Is anything possible?

Thomas Herrmann thomas at openspaceconsulting.com
Mon Apr 3 14:34:33 PDT 2006


Dear friends in Open Space
I am wondering where you find those leaders in organizations and
corporations who are willing to support whatever will emerge from an
OS-meeting? Unfortunately my experience is that this level of trust is very
hard to find. I´ve also experienced leaders closing the space down, which
could have been avoided if they had had some givens to hold on to.

I always do my best to give the sponsor the possibility to make an informed
decision about if they think OST is the meeting format they´d like to use.
Using the concept of givens, I think makes it possible for the sponsor to
open authentic space within the reality of that organization. Well, as
he/she who is accountable perceives that reality anyway.

Then of course it is important work to minimize the givens! And next time
there may be fewer...

But this question is not easy, if we´d have had an OS-meeting 15 years ago
in Gothenburg about making the town internationally known, building an East
Indiaman at a cost of 500 000 000 SEK would probably have been far exceeding
any thinkable givens....now it is on its journey to China!

So the question may be - is anything possible? And are the persons in charge
willing to take responsibility for whatever happens - without any givens? I
agree there is a difference when working focusing primarily within an
organization where someone is in charge - or thinks he/she is in charge.

I have a given tomorrow morning, have to get up early so:
Warmest regards and good night
Thomas Herrmann         Phone +46 (0)709-98 97 81
Open Space Consulting   Fax   +46 (0)300-713 89
Pensévägen 4
434 46 Kungsbacka, Sweden
Email: thomas at openspaceconsulting.com
www.openspaceconsulting.com

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>From  Mon Apr  3 18:29:40 2006
Message-Id: <MON.3.APR.2006.182940.0400.>
Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2006 18:29:40 -0400
Reply-To: hhowen at verizon.net
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net>
Organization: HH Owen and Co.
Subject: Re: Is anything possible?
In-Reply-To: <NOEPIGMAFNFLGJPILKKFOEABEBAA.thomas at openspaceconsulting.com>
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Thomas -- I hear what you are saying, and I can certainly understand why
certain executives would want to hold onto some "givens" (which I read as
"controls"). And these are the same people who want certainties and
guarantees. The only problem is there are no certainties, no guarantees in
this life. There never have been, and there never will be. Yes, of course,
there is one -- Life will end. But in the interim between beginning and
ending -- everything is at risk, everything is uncertain. And that, of
course is both the joy and terror of living. Dee Hock of Chaordic
Organization fame has a nice phrase (amongst many) in his book. Dee was also
the CEO of one of the world's largest corporations: Visa International. Goes
like --

"Life is not about control. It's not about getting. It's not about having.
It's not about knowing. It's not even about being. Life is eternal,
perpetual becoming, or it is nothing. Becoming is not a thing to be known,
commanded, or controlled. It is a magnificent, mysterious odyssey to be
experienced."
 
Harrison 

Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, Maryland   20854
Phone 301-365-2093
Skype hhowen
Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com 
Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
Personal website www.ho-image.com 
OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the
archives Visit: www.listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html


-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Thomas
Herrmann
Sent: Monday, April 03, 2006 5:35 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Is anything possible?

Dear friends in Open Space
I am wondering where you find those leaders in organizations and
corporations who are willing to support whatever will emerge from an
OS-meeting? Unfortunately my experience is that this level of trust is very
hard to find. I´ve also experienced leaders closing the space down, which
could have been avoided if they had had some givens to hold on to.

I always do my best to give the sponsor the possibility to make an informed
decision about if they think OST is the meeting format they´d like to use.
Using the concept of givens, I think makes it possible for the sponsor to
open authentic space within the reality of that organization. Well, as
he/she who is accountable perceives that reality anyway.

Then of course it is important work to minimize the givens! And next time
there may be fewer...

But this question is not easy, if we´d have had an OS-meeting 15 years ago
in Gothenburg about making the town internationally known, building an East
Indiaman at a cost of 500 000 000 SEK would probably have been far exceeding
any thinkable givens....now it is on its journey to China!

So the question may be - is anything possible? And are the persons in charge
willing to take responsibility for whatever happens - without any givens? I
agree there is a difference when working focusing primarily within an
organization where someone is in charge - or thinks he/she is in charge.

I have a given tomorrow morning, have to get up early so:
Warmest regards and good night
Thomas Herrmann         Phone +46 (0)709-98 97 81
Open Space Consulting   Fax   +46 (0)300-713 89
Pensévägen 4
434 46 Kungsbacka, Sweden
Email: thomas at openspaceconsulting.com
www.openspaceconsulting.com

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>From  Mon Apr  3 19:07:08 2006
Message-Id: <MON.3.APR.2006.190708.0400.>
Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2006 19:07:08 -0400
Reply-To: birgitt at dalarinternational.com
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: Birgitt Williams <birgitt at dalarinternational.com>
Organization: Dalar International Consultancy
Subject: Re: Evaluations - "Why and Why Not"
In-Reply-To: <20060403170053.44217.qmail at web53515.mail.yahoo.com>
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Elwin,
I need to give a short answer in the interest of my available time right
now. I primarily work in intact organizations that are owned by
shareholders, Boards, executive staff. Usually there is a single
executive staff called President, CEO, executive director who has
primary accountability for the performance of the organization. The
decision to have an OST meeting is for a variety of different purposes,
depending on the organization. Often, I have the opportunity to
facilitate more than one OST meeting in an organization following
another, each for different purposes.

The organization has ongoing HR, OD, Finance, Risk Management,
Marketing, Sales protocols. Some carved in stone. Some open for change.
We do OST meetings in organizations that have existing protocols.
Further, the complexity of cause and effect relationships between
departments, work processes and so on is intricately woven. Not
necessarily the best, but it is there.

The sponsor opens the space for the OST meeting to take place in his/her
organization for which he/she is accountable. The 'givens', as I noted
in an earlier post, have multiple benefits in identifying what the space
in the organization truly is for input, creativity, inspiration and so
on. Sometimes the space is almost limitless, sometimes it is more
closed. Another way to look at givens is to be authentic and explicit in
the organization about where the space is not open so that no one need
waste energy there. Once the sponsor identifies the 'givens' and
announces them, hence announcing what space is actually open and doing
so with authenticity, the givens form the contracted terms within which
people believe they can make a difference. 

We have recognized in intact organizations that when space is opened
that is not authentic, because the terms were never sorted out for what
is open in the ongoing organizational life, that the sponsors would
close down the results from the space after the fact saying things like
'well, we can't do that action because it is outside of our funding
contract' or 'we can't do that action because it is not in the budget.'.
The sponsor gets frustrated, as do those who had participated in the OST
event. 

On the other hand, I have witnessed the aftermath of an OST event where
there was no use of givens, where the sponsor (VP of HR) dismissed all
outputs from the meeting (the outputs were stellar), he also fired
people who had been outspoken. 


I hope this helps.
Birgitt
-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Elwin
and Joan
Sent: Monday, April 03, 2006 1:01 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: Evaluations - "Why and Why Not"

Birgitt,

I am intrigued. What have you found in your study?

I have used OST to bring together groups with a "common interest" for
the purpose of discussing and documenting “next steps" toward formation
of Trade or Civic Associations. All have led to formation and action
sustained over the course of several years now. The same is true when I
revisit with OST to extend their vision and planning.

What’s your experience and with whom?

Elwin Guild
Future Development International
Baltimore



--- Birgitt Williams <birgitt at dalarinternational.com> wrote:

> There are probably as many organizations who would never have an OST
> meeting again as their are those who will. I have found it
> interesting to study those who will not and why.
> 
> Blessings,
> Birgitt

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>From  Mon Apr  3 19:41:38 2006
Message-Id: <MON.3.APR.2006.194138.0400.>
Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2006 19:41:38 -0400
Reply-To: birgitt at dalarinternational.com
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: Birgitt Williams <birgitt at dalarinternational.com>
Organization: Dalar International Consultancy
Subject: Re: Evaluations of Open Space in Novi Sad, Serbia
In-Reply-To: <000001c65741$bff3e240$6400a8c0 at harrison>
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Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
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Harrison,
It seems that you are attributing actions, hopes, expectations to me
that I didn’t realize I had. Interesting but not true for me. 

I will use a metaphor to explain what I mean by ‘givens’ and getting
authentic ‘givens’ at the beginning that define where the space is
authentically open. The metaphor I use is one that good novels are
written about.  Assume that a man pursues a woman. She becomes
interested. A romantic relationship results. It goes on for a time, with
both love and hopes expressed. Next steps are discussed. None are
actually agreed to because the conversation is continuing. The woman
then notices that the man’s ex-wife doesn’t appear to be so ‘ex’. The
man says that everything is not what it appears to be and reassures the
woman. After significant involvement, the man finally declares his
‘givens’. He is indeed married and invested in making his marriage work.


This metaphor tells the story. The ‘givens’ were always there but were
never made explicit. Passion raised, hopes raised, energy was committed,
and so on. There is disappointment, a sense of betrayal, unmet
expectations and the frustration of putting energy into something that
was false because a playing field was offered that was not authentic. If
the ‘givens’ had been noted at the beginning, the woman would have known
what she was being invited into and she would have declined. However,
keeping the ‘givens’ from being explicit, had her feeling that she was
in a different playing field than the one she ended up in. 

The same feelings show up in organizations when people’s passions are
stirred but they discover themselves in an inauthentic playing field in
terms of where the space is truly open in the organization and where it
is not. They deserve to have the opportunity to make an informed
decision about whether they wish to invest in a particular OST meeting
or not. And using this metaphor, there is a whole new understanding of
self-organizing when the ‘givens’ are not authentic and not explicit
than there is if the ‘givens’ are authentic and explicit.


Birgitt

-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of
Harrison Owen
Sent: Monday, April 03, 2006 1:12 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: Evaluations of Open Space in Novi Sad, Serbia

For sure I would never gainsay the good work that you do. Obviously
there is
a great need to hold hands, coach, support, and otherwise encourage the
good
folks after an Open Space. But perhaps there is some difference when it
comes to the desired endpoint. If the desired end point is that people
will
simply fit their findings/conclusions/plans into the extant system, what
you
propose (and presumably do) would doubtless accomplish that. However, I
am
not sure that is the best outcome, for in many ways it simply takes
people
back to precisely the conditions they sought to break out of -- or why
do
the Open Space?

My expectations/hopes for the client are somewhat different. On a good
day,
participants will see life and work in a very new way. On a better day,
they
will come to understand that a strategic plan (for example) is an
interesting exercise, but the moment the environment changes, even
slightly,
that plan is probably out of date, and implementing the plan is not only
an
exercise in futility, but also likely to lead to sub-optimized results.
In
other words they spend so much time/energy implementing the old plan
that
they fail to recognize the emergent opportunities sprouting all around
them.

A "best" result (I think) is the increased capacity for real agility
such
that planning is done in real time and the space between plan and action
is
reduced to as close to zero as possible. Or put slightly differently,
the
failure to implement a plan along with a whole bunch of action steps can
well be a major success.

Not everybody is up for all this, and a lot of organizations will simply
pass from the scene. Not because they were not nice people, competent
and
caring -- but because they were not sufficiently adaptable. 

Harrison


Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, Maryland   20854
Phone 301-365-2093
Skype hhowen
Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com 
Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
Personal website www.ho-image.com 
OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the
archives Visit: www.listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html


-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of
Birgitt
Williams
Sent: Monday, April 03, 2006 12:20 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: Evaluations of Open Space in Novi Sad, Serbia

Hi Harrison,
I know that we have differing views on the subject of 'givens'. We also
have different views on the concept of self-organizing systems. I also
know from experience that it is difficult to have this discussion by
email. It would require a whole book, I think, to do justice to the two
viewpoints, what is behind them, and what each of our lived experiences
has been.

For me, an OST meeting can be stunningly successful during the event,
and feel so rewarding to the facilitator in the closing circle... and
then two months later be viewed as a frustrating experience by the
participants as they come head to head with the restrictions imposed on
them and the outputs of the OST meeting. While the sponsor intended for
an open discussion with action plans, the sponsor often doesn't
understand the true power of an OST meeting until it is done. And then
cannot cope with the quality and quantity of the outputs. And then the
depression from unmet expectations sets in...

There are probably as many organizations who would never have an OST
meeting again as their are those who will. I have found it interesting
to study those who will not and why.

Blessings,
Birgitt

-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of
Harrison Owen
Sent: Monday, April 03, 2006 11:47 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: Evaluations of Open Space in Novi Sad, Serbia

Kerry wrote: "Givens are barriers to the fundamental philosophy and
values
of Open Space."

I am not so sure it is about the philosophy and values of Open Space --
although that may be true. For me it is more about the negative impact
of
self-imposed limitations for the client. For example, several years ago
I
had as a client a large Pharmaceutical company. The business on the
table
was the creation of a 5 year research plan, and all the researchers
(500)
were to be part of the process. In the lead up to the Open Space, word
came
from the planning department that no matter what else might transpire
the
new plan must include the creation of 20 new compounds. (For those who
do
not work in the industry, you should know that a compound is a new drug
which has not received approval from the FDA.) That sounded pretty much
like
a "given" to me, and I pushed them on the advisability of doing that. To
make my point, I said -- well supposing you find 21 new compounds --
would
you be unhappy? Or suppose you only found two, but it turned out that
they
were the natural successors to Lipitor and Viagra (both of which the
company
made) -- would that be too bad? They got the point, and the "given"
evaporated.

I have another and probably deeper problem with "givens." While I do
agree
that there are certain givens in life -- things fall when dropped, life
ends
when over, taxes just won't go away -- the givens I hear spoken about in
client conversations are either so obvious as to need no statement, or
else
self imposed by the management. When working with a financial
organization
it is a given that operations will be in accord with "generally accepted
accounting principles." What else?

On the subject of "management imposed givens" -- I think we are in
rather
different waters. I would call them "The Waters of Control." With any
client
that I have occasion to deal with, a primary concern is to help them to
understand that the imposition of arbitrary controls and constraints
(those
which are non-emergent from the system itself) is not only a fool's
errand,
it is usually counter-productive. It is a fool's errand simply because
Management doesn't possess the control they presume -- never did and
never
will. They can say (order, beseech, implore, beg) anything they chose.
What
will happen is always independent. I would take the realization of this
basic fact to be the essential first step on the road to becoming a
Conscious Open Space Organization -- or just a plain, old, everyday, run
of
the mill, but well functioning -- self-organizing system. 

Beyond the basic futility of seeking such control (it won't happen), the
act
of seeking it can be very detrimental. Under the best of circumstances,
the
external controls will make no difference, either because the System was
going to do it anyhow, or because the proposed controls were so far off
the
mark as to be inconsequential. In a worst case scenario the very act of
imposing control will warp and stress the system. Even with the best of
intentions no manager, or group of managers, is sufficiently perceptive
to
fully understand the operative mechanisms and relationships in their
organization. That doesn’t make them "bad" -- just human. And the danger
is
that quite inadvertently, they will throw a spanner (monkey wrench) in
the
works.

So I guess I am quite happy to talk with a client about givens -- as
long as
we can get rid of them (givens). And if they (the Givens) persist, the
space
is just not open. I guess all of this sounds rather iconoclastic and
revolutionary, but in actual fact over the 20 years that I have been
wandering Open Space there have been less than a half dozen situations
where
Givens were ever an issue. Either they appeared and were dispensed with
--
or just never showed up.

Harrison 


Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, Maryland   20854
Phone 301-365-2093
Skype hhowen
Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com 
Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
Personal website www.ho-image.com 
OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the
archives Visit: www.listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html


-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of kerry
napuk
Sent: Monday, April 03, 2006 7:58 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Evaluations of Open Space in Novi Sad, Serbia

Elwin & Harrison

Write on!

Givens are barriers to the fundamental philosophy and values of Open
Space.

If a client has problems handling open discussion, maybe they should 
try some other conventional process that offers comfort through 
control.

Best regards

Kerry
Edinburgh
www.openfutures.com

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