Conversational Evolution

[Douglas D. Germann, Sr.]

To my good friends--

In Waterman's _Adhocracy_ I read the story about an exercise: you are
stranded by airline crash in the desert. You have a compass, matches, and 2
or 3 other things. What would you take and how would you use it to survive
and thrive, given that the pilot and copilot are dead and the plane is a
burned-out shell?

It turns out that groups come up with better solutions than individuals.
Why?

The power of the added presence, the power of thought above our levels of
thought. We are in OST assisting conscious evolution--or at least almost
conscious. This conversation is making it conscious, as are all the others
we are engaged in here. How are we assisting conscious evolution? By the
very fact of bringing together more than one mind on a question. Old
command and control mechanisms are based upon one person having the best
picture and the best talents to solve all our problems. Open space is based
upon groups being more capable in these two areas than individuals. As we
grow those capacities, first in our little groups of 8 or 12 or 2100, then
in communities and organizations, then in countries and societies, and
finally in the noosphere, we are becoming more conscious as a larger
organism.

So the halfway technology is real: we are on the path through noogenesis.
And the hypothesis that this has been going on through the last 14 billion
years and so the beta testa are in is also true: we are evolving from stars
to rocks to life to animals to thought to ???

So what we are doing is something much larger--and finer--than simply
facilitating great meetings and getting good work done by good heads and
good hearts. We are involved in conscious conversational evolution.

Can you take it further?

                              :-Doug. Germann
                              Seeking people making change.

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