OST and decolonization

[Michael Herman]

running the gauntlet here, reading this whole last week at
once... oh my, you all have been busy while i'm on the
road!  btw, complete proceedings posted WHILE we worked in
open space, from montessori regional conference...
http://www.globalchicago.net/ams if you're interested in how
wiki can support open space.  and as for the stuff been
going on here on the list...

chris said:

>>>I use that line about disempowerment all the time.  The
empowerment thing is a funny one, but over the years,
working with Open Space I have learned that it is really
only possible to disempower somebody, not to empower
them.  People empower themselves, people only disempower
others.

... i often remind sponsors that every decision we make for
people upfront, takes something away from what people can do
and decide for themselves, closes the space a little bit,
and limits the potential of the whole event... too many
decisions and there's no open space at all.

also, stringing togeher little bits from larry, birgitt,
chris, harrison, john and maybe some others...

harrison talked of interactive org, what i call inviting
org, because it straddles that space between 'doing' and
'being'... inviting is something we can do as business
practice AND aspire to be...  and in the being, we collapse
the four quadrants larry mentions... orgs can't feel or act,
only people can... but the grand collective (spirit, space,
or whatever) is noticed, it is not motivation, but
invitation... so in doing and being inviting, we approximate
the ALL in our little ONE selves... collapsing the wave that
chris talks about... or perhaps embracing it, or even
better... embodying it...  in the tibetan story, this is
darned close to dzogchen and guru yoga... the dissolving of
the guru (representing ALL) into our little local self....
the basic practice is usually summed up as view, meditation
and action.  in openspace terms, the view is the vision  is
the bulleting board... the meditation, or practice, aka
invitation is the raising of the issues, the watching of the
wall for what shows up, the posting of stuff we can't
ignore, and then the action happens, or as hho says, the
management is a no brainer... so opening space becomes org
meditation, the wall is the mind of the org, the inviting
the meditation, and the action is the movement that cannot
be separated from the field/space that we already are...
and to john's mentioning of open space and avoiding burnout
and overwhelm, i will just add that it perfectly tracks the
distinction between relative and absolute compassion... the
absolute being the limitless space of all/guru/openspace we
live in... and which if we breathe others sufferings
(etymologically same as 'passion') into that space, it
dissolves harmlessly into the vastness, without
destroying/overwhelming/burningout our little local, healer,
facilitator, spaceholder selves....  if we breathe those
same passions into our own small structures, we get fried...
and so it is that we are all seemingly practicing the
becoming of the space that can (and indeed already does)
hold all issues and actions without exploding... but who
among us has found this transition without the pain of
ripping, stripping, cracking, hatching, and other
destructurings as we came to know ourselves as larger and
larger beings?  it's only our own experience with these
little deaths that keep us from pushing/motivating/selling
others toward the same inevitabilities...

...someday i'll be wise enough to do this in as few words as
some of you do, but for now this is my rambling spin...
<grin>  and now i go back for the second round of reading...

--

Michael Herman
Michael Herman Associates
300 West North Avenue #1105
Chicago IL 60610 USA
phone: 312-280-7838

http://www.michaelherman.com
http://www.globalchicago.net

...inviting organization into movement

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