givens

[Harrison Owen]

I think I am becoming clearer about my point of discomfort with "Givens."
Real Givens (as opposed to apparent) are truly immutable, or as close to it
as such things go on Planet Earth. And for me that would include Gravity and
the force of Self-organization, and maybe a few others which do not spring
immediately to mind. Everything else is up for grabs, if not now then later.
I absolutely concur with the notion that we must have serious and probing
discussions with sponsors prior to an OS -- but the focus should not
(probably) be about immutable Givens, but rather about what I might call
"existential conditions as they see them." For me this conversation usually
starts with two questions. 1) Why do you want to do this gathering? And 2)
If it all "worked," what would have happened?

My focus is on a critical issue (for me). How open is the space? If all we
are talking about is "motivating the troops" to implement the new marketing
plan, for example -- it doesn't seem to me that the space is really open,
and doing an open space would probably be counter-productive, if only
because the troops might just start to take it seriously and change the
plan, no matter what had been said about The Plan being a sacred Given.

Most of the Givens I have heard people talking about are not truly
immutable. It may be the case that nobody wants to force the issue, but the
fact remains that all budgets change, all procedures mutate, all structures
evolve, transform, or die. If I have a personal agenda with the sponsor in
the pre-event meeting(s) it is to help them to understand that the space
already is open, no matter what they may think or do about it. Their
ultimate success will depend upon recognition of that fact, and a
willingness to involve everybody who cares in the navigation of that space.
If they go for less, they will get less. And for sure I will not have done
anybody a favor if I create the (false) impression that someone has the
power to keep certain things off the agenda and away from the Wall. Of
course we all have our foibles and blind spots -- and for some period of
time, maybe even a long time -- we can get away with it. But I believe it to
be true that a clear eyed view of things as they actually are is useful.

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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-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Larry
Peterson
Sent: Thursday, November 25, 2004 5:52 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: givens

Jeff:  I think you are on to something.

"Container" or "Givens" or things that are not intended to be on the
table by the sponsor of an event are both social constructions and
acknowledgement of "something" that is there.  If I sit on a chair, that
is gone, I will fall on my ass (or some other part of my anatomy) - I
take that as given.   If there is a business plan that requires board
approval for change - that is usually taken as a "given".  It does not
mean that it cannot be changed, but it is there now - just like Human
Rights Codes and others thing are likely there.  Of course, in Canada,
these things may be a little less open for immediate negotiation as they
are in the US.  I don't think George saw anything in Iraq that should be
taken a given, other than his socially constructed vision for its
future.

I think it also relates to levels of awareness.  At one level there are
no givens, every moment comes into being with the opportunity for
novelty.  However, most rocks don't decide to decompose in a few days
-- granite takes a little longer.  Some of my clients, from their
perspective, have some real givens that they construct.  I think naming
and reducing the number of them is helpful as part of planning to open
space or deciding whether or not to open space in this situation with
this client.  Helping them consciously reduce the number of givens is
useful learning, I think.  Will open space work if that is not done -
yes.

However, I am seeing the consequences over this two week period.  One
client I'm working with now on a series of 14 OS has had some real
variability in how she has set the context - how clearly she has told
people what this part of the government is wanting to do, to engage them
in and the fact that it will not commit resources to the
self-organization it wants to seed in the community.   The quality and
energy of the events have been worse when she was not clear or
passionate (she got a cold).  People were more combatitive when she was
not honest with them from the beginning about the situation.  The OST
has worked every time to engage people and energy around the theme.  The
issues emerge in the convergence and next steps when the context is not
clearly and honestly set by the sponsor.

Larry

Larry Peterson
Associates in Transformation
Toronto, ON, Canada
416.653.4829

larry at spiritedorg.com
www.spiritedorg.com

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