the dark side of circle practices -- and related themes

[chris macrae]

Harrison wrote:

I find my emerging conclusion to be basically mind-blowing -- although
some may take it to mean that I have blown (lost) my mind. It seems to
me that genuine dialogue, deep appreciation of difference, and the
manifestation of real community are all the natural concomitants of any
fully functional self-organizing system. If this is true, the real focus
should be on enabling/allowing the self-organizing system (which we all
are) to do what it alone can do --rather than trying to "fix" apparent
and real problems encountered along the way with special interventions
and added processes, as fascinating as those processes and interventions
might be.

I have heard any number of people say -- OS is so simple it can't work,
as if simplicity were a fatal flaw. And of course, OS is simple and does
work (at least at the three levels I spoke of previously (formally,
substantatively, and over time -- maybe). When people
call OS "simple" they are referring to (I think) the procedure itself,
and
the role of the facilitator -- and in truth, there is not much there.
However, when viewed more closely, any Open Space, even a small and
short
one, is a monster of complex interaction with levels upon levels. ...It
seems to me that we might more profitably turn our attention and energy
to the fascinating (I think) issue and opportunity of leveraging
(building upon) the simple elegance of our common experience in Open
Space. This is not about adding to the procedure -- but precisely the
opposite. If anything we should be thinking about one more thing not to
do with the goal of finding a simpler elegance that verges on the stark.


Chris Macrae writes:
A) I would love to know what sorts of exercises give you perspective on
the above. I have three (though I realise that they will not be equals
in relevance to others so if you were a mentor to me , B) A's second
part would be why do these 3 exercises matter to me:

1) collecting fables, about identity, context gravity and conflict
2) making a shortlist of methods throughout history that have 'opened
space'; trying to understand their originator's assumed contexts of
self-organisation and communion's greatest need
3) a list of improvisation exercises that sometimes move a group of
people to a different energy plane, perhaps as a time out, an injection
of a different variable of common sense, or because the people and the
process needed a breather

Examples of 1)
1.1 Conflict barriers: prime example: first pilots aiming to pass
through speed of sound; many crashed losing all until one dared act on
an emerging hypothesis; as you pass through the barrier some of the
controls turn inside out; lesson biggest barriers are where the top
doesn't realise at least one of its command and controls is wrong way if
everyone sharing the context is going to innovate through the conflict

1.2 History of most national identities: formed in opposition to a
geographic neighbour and compounded around that opposition. Explains a
lot if you want to reconcile 2 hostile neighbours now that geographic
proximity shouldn't be our main control if we believe in one-world's
diversity and richness of authentic people.

Examples of 2
2.1 Heck, I dunno but the open space design rules I connect with most
are:
-law of 2 feet
-assuming everyone has come around one big contextual conflict
-assuming record is accessible to all on leaving the space of every
different conversation, its participants and permission to recontact
each and all who were in the space (and so are its continuing
network/community)
-assuming something converted you life never to forget the humanity of
being- such as when a 7 year old girl meets a 25 year old man in the
middle of a war zone and says mister will you hold my hand?

2.2 The light of the quakers movement; process facilitating individual
to appreciate the light of their own context and then the communion of
peers' contexts they are tied to. Process was way round a confusion
where religious experts had taken over control of what enlightenment
was; and where most ordinary people were tied to peers because they
didn't move more than 10 miles in their life. When as a group they did
have space and an itinerant facilitator who could bring news of other
worlds; it was vital they used that communications time and space in
deepest respect of their community's context whilst also listening
without fear or bias to the outside world's diversity.

Examples of 3
Take 3 minutes out from a large circle near the start. Ask people to
group in threes' Spend one minute each telling the other 2 of their
greatest life-changing moment and what they now do/think differently
because of that moment.

-------------------------------------------

Harrison also wrote: As we progressively remove our selves and
accretions from the process, the process itself should stand out with
greater clarity and power. In my experience it becomes increasingly
possible to view the elemental process of self organization as it is and
not as we might think we are creating it. The rewards are great, I
believe. First we can appreciate, and maybe understand, one of the deep
forces of our life together. And then (perhaps more importantly from the
point of view of the ongoing human adventure) learn to cooperate with,
and essentially use, th at force to our common advantage. Rather like
gravity, which we do not create and cannot eliminate,  we could learn to
rely upon the power of self-organization to lift our human enterprise to
new heights, even as the force of gravity allows us to fly in heavier
than air machines.

And what about all those other great experiments -- Dialogue,
Appreciative
Inquiry, Community Building, and I suppose "Circle practices" (although
I am
not quite sure what they are)? Speaking just for my self -- I must say
that
each of these have been profound teachers. From the practitioners of
Dialogue I have learned what intense and productive communication can be
like. From Appreciative Inquiry I have learned the incredible power of a
positive, appreciate approach to my fellow human beings. And from Scott
Peck
and Co. I have learned much about the nature and function of effective
human
community. Each of these has opened my eyes, sharpened my attention, and
raised my expectations in terms of what and how we can function at
optimal
levels both individually and collectively. But my deepest learning
occurs
when with open sharpened,  eyes I see exactly the same things happening
in
Open Space -- all by themselves, and all without the overt intervention
of
some prescribed, facilitated processAs I said, Don't fix it if it ain't
broke -- just make sure that "it" (good old self organizing system) has
plenty of time and space in which to breath.

Harrison


----- Original Message -----
From: "Artur Silva" <arturfsilva at yahoo.com>
To: <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
Sent: Friday, July 09, 2004 1:00 PM
Subject: Re: the dark side of circle practices


> --- chris macrae <wcbn007 at easynet.co.uk> wrote:
>
> > The process starts erring to absolute democracy of
> > everyone must have
> > equal time contributions to speak at each phase
> (...) In other
> > word's the circle's communal harmony ... can
> co-create such
> > deep love of nice
> > behaviours to each other that it misses the biggest
> > spiral out above our
> > communal thinking's common denominator
>
> That's interesting, Chris.
>
> I have been, at times, in situations like that one -
> circles (or squares) where everyone must "be in
> place", must "speak in his turn" and must have a "nice
> behavior".
>
> They call this democratic, but in fact it is a
> dictatorship. In a democracy I can stay silent if I
> want. When everyone is obliged to speak that is not
> democratic. This can be a "rules' dictatorship"
> (created by the rules previously defined,) a "leader's
> dictatorship" (the leader(s) imposes that everyone
> must speak), or even a more interesting type - a
> "majority's dictatorship" (where the rule is created
> at the moment by the majority).
>
> Apart from claiming to be democratic, this type of
> groups/sessions also claim that they are following
> "good principles". The two I have heard more often are
> "appreciation" (like in "appreciative inquiry") and
> "dialog".
>
> Democracy (and Open Space) are made of dialogs AND of
> discussions. If one suppresses discussion and impose
> dialog (as in "everyone must be nice to each other and
> hear the other with appreciation") then there is no
> democracy and no open space, I think.
>
> Apart from the fact that there are some people that I
> don't want to hear with appreciation (say, Bush, to
> give only one example) the point is even more strange.
> "Playing the appreciative game" (an expression I have
> created just know) is only one form of "playing games"
> - and that is the essence of Argyris and Schon's Model
> 1.
>
> If, in a meeting or organization, one imposes dialog
> and appreciation, then a close session or organization
> will come to place.
>
> Artur
>
> PS: I never heard to call this "circle" and even less
> Open Space. But I would not be too surprised if some
> would call that. I have already referred to a
> respectable group of practitioners of "Communities of
> Practice", USA based, that not long ago claimed that
> they had used "Open Space" (OST) in a meeting because:
>
> - they assembled in a circle
> - they gave participants the opportunity to ADD issues
> to a large group of issues pre-prepared by the
> organizers
> - they divided the large group in small groups to
> discuss those issues (by choice of the organizers, if
> I recall well - but I recall well that there was no
> reference to "the law" - people were not expected to
> leave their group! That would not be considered
> "appreciative" to the other group members, I
> suspect...)
>
> But don't worry about what some people do "in your
> name", Harrison. You can always remember what some
> have done (and are doing) in His name. And at least
> about you I know that you exists - something I am not
> prepared to say about the Other...
>
>
>
>
>
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