Fwd: Re: Already-thereness, Empowerment and Such ....

Bernd Weber weberb at gmx.at
Tue Feb 25 06:47:26 PST 2003


((Dear oslist, you get this Cc, to show you how this rich discussion is reflected on another map/game board WB))

Re: Preparation for capacitation in "Conclict management for participative Community & District Development

Jean-Paul,
Harrisons answer to Chris' e-mail, which I have already forwarded to you  shows (to me- at least), that the ongoing 'decolonisation- selforganization-spirit- anarchy-empowerment ...' discussion is related to conflict management in the sense of conflict transformation. He deals with the aspect of grief because something dies during the transformation. I think there is a deep meaning for our work in that: there is no management of real conflicts possible, so conflict transformation can get into place, when we can help the system (including the involved persons) to accept the necessary grief-work and to deal with the conflictsby using its self-organization-capacity allready in place.

Of course this will again be a difficult point for our national "logical planners", but I think we should start trying  to understand that point to not invest in de facto useless techniques (and in the hybris of our egos) for managing something which is better of in self-organizing.

Bernd

--- Original Message ---
From: "Harrison Owen" <owenhh at mindspring.com>
To:  <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
Cc:
Sent: Mon, 17 Feb 2003 16:37:02 -0500
Subject: Re: Already-thereness, Empowerment and Such (this is a really  long reply...omigod it's a thesis)

At 10:26 AM 2/17/2003 -0800, Chris wrote:

This idea of grief work as a fundamental tool is interesting too.  I see what you are saying Harrison, but something feels to me like that s only part of the answer.

When I work with the grief cycle, the thing that people respond to is the map.  They can find themselves on the map and it validates what they are feeling.  And of course because it is a map, it also points out some places they might go, and this is powerful for people, especially people who are in the midst of the anger or denial stage or that deeply unresourceful and collapsed point where all they want to do is sob.  Knowing that it gets better can help honour that moment and open space for the pain of the now to be fully experienced.  When someone leaves that stage it is with the knowledge that they had been fully present there and so there is no residual pain to carry forward as suffering.
The Griefwork process is definitely a map, and certainly can be used in the manner you suggest. But I have a strong feeling that in this case the map is pretty close to the territory. Not the same for sure, but close enough for Government work, as we used to say when I was in government employ. From where I sit (both theoretically and quite personally when the grief is mine), the process described is, in and of itself, critical to the phenomenon of transformation as it works itself out through self-organization.
        Speaking very broadly, the process of self-organization follows a path which might be described a) Steady State (life as we know it.) b) Flapping Butterfly (some nuts and bolts fall off and the system heads towards dis-equilibrium) c) Periodic doubling (The system tried everything it can think of to get back on course) d) Chaos (The Sh... Hits the fan, and the system falls apart.) e) One of two eventualities occur -- the system dies (disappears) OR The system reconstitutes at a new and higher order of complexity, and life goes on in some new and interesting ways.

The critical point to notice is that one way or another, the old system dies. This system could be you, your family (relationships), your business, city, or country -- or I guess the planet itself. When death happens, grief starts -- not when we push a button or choose it -- it just starts. Totally automatic. Shock/Anger, Denial, Memories, Despair, Silence (Open Space), and if we are so inclined, something new which I call Vision. This is my version, based on Kuebler-Ross and a number of other folks. Other people have some different names, but I think we all come out at about the same place. Anyhow, I see the Griefwork Process as the critical mechanism through which we as human beings negotiate the (often) painful process of Transformation and/self-organization. Thus for us (Homo sapiens) Griefwork enables self-organization, and without it we would be dead in the water -- literally. And like the process of self-organization it seems to happen all by itself, and has done so for the million years, or whatever, that we have been around.

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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