the OST-Healing Metaphor...

[chris weaver]

I'm fascinated with Chris & Caitlin's homeopathy metaphor.  Chris wrote that
OST

> introduces very small amounts of "what ails
> you" into the system and lets the system reconnect to itself,
> stimulating its own healing response.

I lack the concepts & language to talk about healing processes, and I
wonder:

If OST raises consciousness within the "parts" of a living system about the
nature of the "whole"...is there a body-healing analogy for this?  How is
the development of an expanded view of our identity healing?  Does a healthy
liver cell know what a healthy brain cell is doing...?  Does an unhealthy
cell experience itself as all alone?

It seems to me that some things have to happen before a "homeopathic
moment":  consciousness of freedom, consciousness of belonging and trust
within and without.  A major homeopathic (what ails us) moment is the dead
moose, and the dead moose doesn't appear in a healing-inducing form at the
very beginning - it takes a little time and a little transformation before
the system (we) reveals & articulates to itself (ourselves) the crux of what
ails us...

and when we do, everyone sure knows that it's not time to go home yet.

Seen as a natural healing process, I can see why longer OSTs are required
for acute illness (the dead moose won't show up otherwise), and why
integrating OST as a systemic long-term process is an essential healing
path...?  A dose of "what ails us" is one central event of an unfolding
larger process that has its own time, rhythm, & conditions...?

Chris Weaver



> From: Chris Corrigan <chris at chriscorrigan.com>
> Reply-To: chris at chriscorrigan.com
> Date: Fri, 30 May 2003 10:08:10 -0700
> To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> Subject: Re: [OSLIST] Open Space ,Self-Organizing Systems, and The Plexus
> Institute
>
> Hey folks:
>
> My partner Caitlin and I were having a discussion about this stuff over
> supper last night, and I was left with an enduring metaphor for what
> Open Space does in relation to orthodox organizational development.
>
> We were talking about healing systems and noting that OST tends to work
> like a homeopathic intervention into a system, where the cure comes from
> the disease.  That is, OST introduces very small amounts of "what ails
> you" into the system and lets the system reconnect to itself,
> stimulating its own healing response.  It does this by, as Michael so
> beautifully wrote providing the "opportunity to look into what is.  to
> deal with it directly, rather than playing cat and mouse with its
> shadows."  OST provides the opportunity for the system to be stimulated
> into healing by exposing it to a minute dose of what is ailing it,
> whatever that is.  Building peaceful peace movements is a great example.
> We are not saying that peace movements are violent, but we are implying
> that they are not as advertised.  Convening an OST around that topic
> introduces the possibility that we can get better by injecting the
> systems with a little shocking dose of its own reality.  Like
> homeopathic medicine, the smaller the dose, the more potent it is.  One
> less thing to do becomes one more powerful magnitude of healing.
>
> In allopathic medicine, where the cure is the opposite of the disease,
> diagnostics leads to treatment.  Allopathic medicine, the standard
> western model, leaves very little room for actual healing (healing is
> usually in the province of folks other than medical doctors: nurses,
> counselors, family members), and focuses more on treatment of the
> disease.  It has its parallels in OD as large consulting firms come in
> to surgically remove the problem, perhaps by cutting out a whole
> corporate division.  Rather than leading to healing, this solves the
> problem ("the patient has stopped bleeding") but can set up conditions
> for toxic leadership and emotions to flow from the bloodied stumps.  Who
> comes in to "heal" the organization in these cases?  A very different
> type of person with very different process looks after that, just like
> in the allopathic medical model.
>
> OST is not the be all and end all of organizational healing, but it does
> seem to me to take that critically divergent path.  The Plexus folks are
> composed of a lot of medical practitioners and they might find this
> metaphor both compelling and controversial, in a good way.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Chris
>
> ---
> CHRIS CORRIGAN
> Bowen Island, BC, Canada
> http://www.chriscorrigan.com
> chris at chriscorrigan.com
>
> (604) 947-9236

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