Management in a World of Turtles (longish)
Marty Boroson
marty at becomingme.com
Sat Feb 19 07:34:23 PST 2005
Harrison:
I believe that vertical work (ie. within oneself) is as important as
horizontal work (ie. groupwork) but I agree that it just isn't fast enough
(or available enough) to change the world.
For many years I worked exclusively with individuals, doing very deep work
with a kind of turbo-focusing called Holotropic Breathwork. (Its
principles--minimum rules with maximum trust--are quite similar to OST,
except applied to the indivdual within him- or herself). But I came to the
same conclusion you did, that this method just isn't fast enough or broad
enough to help the world quickly enough.
On the other hand, I believe that if a certain percentage of the population
is doing vertical work, eg. meditating, it can have a big effect on the
collective consciousness. We may not all need to do it!
Wilber has said that society tends to raise everybody up to the collective
level of consciousness ... but it also tries to keep everyone from evolving
further. In other words, society will do everything it can to get you up to
the developmental norm, but will be very threatened if you try to go
further. So ashrams and therapists may be needed to support and encourage
certain pioneers reach new heights of self awareness.
Twenty years ago, it was rare to hear a serious discussion in the media
about things like stress reduction, meditation, emotional intelligence,
biofeedback, mind over matter, the life of the soul, or alternative
medicine. Now these discussions are commonplace. In other words, the
collective consciousness has changed, which means it much easier for people
to enter this consciousness naturally, ie. without the "extra help" of
ashrams or therapists. Would this have happened without the many spiritual
pioneers? I don't know, but I think that the great teachers and visionaries
show us what is possible, and may help us all get "up" a notch, if not quite
to their heights of awareness.
You can't overlook the effect on a group of the presence of just one or two
people who
have a deeper vision of what is possible, whose hearts are open a bit more,
or have a greater
peacefulness. Open space gives them a chance to share this with others.
As consciousness evolves, the spaces we open horizontally have greater depth
vertically.
In other words:
Turtles up and turtles down ...
Turtles all the way around round.
Namaste,
Marty
----- Original Message -----
From: "Harrison Owen" <hhowen at comcast.net>
To: <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
Sent: Friday, February 18, 2005 12:50 PM
Subject: Re: Management in a World of Turtles
A number of people have suggested that Focusing and Open Space have much in
common, or perhaps much to give each other. I can certainly see the point
after these conversations and having read some of the material. It seems to
me that Eugene Gendlin's work could be very powerful for use in coaching
sessions following an Open Space. And as a matter of fact, coaching in a
variety of forms could and probably should be part of "the package." I
suppose we all do that in some fashion, but it may be to the point to do it
more intentionally, or possibly involve colleagues whose passion and
expertise is in the realm of coaching. I think the problem might be,
however, that there are not enough really good coaches or sufficient time to
handle the work that is in front of us. I find myself having similar
thoughts with the work of Ken Wilber and others who say, (correctly I think)
that the tools, practices and approaches of what they call Integral
Psychology will make a major difference in the areas we are talking about. I
absolutely agree, and then think about the 6 and 1/2 billion potential
clients and come to the conclusion that we really don't have the couches or
ashrams in sufficient number to do the job. That doesn't mean we should not
try -- and for sure it is better to light a single candle than curse the
darkness. But given the stakes of the game it seems to me that we also have
some further thinking to do.
Harrison
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 Juan Luis
Walker B.
Sent: Thursday, February 17, 2005 10:40 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: Management in a World of Turtles
Dear Harrison and all:
Just how I have told you in the past my problem is my English. It seems
that my tongue is like a knot.
I'm passionate about Open Space, it's the only thing that I want to work
on with my clients and to this time I have facilitated 49 events in 12
different organizations. Now that I am in holiday I have more time to read
the Oslist and I find it fascinating and amazing. But my tongue has a
cramp.
So I have to be short and go directly to the point.
Your story in this post I find it very provocative and transcendently.
Just in an intuitive mode two models blows up in my mind that I think
could bring us new lights in all this issue.
The first one has a relation with the people mind (consciousness) habit
and how they get in contact with his felt sense and manage uncertainty to
open his inner space. In this context the ideas, concepts and techniques
developed by Eugene Gendlin called "focusing" and "thinking at the edge",
has a lot to give us perhaps in terms of a follow up session design.
www.focusing.org
http://www.focusing.org/tae-intro.html
The second one is related in a more global form, and it's the approach
that offers a brilliant biologist of my same nationality, whom I have not
studied too much (less than Gendlin is the paradox) , but I hope it can
gave us a theoretical framework for a comprehensive explanation of the
success and downsides related to OST. I am talking about Humberto Maturana
and his Biology of Cognition, from whom I give you below his web page
direction and an article in which other colleague presents his
contribution.
http://www.matriztica.org
http://www.hum.aau.dk/~rasand/Artikler/contrib.html
This two extensive and complex models I feel they could bring new forces
and fresh air to the kingdom of turtles. Let me know what sense they give
to all of you.
A great hug,
Juan Luis Walker B.
Consultor Organizacional
Psicólogo Universidad de Chile
Fono: 56-2-2691033
Celular: 09-2220127
juanluis at walker.as
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>From Sat Feb 19 13:49:48 2005
Message-Id: <SAT.19.FEB.2005.134948.0500.>
Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2005 13:49:48 -0500
Reply-To: robyn at litglobal.com
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: Robyn S Berkessel <robyn at litglobal.com>
Organization: LIT Global
Subject: Re: Language and self organizing systems
In-Reply-To: <JJEBLLKCIPPMNJMBMOOCOEIJCKAA.patblack at paulbunyan.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
I love this space. For me, it is living, real, immediate, powerful evidence
of self organizing emanating from connection. I've been reading for many
months and not being too sure where and when to contribute - a butterfly -
and now it's in connection with Pat's piece on language where I'd like to
contribute. I connect with it through my experience as an ESL (English as a
second Language) teacher to immigrants for many years in Australia. I loved
that job because it was so important, primarily because of what Pat was
saying.
"When we talk we make ourselves visible and known to ourselves. There is
something self referential that happens when we speak. We tell ourselves
what we think and we learn how we are in relation to the environment. The
realtionships are reflected back to us. We make choices to belong or not
based on what is reflected back. We sometimes assume another's language and
identity if in this orientation process we feel disconnected to the
environment which for young children would be defined by family
relationships. Relationships grow and are structured through language.
There would be no culture if there was no language."
Without a command of the language of their adopted country (English in this
case), newcomers felt disconnected from the environment and struggled with
identity and relationships. In the majority of cases, they found ways, as
human beings, to be resourceful and they adapted, survived and thrived.
For me it is about connection. Self organizing is a phenomenon of
connection. Connections that happen through default (or is it really
design?) and that is magical. Robyn.
-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Pat Black
Sent: Thursday, February 17, 2005 12:42 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Language and self organizing systems
I find this discussion about self organizing systems fascinating and
thrilled now that it is connected to language's role. I think language is a
manifestation of self organizing and contributes to the increasing
complexity of self organizing. I have had the luck of growing up with a
severe speech impediment. I understood language but was not understood when
I used it. Speech is not an issue for me now but I have a unique
relationaship with language because of that experience. I also was raised
in a home where illiteracy was present so the next level of language
abstraction was also an issue. Both issues limited orientation with the
environment. Because of these expereinces I have always thought of language
as a way to orient myself with my environment and myself.
When we talk we make ourselves visible and known to ourselves. There is
something self referential that happens when we speak. We tell ourselves
what we think and we learn how we are in relation to the environment. The
realtionships are reflected back to us. We make choices to belong or not
based on what is reflected back. We sometimes assume another's language and
identity if in this orientation process we feel disconnected to the
environment which for young children would be defined by family
relationships. Relationships grow and are structured through language.
There would be no culture if there was no language.
So would language be impossible if there are no divisions? That question is
backwards for me.In self organizing systems no divisions are impossible.
Organization at least identifies categories if not creates them. If creation
is innately self organizing there must be this dividing and the dividing
must serve creation. Seems to me that in the ideal state, this dividing
increases the surface area of each entitiy, increasing the possibility for
new relationships. New relationships facilitate transforamtions which are
the active manifestation of creation. Creation is creating.
This leads me to the magic thread that has also been floating. I am
attracted to OS because in the opening of space language can be used to
orient us with the environment in a way that does not seem life threatening
and so our surface area expands allowing for more realtionships which lead
to transformation and creation. Creation is the magic.
Just some thoughts
Pat Black
>Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2005 18:30:04 +1000
>From: Bob Dick <bdick at scu.edu.au>
>Subject: Re: On self-organizing
>It seems to me that language obliges us to carve up an indivisible
>world into pieces. Language works by categorising, even though the
>world doesn't come in the categories that language provides.
>When all divisions vanish, though, doesn't that make language
>impossible? And then what?
>Cheers -- Bob
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