OST vs OD

[Harrison Owen]

At 10:31 AM 9/26/2002 -0400, you wrote:
>How come OS never makes it onto the Organizational Development radar screen?
>
>I've just checked out the big OD conference in Montreal this October,
>bringing in Fritjof Capra, Meg Wheatley, and lots of folks talking about
>complex adaptive, chaordic systems.... and how to create them (what a
>non-sequitur that
>is!)
><http://www.odnetwork.org/conf2002/index.html>www.odnetwork.org/conf2002/index.html
>And Chris brought our attention to a Plexus institute on complexity etc.
>with no mention of OS. So the theory behind complexity and
>self-organization is becoming quite popular.
>
>So why is it that such a simple, widely practiced and successful
>"approach" such as OS - which is self-organization in action and has been
>talked/ written about as such (HO) - never gets talked about? or simply
>ignored? Is it too threatening? Is it hard to be a typical guru and do the
>speaker circuit thing? Or is it just most of these folks are doing the
>same old thing (you know - being the expert) but speaking new language?

Truth to tell, ODN does space out occasionally. In 1995 (I think) in
Baltimore,  and again in San Diego, I opened some space for the whole crowd
-- 800-900 folks -- so they have been there. I remember one strange
occurrence in San Diego where I noticed that somebody was offering a
session of "Designing Self-Organizing Systems." ???? But your question
still stands.

Anyhow, I think it boils down to two factors, bluntly stated. First folks
wonder how something so simple could possibly work, 'cause everybody knows
that if it is good it has to be complex. Which of course means that you
have to have an "expert" do it. And then of course, if it is that simple,
and does actually work -- how would I charge for it? We could go further
and deeper, but that about covers it for me.

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 www.mindspring.com\~owenhh

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