Half-way Technology (longish)

[BJ Peters]

Harrison-- I love your reflections! And I have some of my own random
thoughts. . .

It's my belief that this "halfway technology" paves the way for people
(you, us, our clients, etc) who "get it" to take it further (when and
if ready) so that we DO work ourselves out of jobs!

You continue to give OST as a gift to anyone who wants it and chooses
to use it, through your books and trainings. And we recipients, by
sharing that gift, by opening space wherever we can, (even though we
get paid when possible) are GIVING the gift to those who sit, stand,
move, transform, learn, create, act in that space we've held.

In the same way that the OST process is ever evolving (by finding
effective ways for the spaceholder to do less and inventing more
efficient ways to converge, etc.), the creative juices of this
community and the larger community of those who have experienced open
space will flow, and simpler ways of supporting self organizing and
self managing will emerge.

I wonder if one of the reasons we rarely hear of long term lasting
effect of any organizational intervention is: this is the way it's
supposed to be. If change is constant, why do we expect a particular
change effort to be lasting? The efforts of the intervention will
create results for the moment. The results will contain a mixture of
innovation, newness, seeming order, chaos, conflict, confusion, etc.
And then another element like management change, economic change,
market change will occur and the cycle will begin anew. Wanting long
term lasting results is our yearning for control and predictability -
both illusions. Some of us know that on a personal, spiritual level,
yet grasp for something more lasting in organizations.

Probably, I've muddied your waters. However, your reflections stirred
something in me. As an OD practitioner for many years, I've often said
"I don't know that any organization was ever changed long term because
of an OD intervention. And I bemoaned what I've called the short
attention span of "management" and felt sad that interventions were so
short-lived because that didn't seem to meet my need for adding value.

Now I'm thinking perhaps the measurement was wrong. Perhaps the client
hired me to stir the stew and see what emerged. Perhaps the people
whose lives I touched changed, in part, because of that touching. Lots
of feedback has been there to support that.

If you're still eyeballing this message, thanks for reading. The
writing helped me get greater clarity about ideas that have been
rolling just out of reach for a while.

Be Peace --BJ


BJ Peters
Institute for Conscious Connection
bjp1 at cox.net
602.279.4805

"Mutual empathy is the great, unsung human gift." --Jean Baker Miller

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