Hosting in the field where open space and chaordic becomes one

[Harrison Owen]

At 08:59 PM 8/13/2003 +0200, Jan Hein wrote:
>SO, maybe OST is the proces and maybe Chaordic is the structure that in
>combination holds the whole of divergence and convergence - if we are
>to find a way to organize ourselves more authenticly ???

I think it may even be simpler than you suggest...although simplicity, more
often than not, seems to make approaches unacceptable. After 20 years with
Open Space, I have come to the conclusion that creating an Open Space
organization is in fact a waste of time, for all organizations already are
Open Space organizations but they don't know it.  Stated this way, the
notion appears as the height of hubris. Somehow "we" know the truth and all
the world is deluded. But with slightly different words, the idea may
become somewhat less outrageous. My mantra has become -- Open Space works
because self-organization works. And prior to that -- all organizations are
self-organizing, it is just that some folks seem to think they did the
organizing. When Dee Hock discovered the Chaordic Organization -- it was in
fact a discovery, not a creation, I think. Quite happenstantially, and
contrary to all expectations, Dee found himself in the middle of a
self-organizing system called Visa. His brilliance was that he intuited the
essential nature of things, and treated the organization  appropriately.
Surprise -- It worked. I think we do the same thing every time we open
space. So it is not about creation (as in creating the Chaordic
Organization or the Open Space Organization), but rather acknowledgement
and appropriate treatment. Still less is it about "structuring" either the
Chaordic Organization or the Open Space Organization. One thing we know for
sure is that given the essential preconditions, structure (organization)
happens. Once this structure has emerged/manifest then there are some
things we can do to clean it up a bit, but creating structure is not
something we need to do. It happens all by itself.

I believe there is enormous synergy possible between Chaordniks and
Spaceniks. First, we can share our growing, practical, on-the-ground
understanding of the nature of self organizing systems at the level of
human systems. This is not a theoretical endeavor, although theory is
always helpful as we seek an understanding of what we are looking at.
Secondly, I think there is much to share about how to best treat such
systems appropriately. One of the major learnings from Open Space is that
the imposition of arbitrary Control is not only a no/no -- it is in fact
the only way to insure that the Open Space will not work, or work at less
than optimal levels. In a word, appropriate behavior starts with massive
amounts of letting go of pre-determined outcomes. When we do this, things
work better. But this does not mean that we should become totally
uninvolved in the process. A workable stance seems to have a lot to do with
being totally present and absolutely invisible. And of course, there is
much more . . .

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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