Open Space -- The Credible incredible - Thank you for this rich and dynamic dialogue......

[Harrison Owen]

At 05:12 PM 3/10/2002 -0500, Birgitt wrote:
>Alas, despite best efforts to assist a client to understand the power of
>an Open Space Technology meeting, and I agree that story telling is a good
>way to do this, the client usually does not understand what it is really
>about until he/she is right in the middle of it and reflecting on it after
>the fact. It is a lot like telling a person what a date will be like. Or
>what marriage will be like. There is no way to describe it to someone in a
>way that they can truly understand. He/she usually only understands what
>is meant well into the middle of it.

That's for sure.

>I can t recall any clients as the type for Nasty Retribution or deadening
>Business as Usual types. My experience with them is that they are
>overwhelmed by what happened in the meeting and although they gave what
>they thought was informed consent, they didn t really know what they were
>consenting to. And then they grieve&and sometimes behave from the
>shock/anger or denial&absolutely healthy and natural. I recall (since I
>attended your training some 7or 8 times) that you spoke of grief at work
>and that it is a natural human process.

Fortunately, most of the people in the world are pretty decent, but there
are rare exceptions which can cause concern. But the central issue for me
is not about the good folks who try hard (the majority) or the minority
nastys -- the true culprit is the understanding of the nature of
organization which is no longer relevant to the sort of world we live in,
and because of its irrelevance, has become highly toxic to those who
live/work there. What we used to think of as a well managed organization,
which I call ProActive -- is, at best, a well oiled machine, everything is
done by the numbers, and the MBA is the hero. Very productive and quite
impressive, but lethally destructive to the human spirit -- Soul Pollution
in abundance. In the name of maintaining control, all resident critters are
placed in little boxes called offices and departments, separated by formal
channels of communication -- all under the watchful eye of The Management.
Parody perhaps, but close to the truth in many situations. All too often I
think we try to  fix these organizational dinosaurs when the proper
response would be a decent funeral. Doing Open Space in such an environment
is not unlike planting a time bomb. And when it goes off, there is
Griefwork for sure -- but there is also the possibility of liberation.
Freedom and responsibility can be a heady brew, but totally necessary for
meaningful human life. I don't quite know how i got started on all this --
but it is something about seeing the revolutionary character of Open Space,
particularly when done in certain environments. All of which raises the
(ethical) question --  should we be playing with this fire? Personally, I
don't have any choice.

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 www.mindspring.com/~owenhh

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