Turtles are multilingual

[Harrison Owen]

Florian Wrote: "recently I took part in the german-speaking
OS-learning-workshop which is held yearly at vlotho, initiated from our
friend michael m
pannwitz. I convened a group »it´s all self-organisation and nothing else«
I invited to look on our everyday-language where evidently we are dealing
(un)consciously with self-organization as a given.
I asked to gather a lot of expressions as examples. but -- nearly all the
time the group discussed the pro and contra of  »it´s all self-organisation
and nothing else« only as a hypothesis."

What you describe, Florian, has been my experience as well. It is, of
course, possible that self-organization is only the product of some fevered
minds, and therefore should remain at the level of "interesting hypothesis."
For myself, however, I have yet to run into any other story (theory) that
begins to make sense out of the general world in which I live, to say
nothing of the more specific world of Open Space Technology. Given a
"standard" understanding of the genesis and function of organization, our
global experience in Open Space simply could not happen. And of course, it
does (happen).

When one is faced with a disparity between the theory/story/hypothesis one
holds and the facts on the ground, it seems to me that the
theory/story/hypothesis probably should be changed. And to date, the only
reasonable story I have found is the evolving one about self-organizing
systems. Doubtless this places me in the category of "fevered mind,"
however, if we did not have the story of self-organization, we would have to
invent it, I think.

With all due respect to the erudite and enlightened crew assembled recently
with Michael (and for sure they represent the majority of folks I know) I
just have to wonder why it is so hard to make the shift. The obvious answer
(in part) are the years of training and education we have all experienced,
to say nothing of the fearful and usually painful process of paradigm shift.
It strikes me that there is some real learning possible here relating to the
genuine trauma of shifting paradigms. If nothing else, it is apparent to me
that all those folks who have glibly talked about "shifting paradigms" as if
it were as simple a putting on a clean shirt in the morning -- simply did
not, and do not understand the magnitude of the change. Even worse are those
who speak of paradigm shift as something you can do to somebody, or force
somebody to do. All this comes quite close to (and may be the same as)
similar statements about transforming an organization, as if this were
something that could be achieved by executive fiat or a short training
program! Paradigm shift and transformation are serious, deep and painful. I
think we have to remember that. And when either occurs, something ends/dies,
which is usually a whole way of life and looking at the world. Griefwork
starts.

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 Florian
Fischer
Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2005 3:20 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: Turtles are multilingual

Am 12.02.2005 17:36 Uhr schrieb "Harrison Owen" unter <hhowen at comcast.net>:

>.......In short we would
> intentionally go over the edge and see what the world looked like from the
> other side. Paradigm plunge, as it were. Given such a jump, further
> conversations about organization design would be excluded, and in their
> place we could talk about how we can reasonably and effectively live in a
> fully self-organizing world? What is the role of the individual, place of
> individual initiative, function of leadership, planning . . .?
>........................................ Turtles should have all the fun.
So I
> open the electronic space here on OSLIST. .......


dear harrison, dear glenda, dear all

recently I took part in the german-speaking OS-learning-workshop
which is helt yearly at vlotho, initiated from our friend michael m
pannwitz.
I convened a group »it´s all self-organisation and nothing else«
I invited to look on our everyday-language where evidently we are dealing
(un)conciously with self-organization as a given.
I asked to gather a lot of expressions as examples. but -- nearly all the
time the group discussed the pro and contra of  »it´s all self-organisation
and nothing else« only as a hypothesis.

Florian
----------------------
florian fischer
begleitung im wandel
d 10779 berlin, muenchener 6
fon 0049.30. 2116752
fax 0049.30. 2115943
ff at begleitung-im-wandel.com

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