"empowerment" is a disempowering concept

[Meg Salter]

Or to put it in simplest terms - go where it hurts. Which is lots of people.  Which is what "consultants" typically get asked to do anyway. And use language that they can relate to, and which stretches their imagination/ spirits. Most of my experiences in corporate "pro-active land of control" are not across the organization - but a division or department. OS does make a difference, to the people who were touched by it, and to how that group of people works. So far as I can tell, the organization itself has not changed massively. But I figure that is not up to me ("whatever happens...") What I can do is to skip around sewing little grains of openness as I go, and when the timing is right... the change will happen!
Meg Salter

MegaSpace Consulting
416/486-6660
meg.salter at sympatico.ca
www.megaspaceconsulting.com

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Harrison Owen 
  To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU 
  Sent: Monday, May 20, 2002 12:00 PM
  Subject: Re: "empowerment" is a disempowering concept


  At 08:41 AM 5/20/2002 -0600, Paul Roberts wrote:

    One of the questions that intrigues me, and around which I am doing my
    work, is how to engage this system:  where do we locate the carrot, as we
    work alongside the corporation (or inside it...not my personal preference
    at this point in time)?  How can the corporate structure make the
    transition into a new, more open structure that reflects evolution on the
    Spiral?  I know Ken Wilber is addressing about the same things in his
    Integral Institute...and so does the Apostle Paul, in talking about his own
    stealth strategy of missionizing:  being wise as a serpent, and harmless as
    a dove.

  I would suppose you are asking THE question of the moment -- whether in terms of Corporations or countries (Palestine and Israel for example). I know a lot people are tying a lot of ways, but in my experience only one thing really works. Gently put we might call it a "significant emotional event." Or more accurately a Whack to the side of the head. This could be something like bankruptcy -- or more positively -- a marvelous new opportunity for which you are not prepared. Either way  -- a clear and growing recognition that going the way we are going we will not get to where we want. Period. 

  there is always the hope that we might find an easier, gentler way. And if we could -- that would be wonderful. But I think the change required is so far outside of what might appear possible that unless the stakes get very high, few if any would contemplate the jump. And it is a jump -- transformational no less. And nobody in their right mind would willingly do it unless they saw no alternatives. And for sure they will look for alternatives, and there will be many sellers. But to date, I haven't seen any that work. cosmetic changes for sure and in abundance. But something useful? Not yet.

  Obviously this presents real issues when you are looking at a one industry town with lots of lives involved. but I don't think that changes the realities involved -- it just makes it more immediate for a lot of folks. A microcosm of all this (and sometimes it can be the whole ball of wax) occurs every time one brings up the subject of doing an Open Space. It is not something you can or should "argue" somebody into. They have to decide on their own, or not. Actually in my experience, Open Space is about the only effective mechanism for the sort of change/transformation you are talking about. Once they have made the jump and decided to go they suddenly find themselves in a radically new situation where the old rules simply don't apply and it works. Perhaps they will determine that once in Open Space is more than sufficient, but at least they have had the experience -- and unless they wish to pretend that it was purely an imaginary one (and strangely lots of folks do that) they can never quite go home again. 

  So all I can really say is tell the story, and let those who have ears to hear -- hear. As for the rest... I guess First Aid for all those in that awful category of "collateral damage." But sooner or later you have to fish or cut bait. shoot or relinquish the fowling piece -- or one other pat phrase which should not be used in this polite company. The choice is theirs -- and it is a choice they must make for themselves, no matter how much I might want to fix things.

  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

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