Better way of communing & better communications (infrastructures, media, system)

Mon Feb 16 12:03:33 PST 2004

If I understand Open Space correctly, it's a more human way of communing. At 
the same time when you take it to people who professionalise how 
organisational communications structures work - internally with people doing work or 
externally with learning how to resolve the competing demands of the people the 
organisation should serve - the story goes that the powers that be say: if your 
better approach to communing works, then 95% of what we teach , practice and do 
in management is erroneous. And because of that OS has to do a lot of its work 
below the radar.

Yet do we have time to go on below the radar when youth around the world 
talks like this:
http://www.knowledgeboard.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=122546&d=1&h=417&f=56&
dateformat=%o%20%B%20%Y

What I would urgently like to explore how to connect all of the above, with 
how societies permit media and communications to happen locally or globally. 
I'd really like some of you to come along and help with the conversational 
exploration of that at the biggest virtual tent Chautauqua.

LINK  http://groupjazz.com/chautauqua/

Conversation tracks where we've tried particularly to cue open space passions 
include:
http://groupjazz.gjhost.com/gj/swebsock/0000747/0493376/GJ14/main/viewitem.cml
?10+30+377+5+2+x+1+ilist6#here

more footnoted

 Open conversations are on now until the end of February. Registration is fee 
but takes a minute to do if you haven't been before. Harrison should already 
be regsitered because he holsted one of the first chautauqua at 
http://groupjazz.gjhost.com/gj/swebsock/0004927/0364417/GJ14/main/viewitem.cml?3+0+133+27+0+0
+1+x++#here

all the communal best to everyone

chris macrae

Footnote:

Main Tent Beyond Branding Item 2: Big Tent, Big Scene-Setting 

14-FEB-2004 18:11 chris macrae FH2 (scenario demonstrated from mid 1980s) : a 
better way for 100 or 1000 people to commune in real spaces has been 
designed: taken to the top executive of America’s largest management association – 
what value will Open Space technology have in the business world? ; after a long 
lunch reply: if you’re right then 95% of what we teach about management is 
wrong. To this day professional mangers are strongly advised by this Association 
not to touch Open Space. Conversely, nearly 100000 performances, in 80 
countries with a tight knit alumni network of facilitators are prepared to open 
spaces however big the conflict or the innovation challenge. Harrison Owen, 
charming inventor of OS was going to be a priest until he became an Large Scale 
Innovation Facilitator still knits all alumni together. In his latest book, 
Practice of Peace, he reflects on his experiences in all mildness : many, if not 
most organisations, are no longer able to do what they were designed to do. (more 
at http://www.practiceofpeace.com or http://www.openspaceworld.com or chatQ 
with Harrison)  FH3 (in the mid 1980s as service then knowledge then global 
networks blossomed, more of a company’s value became invested in whole system 
goodwill than the parts that accountants book).   It’s long story (with biases on 
my side because I was sacked after 5 years at a Big 5 consultancy for not 
accepting brand valuation algorithms) but as a mathematician I can tell you that 
it would be impossible to invent worse maths for compounding conflicts and 
eroding goodwill than the short-term last 90 day numbers that still governs many 
organisations performance systems. We need a second governance system (which 
is already mathematically open sourced) and we need all human disciplines to 
reconnect rather than being separated by business cases that have made the least 
human specialist king of each intangible (eg ad agencies master of the brand, 
IT as masters of knowledge management, who knows what masters of lifelong 
learning humans need)  2:3) 15-FEB-2004 07:42 John Moore I'd also like to pick up 
on Chris' reference to Open Space.  I think Open Space is quite challenging 
to many of our preconceptions about how human organisations can be "made to 
work" and requires a willingness on the part of sponsors to take a step into the 
unknown.  ...  Open Space surprises participants by controlling less and 
giving them "agency" - the power and responsibility to create the conversations 
they want in an organisation.  They discover that this process does not need to 
be managed by someone else.  Cluetrain highlights how the conversation economy 
increasingly shapes brands way beyond the bidding of so-called brand managers. 
 In a way, a form of Open Space is being forced on organisations anyway. 

Main Tent Beyond Branding Item 3: Did the World Learn from Andersen’s 
Betrayal of the Golden Rule 

14-FEB-2004 18:29 chris macrae At the same time, this leader should know that 
the less caring global organisations will gang up on any such leadership 
program. To protect his government, at the same time as dialoguing with the big 
corporations, he should help local communities develop open spaces. This is a 
method, developed by a guy (Harrison Owen www.practiceofpeace.com) whose career 
was originally religious, where 5000 people can meet in circles and all 
participate in resolving a big communal challenge. Brazil’s Porto Alegre took this 
idea somewhat further – it tries to facilitate 50000 people meetings to take 
charge of whether government and big organisations are keeping their main 
sustainability promises at the level of each organisation’s greatest purpose. I don’
t know the Brazilian case intimately (so I’d love to hear any local 
feedback). I do know Harrison Owen enough to be able to ask him who is the most sincere 
facilitator in each of the 80+ countries that open space is already used; and 
if its never been used in your country we can ask him who is nearest both 
geographically and in cultural spirit.  

Main Tent Beyond Branding Item 4: What happens if we lose the battle of the 
internet as being for the people and of the people? 

15-FEB-2004 07:25 chris macrae While this is only one tributary thread of 
Beyond Branding, I thought it might be the biggest continuing conversation for 
groupjazz as a world centre of virtual community practice; so I propose we keep 
a parallel space of edited highlights in the cafe which can then continue on 
past February  ...  2) If this model of making the most of your unique talents 
is correct, then it becomes clear that tv as the defining mass media of the 
2nd half of the 20th century didnt always help us. It took away social capital 
spaces where community forms and people participate actively; it dumbed us down 
gratifying our senses - hey what did you actually learn from watching the 
superbowl all last sunday? (Please note I am not against the occasional frivolity 
but what about people who spend most of tgheir leisure time watching tv? are 
they being robbed of making the communal most of their talents?)  3) In this 
context, consider http://www.cluetrain.com which gave us 95 pretty good clues 
of how our roles as consumers could be more valuable if we made the best of the 
internet. Its sad to me how much that open conversation has waned. Anyway, 
perhaps we then need a cluetrain 2 of how to make the most of working and 
learning - maybe a lot of that is already emerging in eg in the research of last 
month's host Bill Jensen. One last intro. Seen in this light we might expect mass 
media will do everything it can to destroy the freedom of speech of 
internet-driven communities. Was this why CBS refused to carry a tv spot on the 
superbowl from www.moveon.org (one of the most powerfuil social uses of the internet 
to date) on an issue the world happens to believe Americans should be 
debating: Is being in so much international debt sustainable for your chiildren's 
futures? (Please dont sidetrack this thread's purpose with political left's or 
right's- in fact I believe these are 'largely' irrelevant to the deep democratic 
issue of how do we make the most of the freedoms and joy of the internet, as I 
will try to demonstrate in later contributions 

Main Tent Beyond Branding Item 5: What is Beyond Branding about? 

5:4) 16-FEB-2004 13:47 chris macrae This could also be of interest in many 
ways: 
-those who love the idea of open community and agency of the net 
-those who feel that the greatest way you get a community to make its next 
great leap forward beyond potential conflicts of different stakeholder demands 
is to Open Space a gathering celebrating the presence of the diversity of 
stakeholders and building value from the respect of understanding each different 
truly held viewpoint 
-those who feel that global brands are neither just the extreme of being for 
their ownesrs or for their customers but often mediating the livelihood of 
50000 employees and the society of every nation that the global brand reaches - 
in that last aspect, a global brand's greatest purpose could be multicultural 
harmony and breaking down discrimination; I used to know a fem multinationals 
whose corporate brands acted liked that, but that purpose is now long been 
eroded by people who measure efficiency in much shorter and less human terms 5:5) 
16-FEB-2004 13:47 chris macrae This could also be of interest in many ways: 
-those who love the idea of open community and agency of the net 
-those who feel that the greatest way you get a community to make its next 
great leap forward beyond potential conflicts of different stakeholder demands 
is to Open Space 

http://groupjazz.gjhost.com/gj/swebsock/0011024/0472306/GJ14/main/viewitem.cml?10+4+133+27+0+0+1+x#here 

*
*
==========================================================
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
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20040216/2950d095/attachment-0015.htm>