first I wonder if you could add to what you
> have written by sharing from your worldview where love fits into this and
> what love is. This will help me in what I say in my response.
>
> Blessings to you and all whom you make genuine contact with,
>
> Birgitt Williams
> Mentoring for Organizational Effectiveness
>
> visit us at www.genuinecontact.com <http://www.genuinecontact.com/> and
> join the list serve at http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/genuinecontact
> <http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/genuinecontact>
>
> "I believe that Spirit matters and people are precious. I know that
> organizations incorporating these values have exciting, tangible results
> including wealth, prosperity, and abundance. Daily, these organizations
> attend to their health and balance. Participating in the Genuine Contact
> program takes you on a learning journey of HOW to achieve the healthy and
> balanced organization (the conscious Open Space Organization).” Birgitt
> Williams, Dalar International Consultancy
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU]On Behalf Of Chris
> Corrigan
> Sent: Tuesday, April 30, 2002 1:37 PM
> To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> Subject: Re: Holding Space in Emergent Systems
>
> Birgitt, I'm curious about some things in your email on
> self-organization. As I read your note, it suggested to me, to borrow a
> term from Ken Wilber, a holoarchy of organization. I see the holoarchy
> proceeding from level to level something like this:
>
> Participants in a meeting
> |
> Sponsor/facilitator
> |
> OST
> |
> Principles of self-organization
> |
> Divine Operating Plan
> |
> Basic universal laws (givens)
> |
> Creator
>
> This is my rough sketch suggesting that each level (from the bottom up)
> emerges in time and includes and transcends the level below it.
>
> So my questions are:
>
> * What is the difference between the Basic universal laws, and the
> principles of self-organization?
> * How were/are the basic universal laws organized?
> * Did the Creator self-organize and if so, how?
>
> I guess I am essentially wondering at how deep the principles of
> self-organization extend, and whether they simply manifest things in the
> sensory world (five senses) or whether they manifest ALL things,
> including the Creator and the basic universal laws that keep the planets
> from colliding. I think my world view suggests a bit of a different
> holoarchy that places something like the principles of self-organization
> on the lowest level.
>
> In my world view, evolving as it is, I see the "principles of
> self-organization" if that's what we want to call them, as that which
> manifests everything. Lately my world view has been greatly informed by
> Taoism, but it is also informed by the Ojibway Midewiwin teachings which
> essentially say the same thing. What they say is that there is a Way
> (in Taoism) or the Mide (in Ojibway) which is like a road upon which
> everything travels. It is also something which can never be experienced
> by talking about it, so putting words on it like this is folly. The Way
> or the Mide is the path of basic nature, and everything travels along
> this path. In Taoism it is said that the Tao gives rise to all things,
> and that it can be used but never exhausted, like the space within a
> bucket. One can use that space forever and ever, but it never gets
> depleted.
>
> In the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu writes:
>
> The Way is always uncontrived,
> yet there is nothing it doesn't do.
> If lords and monarchs can keep to it,
> all beings would evolve spontaneously.
> When they have evolved and want to act,
> I would stabilize them with nameless simplicity.
> Even nameless simplicity would not be wanted.
> By not wanting there would be calm,
> and the world will straighten itself.
>
> (Chapter 37)
>
> In both Taoist teachings (found in spades in a book called "Wen Tzu"
> among others) as well as Mide teachings, there is a strong equivalence
> between the Way and virtue, or goodness, or life affirming choice.
> These are often put together so that it is sometimes said that "the Way
> and Virtue gives rise to all things."
>
> All of this is just background for my questions. My own world view
> includes people like Lao Tzu, my Midewiwin teachers, Stuart Kauffman,
> Kevin Kelly, Ken Wilber and others all trying to get at an expression of
> the lowest level of the organization holoarchy, that which gives rise to
> anything. I see this really interesting discussion as another way of
> getting there too.
>
> Chris
>
> Birgitt Williams wrote:
>
> > Harrison,My belief and worldview is one that is grateful for the
> > greater Open Space of the world, created by our Creator, and for the
> > Divine Operating Plan inclusive of basic universal laws (givens) for
> > which I am greatful and if they weren't being attended to we might
> > just have our planets colliding with one another and so on. Within
> > this Divine Operating Plan that I view as a matrix of some sort (the
> > finite mind has a problem grasping the infinite, despite a deep
> > knowing that is within me) every organism, including humans, seem to
> > have free will to make choices that are either life depleting or life
> > nurturing. As such, the visible world can appear to be self organizing
> > within this greater Divine Operating Plan. Whether our free will takes
> > us to a collective will that organizes ourselves to be life nurturing
> > or life depleting is still unknown. Thank goodness that the seen world
> > (the world experienced by our five senses) is not the total picture. I
> > have a lot of faith in the unseen world to assist us to choose a life
> > nurturing future. Within Open Space Technology, created by yourself,
> > we have a magnificent window to heighten our conscious awareness about
> > our choices. That which is experienced by the five senses in an OST
> > meeting may appear to be self organizing within a matrix developed and
> > held by the collaboration of the facilitator and the sponsor and any
> > others who so choose as the meeting unfolds. A matrix seems to be
> > needed for the self organizing to appear. The richness and depth of
> > the "self organizing" within the OST meeting seems to be impacted by
> > the ability of the facilitator to work with the unseen world (in my
> > experience, this is the opening and holding of "space" which is not
> > empty space at all but indeed very full). In the games you are
> > referring to, a matrix is created, within which the players have
> > choice, usually again choices between life depleting and life
> > nurturing.
> > Blessings to you and all whom you make genuine contact
> > with<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
> > "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
> >
> > BirgittWilliams
> >
> > Mentoring for Organizational Effectiveness
> >
> > We invite you to visit us at www.genuinecontact.com and join the list
> > serve at http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/genuinecontact
> >
> > "I believe that Spirit matters and people are precious. I know that
> > organizations incorporating these values have exciting, tangible
> > results including wealth, prosperity, and abundance. Daily, these
> > organizations attend to their health and balance. Participating in the
> > Genuine Contact program takes you on a learning journey of HOW to
> > achieve the healthy and balanced organization (the conscious Open
> > Space Organization).”Birgitt Williams, Dalar International Consultancy
> >
> > Contact information for Dalar International Consultancy
> >
> > Mailing address: Po Box 19373, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA 27619 or
> > for courier 12136 Shooting Club Rd., Raleigh, North Carolina USA 27613
> >
> > Phone: 919-522-7750Fax: 919-870-6599
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU]On
> > Behalf Of Harrison Owen
> > Sent: Monday, April 29, 2002 9:36 AM
> > To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> > Subject: Holding Space in Emergent Systems
> >
> > I am, as some may know, afflicted with the notion that all
> > systems are essentially self-organizing, and that in Open
> > Space we are basically dealing with one more such emergent
> > system. Holding Space, therefore has something to do with
> > the art and practice of sustaining self-organization. turns
> > out we are not alone. Programers who do games of an emergent
> > sort seem to be playing in the same sandbox. See the
> > following:
> >
> > “One of the pleasures of what I do,” Zimmerman tells me,
> > over coffee near the NYU campus, “is that you get to see a
> > player take what you*ve designed and use it in completely
> > unexpected ways.” The designer, in other words, controls the
> > micromotives of the player*s actions. But the way those
> > micromotives are exploited— and the macrobehavior that they
> > generate—are out of the designer*s control. They have a life
> > of their own.
> >
> > Sound a little Familiar? For more, check out Steven
> > Johnson's book "Emergence" (Scribner/2001)
> >
> > Harrison
> >
> > Harrison Owen
> > 7808 River Falls Drive
> > Potomac, MD 20854 USA
> > phone 301-365-2093
> > Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com
> > Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
> > Personal website
> > http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm
> >
> > OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> > To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
> > view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu
> > Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> --
>
> CHRIS CORRIGAN
> Consultation - Facilitation
> Open Space Technology
>
> http://www.chriscorrigan.com
> chris at chriscorrigan.com
>
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--
CHRIS CORRIGAN
Consultation - Facilitation
Open Space Technology
http://www.chriscorrigan.com
chris at chriscorrigan.com
*
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