Givens: Apparent and Real

[Harrison Owen]

Chris wrote: "I have no problem identifying and naming real givens in order
to overcome them.  I don't like to "create" givens that limit the endeavour
in order to maintain the illusion of comfort and control. People are capable
of the most amazing transformations.  Telling them otherwise is
disingenuous.  They'll prove you wrong every time and take to the air while
you remain rooted on the ground."

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Funny thing. My original piece on Givens, and thoughts about same was part
of an introduction to a paper I have been working on about the primacy of
self-organization in any consideration of our human systems. The title was,
"Givens: Apparent and Real." The current title is "Self-Organization all the
way down." Point being -- Ain't no such thing as a non-self-organizing
system.

Of course, for many (most?) managers and executives I encounter --
self-organization is an odd anomaly peculiar to the world of Physicists and
Biologists and certainly having little impact on the human systems they
control -- or think they do. Given <there's that word again :-)> such a
paradigm/mental model, Open Space is an aberration -- but worse yet (in the
larger scheme of things) executives and managers find themselves living in a
world of embarrassing anomalies. Things just don't work the way they are
supposed to. At the very least, managers are forced to explain away the
anomalies as odd exceptions to the rule. In worst case scenarios there is a
massive amount of sub-optimal performance for the organizations and lots of
guilt and stress for the managers who have assumed a task (controlling the
uncontrollable). From where I sit paradigm shift is a matter of sanity and
survival. It is also enormously clear that shifting paradigms is no walk in
the park. And a lot of folks are never going to take the journey. However,
this journey, as all journeys, begins with a single step. And why shouldn't
I take it. . . ? Perhaps others will join?

Back to Givens, real and apparent. For me there are fundamentally two "real"
givens: The force of Gravity and the force of self-organization. Everything
else is negotiable. At a practical level this means that when dealing with a
client (or any other human being) I presume that should they throw
themselves off a high building, they will crash and burn. And should they
seek the holy grail of total control (even in smaller pieces) -- they will
meet a similar fate, sooner or later. My job, as I see it, is not about
convincing them of the error of their ways -- but rather to introduce them
to viable alternatives. They must do the choosing and convincing for
themselves. Open Space is but one way to introduce such viable alternatives.
And when someone chooses to open space with me I know there are no givens,
save two -- no matter what they may say or hope. I also know that the folks
will make it and that it will all work -- not because some new world has
been entered, but because the world, as it is, is honored and accepted. In
truth the folks are already there, my role is to hold the space until they
get used to that fact.

Now you might say that perceiving reality differently than others do is the
classic definition of insanity. Oh well -- you can't be perfect.

Harrison







Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, Maryland   20845
Phone 301-365-2093

Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com
Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
Personal website http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm
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