Modesty & 5 Simultaneous Open Spaces

[Pannwitz, Michael M]

Dear Larry,
the "team" I referred to, is the temporary organization created for
the os-event (not part of the sponsor) made up of assistants,
helpers, facilitator, documentation specialists, photographer etc..
This team has or rather gives itself a hierarchy.
Its been a great learning field for me to look at these small
"systems" that I am part of when involved with facilitating an open
space and to tinker with "appropriate" structure or hierarchy.
One of the principles that I try to stick to is the notion of the
"fully present and invisible" facilitator...recent feedback has
indicated that sometimes the hierarchy designed for the facilitation
team actually supports this "state" in the eyes of the
participants...extending the "fully presnt and invisible" mode to all
team-members from the experience of the observing participants.
My assumption in general is that every system has a hierarchy (more
or less appropriate) (Ken Wilbur reports of more than 200 hierarchies
that he had collected in his search for a "fit", eventually coming up
with the concept of "holons"...noting that "Even those memes that
don't recognize hierarchies - such as beige or purple - still have
hierarchical structures. Everybody seemed to have some sort of
hierarchy, even those who claimed they didn't.)
The reason I am diving into this aspect:
Where can I get a more practical and existential learning or
remembering experience than in my actual praxis?
And:
(referring to Joelles comments about open space and hierarchy)
I find it productive to look at "hierarchy" as a "given" in all
systems and organizations without the popular stigma attached to the
term (I looked it up in the Unabridged and there it is almost
exclusively documented with that negative stigma attached). What
would a system or organization look like in which hierarchy is
eliminated? Appears, it would no longer exist.
Selforganization, which surfaces especially visible in ost-events or
when children play,  brings forth hierarchy and structure. Yes, of a
kind that has no designer! And of a kind that seems the appropriate
vessel for creating "peace" out of chaos, confusion and conflict.
Ok, what kind of hierarchy is appropriate for the " team" described
at the beginning that "facilitates" the ost-event?
Or, what kind of hierarchy is appropriate for the subsystem in the
organization you are working with that has the role of "providing
support to tenants and staff as they work together to enable the
local clusters to make key decisionsen"
Greetings from Berlin
mmp



On Sat, 27 Mar 2004 11:44:02 -0500, Larry Peterson wrote:

>Michael:  You said:
>
>"For me as facilitator working with teams (often groups of  7 or more)
>its proven to be useful to consciously design the "hierarchy" for the
>team and for the interaction of the team with other subsystems
>(catering, publishing, facility management, the sponsors, child-care,
>sound technician, press/radio/television, etc.)  for the open
>space-event (including pre-meetings, setting up the os, the os itself,
>follow up)."
>
>I'm not sure I understand what you mean.  I usually don't get involved
>in "designing" the hierarchy in systems I'm in.





Michael M Pannwitz
boscop
Draisweg 1
12209 Berlin, Germany
FON +49 - 30-772 8000     FAX +49 - 30-773 92 464
www.michaelmpannwitz.de
www.openspace-landschaft.de

An der E-Gruppe "openspacedeutsch" für deutschsprechende open space-PraktikerInnen interessiert? Enfach eine mail an mich.

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