Success

Fri Mar 18 09:19:17 PST 2005

Yes, Harrison, I, too, think that what  I wrote describes OSONOS.  It
also describes SW, which gathers for three days in each season (4X a
year).  And I agree that the Open Space Community qualifies as an
organization.

I think there is a tangible, measurable difference between people who
gather and hang out in open space and people who don't.  I think
spending time consciously attuned, even just a tiny bit, to the
principles of OS with other members of a collective builds collective
capacity.  I think OS could be 'sold' to organizations as a staff
development tool in addition to being an event methodology.

I have been spending a fair bit of time thinking about how
organizations can build their capacity to discern that which wants to
emerge rather than how to set and achieve organizational goals.  And
the answer, for me, is simple and complex:  build the organizational
capacity for collective intelligence.

There are other answers for building organizational capacity but I
think holding OS gatherings, or maybe building OS 'hanging out' time
into organizations, is a fantastically awesome way to build collective
capacity.  Organizations commit their resources to staff development
all the time.  I am saying that I think OS gatherings with no work
agenda would be a superior form of staff development for an
organization.

When I lived near Detroit and Motor City, I got to know a guy who was
Director of OD for an entire division of Ford Motor Company (he has
since retired).  He told me that the first thing he did after he got
that job was to have every single person in that division attend a
famous motivational seminar.  Not just the product designers and the
financial management teams:  every single member of his division.
This was several years ago but at the time,  but the Famous
Motivational  thing was like a thousand dollars per employee.  If that
division of Ford had all spent several days hanging out together in
open space with the simple agenda of consciously living into the
principles of OS, I believe  Ford would have seen significant,
measurable results (improved productivity for one thing) than they saw
with the motivational thing.

This Ford OD director was a great guy and he tried to mentor me a bit
using the techniques of this famous motivational system and I always
felt pushed into being something I wasn't.   How to encourage members
of a large, complex system like Ford to more consciously self
organize? Open Space, hanging out conciously in Open Space would build
new organizational capacities.

Now, if I could force myself to get pumped up to believe I could
achieve anything (which is what the Famous Motivational Seminar
taught), I could go out and sell this to Boeing. . .

On Fri, 18 Mar 2005 07:23:48 -0500, Harrison Owen <hhowen at comcast.net> wrote:
> Therese Wrote: "I actually think, sometimes, that just creating a container
> for people to spend three days together in open space doing whatever,
> without an intention focused on work, is the best org. development training
> any org. could give itself.  And I believe it enhances the achievement of
> measurable goals."
>
> I think you just described OSONOS(s). I know there is always talk about
> having a theme and doing "real work" -- but to the best of my knowledge all
> that never quite happens. What has happened is a matter of record. I don't
> know if the Open Space Community qualifies as an organization (I think it
> does), but if so there is little question in my mind that its growth and
> development is largely attributable to the multiple times, spaces and years
> that we have hung out together being what we do. Or maybe doing what we be?
>
> 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 Therese
> Fitzpatrick
> Sent: Thursday, March 17, 2005 10:06 PM
> To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> Subject: Re: Success
>
> I am not sure if what I am about to write fits in this conversation
> (thanks, by the way, for the many great conversations on the oslist
> recently), but as I read Chris' comment "we need to be able to embody
> change in order to be able to welcome it" and Chris' observation,
> which we could all echo, that when people do an org. development
> 'intervention', they expect something significant to happen. . . .
>
> I think the reason to have open space events in organizations is to
> build the capacity of that organization to be able to welcome change
> as it emerges.  I don't imagine it would be easy to 'sell' this to
> someone who wants to have a three day open space to create a strategic
> plan or design a product development process but, for me, the real
> value of having employees or members of an organization spend a day,
> two or three in open space is to have them spend time practicing
> following what has heart and meaning, to practice the law of two feet,
> to practice trusting that the right people show up and the right thing
> will happen.
>
> And, I THINK (ask me in an hour and I might think differently) the
> reason I am attracted to attending open space events and to being an
> open space practitioner and, even, to collaborating as much as I can
> with people who have experienced a lot of open space technology, is
> because I deeply desire to be able to welcome what wants to show up
> and I deeply value working with others who have begun to integrate the
> principles of open space into their way of being.
>
> I actually think, sometimes, that just creating a container for people
> to spend three days together in open space doing whatever, without an
> intention focussed on work, is the best org. development training any
> org. could give itself.  And I believe it enhances the achievement of
> measurable goals.
>
> On Thu, 17 Mar 2005 13:43:19 -0800, Chris Corrigan
> <chris.corrigan at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Thu, 17 Mar 2005 11:04:33 -0500, R. Duff Doel <duff at innergy.ca> wrote:
> > > "Some people will do anything
> > > to maintain control and avoid success."
> > >
> >
> > Often people expect big things from organizational development
> > "interventions."  They wouldn't do so otherwise.  Retreats, planning
> > sessions, Open Space forums...all come with the expectation that doing
> > something significant will change things significantly.
> >
> > In working with sponsors I do have conversations about what
> > transformation really means and how willing people are to transform
> > themselves to meet the new world they are wanting to be born.  There
> > is a real stretch in this work for people, to go into somewhere new
> > while not abandoning what they know - the "safe ground" - even if the
> > safe ground is no longer serving them very well.
> >
> > Fear, trust, openness, chaordic confidence...all of these are
> > emotions, practices and states we need to grapple with to open
> > ourselves to transformation.  We need to be able to embody change in
> > order to be there to welcome it when it arrives.
> >
> > And so for me success is relative, but what I really invite people to
> > stretch into is that place where they can embody the success they
> > want.  If they can't then we have to get real about what we're willing
> > to do.
> >
> > But if they CAN get really big and offer themselves up for change,
> > unbelievable things can happen.
> >
> > Good question, Duff.
> >
> > Chris
> >
> > --
> > -------------------------
> > CHRIS CORRIGAN
> > Consultation - Facilitation
> > Open Space Technology
> >
> > Weblog: http://www.chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot
> > Site: http://www.chriscorrigan.com
> >
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>
> --
> Warmly,
> Therese Fitzpatrick
>
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--
Warmly,
Therese Fitzpatrick

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