Self-Healing In Organizations -- A continuing Conversation

Chris Corrigan corcom at interchange.ubc.ca
Fri Jan 4 14:15:25 PST 2002


Harrison Owen wrote:

>
> I’m interested in your thought about enhancing self-healing in our
> communities
.. and wonder what the difference is between self-healing
> and healing
.. but my brain is tired and my stomach oh so empty


> don’t you serve food at these OS events?????
>
> Snacks will be served shortly -- but in the meantime...Self-Healing in
> our Communities (You like that red?)
>
> My premise in all this is that (surprise) all organizations
> (communities) are essentially self-organizing AND -- a (maybe THE)
> central purpose of self-organization is the achievement of wholeness,
> health, harmony, and I suppose authenticity and integrity,  in such
> situations where the organization is at risk due to changing internal
> or external environmental circumstances. The process is enormously
> complex in detailed execution, but very simple at the point of
> initiation. Given a good whack to the head, chaos clears some space in
> which high levels of complexity, diversity and conflict manifest and
> conspire enabling the appearance of renewed organization (or not).
> Sometimes things just die, but if they don't, life goes on in some new
> and useful ways displaying wholeness, health and harmony, all
> congruent with the changed environment. In broad terms, I think that
> is what organizations do, and typically they do it all by themselves.
> To be sure, we sometimes (erroneously, I think) give all the credit to
> some individual -- the "Turn around specialist as it were" -- but in
> truth,  We all did it.  Experimentally, and also experientially, I
> think we see this each time we Open Space, but I think it is
> imperative to note that the essential power does not belong to that
> wonderful thing called Open Space Technology, but rather to the
> process of self-organization itself. What we do with open Space is to
> intentionally initiate (or re-start) that fundamental process.
>

I have written before of OST as triggering healing from the colonial
experience for the First Nations and Aboriginal groups I work with.
THis is due to a number of reasons (I think, but who can do primary
research whilst opening space?):


   * OST somehow triggers the use of the "indigenous mind" whatever that
     is.  Something to do with the circle, something to do with honoring
     the inherent and innate wisdom of everyone in the room.
   * OST restores faith in people, and says "you are all experts, and no
     one can tell you what is true and what is not.  Your authority
     (both power and the ability to create a story) resides within you,
     not within the Great White Father"  This is a serious blow against
     the colonial experience of many Aboriginal people who have been
     conditioned over generations to believe that the Aboriginal story
     is not true, that the experts are the settl;ers, and that what is
     right is European.
   * OST provides space for people to grieve, find support and reframe
     their experience.  If it acknowledges that wisdom is in the room,
     it also acknowledges that, as Birgitt says grief is always in the
     room.  I have seen people in OST meetings revisit traumas in their
     lives, find support and move on, with the predictable results of
     euphoria and joy.  OST is not therapy but it also does not recreate
     the conditions of colonialism, where the teacher stands at the
     front of the room and mediates (in the sense of standing in the way
     and filtering) experiences.
   * Elders tell me that OST is "how we used to meet" meaning not that
     it is an Aboriginal way of meeting, but that it is a deeply
     traditional, pre-colonial quality of experience.  Elders love Open
     Space in my experience.

What I have learned about healing the wounds of colonialism for our
communities through using OST, is that a process can unlock skills and
talents that are latent and even suppressed.  Of course this comes as no
surprise after a while, but is is a powerful occurrence to see people on
the margins of mainstream society rediscover their own centres, and
recognize that the path forward starts with them.

In Canada, all the talk in the First Nations world is about
self-government, but only now are people beginning to realize the
profound implications of the word "self."   OST opens them to the Self
that can Govern and they discover that Spirit is the lubricant for the
healing engine.

>
>
>
> Of course, we do have that other 5% -- which includes such things as
> organ failure and major trauma. There are definitely times and places,
> to say nothing of circumstances where only a good surgeon will do.
> However, I think we would all agree that surgery is a matter of last
> resort and best done as sparingly as possible. Of course, I know some
> surgeons who would disagree -- but when the only tool you have is a
> hammer, all the world looks surprisingly like a nail. No -- I never
> said a thing like that!
>

When a patient is on life support, or in need of immediate assistance to
stem trauma, that person needs outside help, in the form of some kind of
technology, to stay alive.  To heal however, the patient needs only
itself.  If the trauma facing the patient is less serious than the
patient's capacity to deal with it, then the patient will heal.  Scars
will remain, but the healing will happen.  If the patient lacks the
capacity to heal, the healing won't happen.  Surgeons can help stem the
depletion of capacity, but they can't heal.

I think people confronted with serious illnesses often find that they
have far more capacity to heal than they thought they did.  I think the
same is true for organizations and communities too.


>
> And what about Self-Healing Organizations? I suggest that all
> organizations are self-healing just as they are self-organizing. Which
> means in the first instance that for the vast majority of nasty little
> surprises in life, the organization will do just fine all by itself,
> and the professional problem fixers of this world (which includes most
> of us) should just sit on their hands for a bit. As they say up in the
> Great State of Maine, "Don't fix it if it ain't broke."

It could be added to this that sometimes if a thing is broken it's not
worth "fixing" either.  Sometimes healing means taking a whole new
approach on something.  I think education reform is a case in point.
Education in North America is broken, and the subject of a myriad of
fixes, all of which seem to compound the problem.  THe point is, is it
worth fixing this thing?  Or can we get to the place we want to go
another way.  When people end up saying "YES WE CAN!" they end up
beginning the healing.  Read Ivan Illich "Deschooling Society" to see
what I mean.

My experience of OST is that, by allowing Spirit into the situation,
sometimes broken things stay that way, and instead new configurations
arise.  This is a much better expenditure of energy.

There is probably more to say in what Harrison and Julie have been
expounding upon in terms of processes and interventions, but I'll stick
to healing in the interests of running one thread at a time.

Chris


--
CHRIS CORRIGAN
Consultation - Facilitation
Open Space Technology

http://www.chriscorrigan.com
corcom at interchange.ubc.ca

RR 1 E-3
1172 Miller Road
Bowen Island, BC
Canada, V0N 1G0

phone (604) 947-9236
fax (604) 947-9238

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