Evaluations of Open Space in Novi Sad, Serbia

[Chris Corrigan]

I haven't a clue why I am wandering into this conversation, but here I am.

I don't see anything that has been written here as pro-, con-, helpful or
detrimental to Open Space or to the organizations and communities that we
all work with.

I sometimes talk about givens, but on the very rare occasions where I have
used the word I  have never used that word in the context of control.  In
fact one client did invoke the law of gravity as a given, introducing the
day with "we can't repeal the law of gravity but pretty much everything else
is on the table."  She understood the value of givens quite well, because we
had had a long and interesting conversation about it.

Rather than use the term givens, I use the term invitation.  For me,
cultivating practices of invitation among the leadership, participants and
everyone else associated with the event is the best possible way to set a
container.  Leaders invite their people into a creative space, people invite
others to join them in conversation and the system invites action and
results.  Cultivating the practice of invitation is what gives OST event
legs, in my experience and it is what animates this new way of working long
after the event is over.

Each client has their needs.  Some do want more control than would be good
for an Open Space meeting.  Others are willing to let it all hang out.  But
my favourite experiences have come with clients who are in the middle of
those poles, and whose learning edge is growing towards new ways of working
with people.  Their management styles shift radically as they listen for the
questions that are posed when one works in Open Space, and they develop the
capacity to act without givens over time, in a way that is perfectly aligned
with who they are.

For me, the best kinds of actions are based on decisions where there is no
decision at all.  When we draw a breath, we don't think about it.  It is an
action completely in line with our natural state, and so we simply breath.
When martial artists act, they act in flow, not able to spare the moment to
think about their opponents move.  And to extend Birgitt's metaphor, when
people act out of true and deep love for one another, there is no balancing
of the various givens.  The path comes clear from the presencing and clarity
reached by living openly in invitation with one another.  I think we are all
on that path, and we work with people who are at various points in that
journey, and our call maybe to simply meet them where they are and provide
the best possible service to them.

Cheers,

Chris

On 4/3/06, Birgitt Williams <birgitt at dalarinternational.com> wrote:
>
> 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
> archivesVisit: 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
> archivesVisit: 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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--
CHRIS CORRIGAN
Consultation - Facilitation
Open Space Technology

Weblog: http://www.chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot
Site: http://www.chriscorrigan.com
Open Space Resources:  http://tinyurl.com/r94tj

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