Help for my manager, (Crazy like a fox)

[Funda Oral]

RE: Help for my manager, (Crazy like a fox)" I sometimes think that people are positively frightened to death that they might succeed "..wrote Harrison 

such a silence and confusion reading this sentence, 
and so funny to think about that 
thank you 

"and yet in the name of preservation of power and control" 

so maybe the aim is not so much power or control.....but it's to keep the game we are familiar with at all costs
rather then moving to the unknown

Funda     
  
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Harrison Owen 
  To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU 
  Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2005 6:59 PM
  Subject: Re: Help for my manager, (Crazy like a fox)


  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 

  Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org

  Personal website http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm
  OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE..EDU 

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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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