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

[Joelle Lyons Everett]

Artur--

Your comments touched on some of the difficulties when someone (king,
invading army, church hierarchy) try to impose transformation by "power over."  I
don't think that any of us (maybe the CEO of an organization, and I question
that) can create an Open Space organization by the application of "power over."

What I can do with my clients is educate, influence, use methodology which
allows them to experience a new way of being together, stick around and do some
coaching if they are inclined to try for transformation.  It seems to me that
one of the important things for practitioners to do is to share our experience
of what, if anything, seems useful in helping clients to move into a new
paradigm.  And I think I hear you asking for all of us to be more systematic about
trying things (action research) and creating a body of information about what
seems to work or not work.

What I don't think I can do is to impose transformation, or control what
happens inside the organization after an Open Space event or even a long series of
such events.  Transformation is always an "inside job," and probably the best
I can do is light the fire and tend it for a bit.

I also believe, romantic that I am, that giving people a new experience
causes changes that may not be easy to observe or track.  I'm sure that all of us
have had the experience of someone coming to us to say how much a long-ago
event, that we offered, had meant in their life.  Some of these changes affect the
organization, some may result in the individual leaving the organization,
some have effects which are entirely internal to the individual.  This is an
aspect of transformation that is not readily charted and quantified.

For me, it makes sense to do what I can, and I want to give the world a nudge
in a new direction.  But I may not ever know clearly what worked and what
didn't.

Joelle

PS--You give us plenty to think about between holidays!

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu,
Visit:

http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html