Empowerment, Self-Organization an d Open Space

Wed Jun 29 15:37:27 PDT 2005

Judi -- thank God for you! I FEEL REDEEMED!! Even if you were just being kind. But I really do think there is some good stuff here to be plowed through, as in "turning over Sh__."

ho 

Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Dr.
Potomac, MD  20854
USA
301-365-2093
207-763-3261 (summer)
website www.openspaceworld.com

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Judi Richardson 
  To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU 
  Sent: Wednesday, June 29, 2005 4:49 PM
  Subject: Re: Empowerment, Self-Organization an d Open Space

  Harrison - great thoughts on OS and Education -- and definite interest in empowerment.  As many here know it has been a passion of mine -- and I really believe and have evidence that the time is here for the system opening up.  Michael H, Chris C., Julie and I had great fun playing in OST in a state-wide conference in Alaska, followed by giving a workshop in using it for teachers, administrators, etc.

  I've been having the same fun with Professors at the Siberian Academy for Public Administration (University age), Ministry of Ed. in Jamaica (public and University of the West Indies) and other North American groups.

  An Educators magazine just published an article about OS in the Classroom -- as I was working with Bachelor of Education students -- if anyone is interested http://www.nstu.ca/pklot/AvisoSpring05.pdf

  And I was asked to present OST to the Canadian Association of Principles.  And in August -- while still in the glow of OSonOS <grin> have been asked to give a keynote and take the Atlantic Cdn Regional Administrators (Principals and Vice-Principals) through a full day of OST!!  And a colleague is pursuing a Ph.D. -- around using collaborative processes -- explicitly OST -- in education.

  Harrison - I love what you wrote about taking a look at where we are.  In playing at higher consciousness, so often I realized that in watching groups trying to connect to the system they are in -- to truly explore what matters -- they were already there.  In watching individuals trying to figure out connecting to their inner being, in a BFO (blinding flash of the obvious) I recognized the merger was already there.  When we learn to laugh, we are laughing within the cosmic humor, we can be loving within love itself, creative within Spirit's infinite potential, curious within limitless intelligence unfolding, growing within infinite evolution...... adorable, unfinished, wondering, reverent, irreverent -- awed!'

  Thanks, as ever, for stirring the pot, Harrison!

  Judi  

  PS -- EVERYONE -- Halifax is hot and sunny -- the glistening Halifax Harbour is calling you and waiting for the arrival of OSonOS participants early August!  We have the most amazing church group of women who are having a great time creating a "Taste of Nova Scotia" menu for the gathering!  So register now!  Keep those cards and letters coming in <grin>

  __________________________________________________________
  Judith Richardson, MA
  Pono Consultants International
  Consulting and Executive Coaching
  Optimizing Performance, Potential and Profitability
  Winner -- International Coach of the Year!
  www.ponoconsultants.com
  www.emergentfeminine.com

  Subscribe to our newsletter at www.emergentfeminine.com

  Nova Scotia, Canada
  Phone: (902) 434-6695 Facsimile: (902) 435-1085 E-mail: judir at accesswave.ca

  If you live your life as gracefully as you know how, as playfully as you know how, as kindly as you know how, as joyfully as you know how, you are bound to influence, inspire and uplift others by your example.
  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  This email message may contain personal and/or otherwise confidential information and is intended only for the individual named.  If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this email.  Please notify the sender immediately by telephone or email if you have received this email in error and delete all copies from your system

  Ce message d'e-mail peut contenir et/ou personnel l'information autrement confidentielle et est seulement projeté pour l'individu nommé. Si vous n'êtes pas le destinataire nommé que vous ne devez pas disséminer, devez distribuer ou doit copier cet e-mail. S'il vous plaît notifier l'expéditeur immédiatement par le téléphone ou l'e-mail si vous avez reçu cet e-mail dans l'erreur et effacez toutes copies de votre système

    -----Original Message-----
    From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU]On Behalf Of Harrison Owen
    Sent: Wednesday, June 29, 2005 5:24 PM
    To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
    Subject: Empowerment, Self-Organization an d Open Space

    Somehow or anotherI allowed myself to become involved in an electronic forum on Empowerment. Having followed it for several days I have become convinced the the organizer already knows what he thinks empowerment might be and is not terribly interested in alternate visions or versions. But before I threw in the towel having concluded that it was all pretty much same old, same old. . . I did post several responses concerning self-organization and empowerment  -- all of which took me to some interesting new places, I thought. If anybody here finds it interesting that would go a long way towards redeeming what otherwise would be wasted effort. And of course, if there is no interest. . . 

    Oh Well :-(

    Harrison

    ****************************************************************

    Bob wrote: "Why not treat them ((Students in schools)) (within some limits) as equals and as
    responsible adults?  It would be school managed jointly by teachers
    and pupils, in the style of Harrison's "Open Space"."

    There have actually been a number of situations where Open Space has been used in schools. (If you are unfamiliar with Open Space check http://www.openspaceworld.com/emergent_order.htm ) And the interesting thing is that it always seemed to produce useful results. For one thing, so called behavioral problems virtually disappeared. Learning, even in very specific areas, appeared to be at an all time high -- and perhaps most remarkable, most everybody said that it was fun. Imagine that Learning (school) was fun! I might take a small issue with Bob -- it was not that the children were treated as "responsible adults" -- but rather that everybody was treated as responsible (human) beings. I think it would be a mistake, however, to attribute these "results" to "Harrison's Open Space." After a number of years' contemplation of the conundrum that something so simple could produce such results it has become clear to me that it really has nothing to do with the power of Open Space Technology -- which as my friends know was the product of two martinis.  The operative power is that which underlies Open Space, and indeed virtually everything else in the creative cosmos -- the power of self-organization. This thought has led me to the outrageous proposition that there is no such thing as a non-self-organizing system, albeit there are some mildly deluded people who think they did the organizing.

    With such monstrous (although I think defensible) jumps of logic, I find myself at a place where I think a truly profitable discussion of Empowerment might begin. In the first place it is not about designing "Empowerment Systems." Rather is about fully appreciating (or maybe just more fully appreciating) the nature of the "system" of which we are all a part. I suspect that much of the pathology we currently experience in organizations of all sorts and sizes (families, companies, countries) derives from the "fact" that we spend a great deal of time doing what doesn't need to be done (organizing/designing/controlling), while neglecting the essential task, which I might call the Care and Feeding of a Self-Organizing system. And instead of attempting the creation of new systems, we could take a good hard look at what we already are. From this might come an ability to "leverage" the power of self-organization, as opposed to attempting to eliminate it -- as in Taking Charge (control).

    Open Space has become for me a marvelous natural experiment which to date has been "run" perhaps 60,000 times in 108 countries that we know about. In short the Beta Tests are in -- and the results have been remarkably consistent across countries, cultures, and continents. One of these results has been a virtually universal experience and expression of personal empowerment -- even (or perhaps most particularly) amongst populations that one might considered radically disempowered. Could be food for thought.

    **********************************************************************************

    Dee Hock, whom I know and respect, did a wonderful thing with Visa International -- and his experience there became the basis of his book and further work with the chaordic organization. Interestingly, however when he and others set out to replicate the Chaordic Organization is other situations, their success rate has been just about zero. The key, I think, is that they attempted the "creation" of the Chaordic Organization as if it were just another organization -- they started with Mission, Goals etc. Miles said, "Leadership and or some sort of facilitation is needed if "self" organizing is to work." I think that is partially right. The fact of the matter is that self-organizing systems (by definition) work, or don't work, all by themselves. No help needed. However WE may need some help (leadership and facilitation) to work effectively with a self organizing system. In the Open Space Experiment, Leadership is required to set, or better, to intuit the direction (purpose of the Open Space) -- and a facilitator can be helpful with the preparations and to get things started.  But once under way, the people (participants) do it all by theselves -- no help needed. 

    I think this may be significant. Understanding the essential preconditions for self organization is very useful. Perhaps we could also call these conditions "The Essential Preconditions of Empowerment?" But once started, the level of overt intervention drops to basically zero. It would seem that the critical mechanisms are so fundamental to our existence that they do not need to be explained (we already "know" at a very deep level), nor to they have to be tampered with (no management committee). But they (the mechanisms) do have to have sufficient space/time in which to function. We have found that the ongoing role of the Facilitator in Open Space is all about "Holding Space" which is much more about Being than Doing. And when things get a little bumpy (lots of chaos, confusion and conflict) the appropriate response is actually to open more space. To an outsider this often appears to be counter-intuitive at best and probably irresponsible, immoral, and wrong. After all, we have all been trained that our "job" is to fix things up. 

    Harrison  

    Harrison Owen
    7808 River Falls Dr.
    Potomac, MD  20854
    USA
    301-365-2093
    207-763-3261 (summer)
    website www.openspaceworld.com

    * * ========================================================== OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist 
  * * ========================================================== OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist 

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20050629/2218dc4b/attachment-0016.htm>