outcomes and one-off OSTs and OSLIST
Mike Copeland
mcopeland at doc.govt.nz
Wed Dec 3 11:25:14 PST 2003
G'day Harrison and Chris
I really get the sense of the myth being played out largely unconsciously
in our world now, especially in our organisational culture. The
Judean-Christian myth, which is what I grew up with and is what I experience
in my culture is not as dead and buried as a lot of deconstructionist post
modernists would have us believe. Perhaps the Dead Moose Ashely asks after?
The state, the omnipotent being, will intervene on my behalf and create a
safe place for me to live. I can sue someone through law when "I" fall over
and break "MY" leg. However, the trade off is, and this is the shadow of the
myth, I am worshipping at the alter of the state. I saw this myth played out
recently in "The Matrix (movie)" where the machines (the state) take over
and human bodies are "farmed" to provide power for the machines.
In daily life I experience this time and time again. Something is not
allowed because of law, policy, regulation... . Sometimes to an unbelievable
degree where very obviously I am serving the state and not the other way
round. This has all been weaving together very rapidly as OST opens my eyes
(switches the lights ON) to the possibilities and potentiality in myself, my
community, my organisation and the place where I live.
I think I am struggling to say that OST has given me a mighty process to
question, explore, design and try a new way of being;
tell a new story! So often I've taken on a task that I was excited and
passionate about only to have the spirit completely wrung out of it by the
organisational structure,law, policy or regulation.
I now see that living with the myth that pervades my culture at present is
more often than not hell; death to passion and spirit. OST for me creates
space for spirit, and the difference is light years.
A few thoughts on a beautiful spring morning from Kawatiri, New Zealand
Mike Copeland
-----Original Message-----
From: Harrison Owen [mailto:hhowen at COMCAST.NET]
Sent: Thursday, 4 December 2003 2:33 a.m.
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: outcomes and one-off OSTs and OSLIST
Christ Wrote:
I think we are in a time when our stories about who we are and where we
have come from are changing and paradigms are coming to rub against each
other in deep ways. OST is a process predicated on the fact that all of
us can have a hand in creating the new world. It is nearly the very
extreme example of that, in the world of organizational development.
Other methods rely on facilitators or experts (sometimes called
"management gurus" which isn't far from being gods) to come in and fix
things, banish the bad and tinker with the good. It's easy to see
results when evil is banished. That is a tangible step towards the
"better world" demanded by cynics. It's much harder to see tangible
results from a process where the first step towards making a safe place
for your babies is to smear the back of a turtle with mud.
At any rate, I hope what I am saying makes sense. We operate out of
deeply held stories about creation and renewal. Where we come into
conflict with one another it feels dissonant but we can't put our finger
on why. I'm suggesting that some of the dissonance we feel from
"results" people is at a fundamental level. I mean, which story do you
really resonate with? You know my answer.
Chris - you have certainly moved the discussion in what I would consider to
be wonderful new territory. There is no question in my mind that we are - to
a very large extent - the stories we tell. Not the trivial little tales that
appear in the morning newspapers, but the deep stories that constitute our
mythic consciousness.
There used to be a day when the power of these deep stories was appreciated,
but in recent times they are dismissed with the light thought that they are
"just a story." And of course we all know that only the "facts" will do. And
when it comes to myths, these are not only dismissed, but dissed. Worse than
a story, myth now means lie and falsehood. How the world changes. And of
course, for enlightened people such as ourselves, we have long since thrown
off the bondage of myth. How sad. And we never really do - throw it off,
that is. We simply develop new ones, and they of course, are understood to
be The Truth, or better yet Scientific Truth. But it is still a story, now
dressed up in different clothes. We call them "Theories" - but at the end of
the day, these Theories are simply likely stories which help us interpret
our world. So our essential nature hasn't changed - we are still story
tellers whose life expectations are shaped by the stories we tell. Myth by
any other name. What is different now is that the formative power of these
tales is somehow out of our awareness. And when the stories are warped,
distorted or partial - the world and our space in that world is distorted
and shrunk. Of course, we could tell a different story. . .
And I think that new story creation is a major part of what happens in Open
Space. But it is not so much telling a story as being a story.
I love where we are headed! Go for it!!!
Harrison
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