OST, OSO, OSW... (an overall coment on "It always works revisited")

Artur Ferreira da Silva artsilva at mail.eunet.pt
Tue Jun 10 12:04:34 PDT 2003


Hello dear friends:

[In the first draft of this post, I began with a parenthesis (strange way
of beginning), about today being a holiday in Portugal, but it got too big
and has been removed to a PS... But before it was removed it degenerated in
a second parenthesis about "metanoia" that I have decided to maintain here
as it acts as a sort of "preface" to the main points below. Probably it
should be a conclusion and not an introduction, but here it goes.

When Paul first used the word "metanoia", he was not talking mainly about
what he has felt in a certain moment in the "Damascus road". He was talking
about a long-lasting change of mind (or paradigm shift) that he could no
longer deny from that moment on...The important point is not what he saw
(or not) in that particular moment in that road. The important point is
that, later, he was no longer a persecutor of Christians, but a Christian
himself and, some would say, the greatest of them all - at least the most
prolific if we consider the many epistles he wrote (the epistles being the
posts of the time, I suspect). And I don’t think that he believed that
"whatever happens is what could have". He felt a personal responsibility
for promoting and organizing what he began to believe (passion and
responsibility, we would say)... After that moment he became the real stone
("pedra" in Portuguese) for the Church - whose effects we are still
suffering - pedophile bishops, criminal politicians talking about the
other's "evil", to give only two examples. Nobody is perfect, not even him.
Paul, I mean.

Now that I have captured (or lost) your attention, let's begin].

I think that for one to understand my "revisitation" of "it always works"
and the dialogue that unfolded, but also, and even more important, for one
to understand the OS community of practice, we have to analyze the three
different levels that are present (but sometimes hidden) when we talk about OS.

The first is OST. For me, OST is a "meeting methodology". We have
foundations of OST (the circle, the breath, the market place, the board,
the law, etc); we have principles (that some believe that are not so
important as others believe, and could very well be included in the "one
less thing" to use). We have "tales" and stories, we have a tradiction (in
relation which some other views - like the one I expressed above - can be
considered an "heresy"), we have space for diversity and even heresies (I
hope), and we have a rich sharing going-on on this list (that, by the way,
is called OSLIST and not OST-list). OST has a history of some years and
generally it is a success history. This success history is spreading all
over the world and among many cultures - even if it can be considered, as I
will refer in a later post, that it is still too much "American oriented" -
which is probably not the fault of anyone, but resulted from the
circumstances of the past, and even - unfortunately, in my opinion - of the
present.

When we claim that "it always works", and why it works, we are normally
speaking of OST. Many discussions on self-organization refer to the
self-organization of an OST event, and the marvelous post from Julie is
clearly speaking of an event, namely when she referred repeatedly to the
NOW. [It is interesting to note that the NOW of an OST has a duration in
time - in a three day event there is a NOW in the beginning, another in the
end and many others as the time flows through the event - or the event
flows through time, if you prefer]

The second is OSO. I am using "O" for Organization even if that includes
Companies, Government organizations, NGOs but also Communities. With this
acronym I am referring to organizations and communities that use OST and
other close related methods as their "normal" way of being, living and
leading. Speaking of an OSO is NOT a heresy. In the User's Guide, Harrison
explicitly referred to OSO’s as something that eventually would come
"Next", and would need some research. And if I understand English well
enough (which I doubt) "next" means "later". I don't know (can someone
help?) if he referred to that in the 1st edition, but he surely referred in
the second, in 1997.

So, and giving the fact that we are living in 2003, six years LATER in
relation with 1997, I think it is a legitimate question to ask if there are
some OSO’s out there, and what kind of practice and research is being
conducted in that domain. In other words, as it was said in the
Portuguese-Mozambiquian poem I offered to Joelle’s poetry session in
Berlin, one may question if THE FUTURE IS NOW. And it is also, IMHO,
legitimate and important that in this list we have not only a dialogue and
a sharing of stories and advises on OST, but also on OSO’s; and that we try
to collect stories and tales on OSO’s as we once did (and still do) with
OST events.

This is exactly what is analyzed in the very interesting article that Peggy
authored with Anne Stadler, available in the link Peggy sent us, where
there is a reflection about 3 real organizations that they have considered
to be close to OSO’s or "emergent organizations". See

http://www.opencirclecompany.com/BookStarter-EmergentOrganizations.htm

That is also the case of the Universities that are approaching OS concepts
that Larry and Kerry referred. I consider those cases especially important
as, from my experience, I would expect Universities to be the last type of
Organizations to become OSO’s (or, for that matter, learning organizations)...

And lastly, there are some of us who think that OS concepts will have in
the future a larger role in society at large and hope for the coming of an
OSW (world). And not only hope. As I think that values matter, I feel an
obligation to give my contribution NOW for a better world in the future.
After all, as the poet says: "the future is now".

That also means, that when I facilitate an OST event for an organization or
community it is easy for me to not be concerned with outcomes, and consider
that "whatever happens is what could have" (for that organization and if
the space is really open). After all we are talking about the
self-organization of that organization.

But when we are talking about the world I think that each one of us has a
responsability as a part of the world and humanity and not only as an OST
practitioner working for some client. That is also the reason, why I don’t
think "whatever happens is what could have" to be a general law of the
world or a general principle of Spirit. On the contrary, in a world where
so many of us refuse to fight for a better and Open World, letting the
playfield free for those that pollute the earth, but also the bodies and
hearts of the citizens of the world, I think that using at this level the
"whatever happens is what could have" is dangerous and, sorry for saying
that, even irresponsible.

Best regards

Artur

PS:

[I must inform you that today is holiday in Portugal - and as I am not
working today, I could re-read the last few messages and links and I will
try to answer to some of them. This is an "introduction" to other posts -
or to a big one. The bad news is that I will have time for some messages or
a big one... Sorry about that... The good news is that you are not obliged
to read neither this post nor the following ones and that there are NOT
many holidays in Portugal...

By the way, this day is called "Day of Portugal" or "Day of Camoes" as it
commemorates the decease of the poet Camões, in 10/June/1580, Camões being
considered the greatest Portuguese poet - a "holy" poet, for sure...

As I am in the middle of a parenthesis, maybe you forgive me for two other
comments. I find it very abnormal that one comemorates the decease (and not
the birth) of someone... And it is even more strange that this is
considered the "Day of Portugal", instead of that day being the day of
independence, in 1128 (for those who prefer the facts) or 1143 (for the
ones who prefer the external recognition of the facts.). Curiously enough,
1580 is also the beginning of a 60-year period where Portugal has been
submitted to the kingdom of Castilla (there was no "Spain" yet, by that
time) but the 1/December - of 1640 - is called the "Restoration Day" and
not the day of Portugal. If someone wants to understand something about the
Portuguese way of feeling - also called "fado" - you must take in account
that the day of Portugal coincides with Portugal being dominated by others
- not yet the new Empire that dominates us all, but an old one. So in
Portugal - as some of you have already understood - we always value the bad
news more then the good ones...

Also, from the date of the Portuguese independence you can understand that
we belong to the "old Europe" (the oldest, indeed) but unfortunately no one
seems to have told that to our Bushian prime minister. I hope some of you
consider this a good introduction to OSW. But never mind, the parenthesis
is about to be closed. Now - not later. Or is it that the "now" that I am
writing NOW is already later than the first one I wrote?].

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