Help for my manager, (Crazy like a fox)

[Harrison Owen]

Mike Wrote: I have thought about this phenomenon a great deal, as I live in
an org and with the stench of dead moose all around! I think perhaps people
are comfortable with the stink as long as they can hold onto their ego,
power or control. When we as an org use less open formats for our meetings
and gatherings I sub consciously go into a naughty school boy routine. I'm
expected to sit passively and swallow what is going to happen. Perhaps, now
I've sampled the sweet aroma of open space, I am yelling "open the bloody
window I can't stand it any longer!"

 

It is totally amazing to me the extent to which people will tolerate a state
of absolute misery in the name of preserving ego, power and control. It is
often said they don't have a choice (mortgage, kids, etc) but we all have a
choice, however we may not be prepared to deal with the consequences of that
choice. However, in a totally tragic fashion they typically end up with
consequences as bad, or worse, than the ones they were seeking to avoid!
Nasty things like burnout, substance abuse, breakdown and the like. And it
is not just about the "human side" of all of this - but even in the area of
profit and business growth you see the same sorts of things. I sometimes
think that people are positively frightened to death that they might succeed
- that they might actually make a lot of money! We all know that when people
are turned loose (some real Open Space) the possibility space is simply
mind-boggling, and yet in the name of preservation of power and control all
that possibility space is avoided - to the ultimate detriment of the bottom
line. Weird!

 

Harrison

 

Harrison Owen

7808 River Falls Drive

Potomac, Maryland   20845

Phone 301-365-2093

Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com <http://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 Mike
Copeland
Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2005 3:28 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: Help for my manager, (Crazy like a fox)

 

Good on ya Michael! 

Great stuff I loved the way you put it: 
 when we look in to the usual rhetoric, I find that lots of folks just can't
defend or explain it.  often folks end up using the empty standards as if
they were true.

You have put very beautifully a phenomenon I experience also when dealing
with people about open space. : this great fear that a new way will be
ineffective while the old way is so ineffective, stale and smelly it's a
dead moose! Open space is given these huge goals that unless they are met it
is doomed and the dead moose is then dragged out, and venerated once again. 

I may be in a different situation from you in that I work as a facilitator
within an org. and possibly I suffer from that thing of 

                "a prophet is not without honor except in his own home" 
 
Jesus Christ 

I have thought about this phenomenon a great deal, as I live in an org and
with the stench of dead moose all around! I think perhaps people are
comfortable with the stink as long as they can hold onto their ego, power or
control. When we as an org use less open formats for our meetings and
gatherings I sub consciously go into a naughty school boy routine. I'm
expected to sit passively and swallow what is going to happen. Perhaps, now
I've sampled the sweet aroma of open space, I am yelling "open the bloody
window I can't stand it any longer!"

All the Best 
Mike Copeland 

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