Is anything possible?

Tue Apr 4 08:33:39 PDT 2006

Hi Chris.

Hmmmmmmm . . . Interesting optimization of your efforts !

I concur that ³community² is the natural fit for OST.

And . . .
In my twelve year experiment and experience using
OST in large corporate and Government contexts,
OST worked profoundly well on an ongoing basis ---
but required that I and my OS-oriented colleagues be
embedded and influential within the power structures
of the organizations.  As an OST convener, I usually had
to carry actual or delegated-proxy P&L responsibility.

I do ponder the experience of effectiveness and generativity
in being a trusted convener in the ³embedded² sense within
communities, corporations, and Governments.  I have played
with a strategy of establishing relationships that allow me to
at least temporarily serve in an embedded leadership capacity
‹ even if mostly virtual.  More work, more messy -- more like
³community².  Of course, that does make me more like a
Stakeholder of the organizations ‹ and less like a consultant.
In the past, some of my OST colleagues have challenged this
role as being inappropriate.  But I like it ‹ it works for me !

Thanks for the thought stimulation . . .

Mark R. Jones
Chief Executive Officer
The Sunyata Group
The Integral Wellness Group
----------------------------------------------------------------------
PO Box 58788
Renton, Washington
USA 98058-1788
Phone:      425-413-6000
e-Mail:      sunyata at att.net <mailto:sunyata at att.net>
----------------------------------------------------------------------

On 4/3/06 10:50 PM, "Chris Corrigan" <chris at chriscorrigan.com> wrote:

> I have been finding lately that in the world of business, government and big
> organizations, people are much less likely to let go of control than in
> community settings.  Corporations exist to stabilize and protect things:
> assets, property, ideas, money, reputations...they are all about control.
> Communities are messy, evolutionary, out of control and chaordic.   I find
> that Open Space works beautifully in community settings, and works great in
> organizations where you are all about building a community, or where the
> leaders understand that the real way anything happens in the organization is
> if you view the whole enterprise as a big messy community, in which the agency
> of all contributes to the bigger good.  In general, you will find very few
> people in corporations willing to take this risk, but in communities, for the
> most part, this is how people operate.
> 
> I've given up on the holy grail of using OST in Fortune 500 settings to help
> groups of IT managers find innovative work processes, for example.  It's
> certainly possible there, and applicable and probably improves the world in
> some small way.  But I've seen OST animate community action on poverty,
> sustainability, rights, suicide, drug addiction, homelessness, food security,
> economic development and child welfare.  I've seen people who have nearly
> nothing find a true sense of power and purpose in the process.  So I've taken
> to using it in places where it makes a huge difference in the lives of people
> and communities, and I hold this arena in high regard, because the people who
> take risks here do so with everything on the line, and in some cases,
> everything means their life.
> 
> Dee Hock's quote is about living and life.  People live and die in communities
> every day.  If they are willing to bring that richness of experience to work
> in the corporations and organizations that exist all over the place, Open
> Space will follow them in there and do all kinds of great things.  But it will
> not make magic for folks who don't want to truly experience the naked terror
> of "Is anything possible?"
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Chris
> 
> On 4/3/06, Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net> wrote:
>> 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 <http://www.openspaceworld.com>
>> Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org  <http://www.openspaceworld.org>
>> Personal website www.ho-image.com <http://www.ho-image.com>
>> OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the
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>> 
>> -----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
>> <mailto:thomas at openspaceconsulting.com>
>> www.openspaceconsulting.com <http://www.openspaceconsulting.com>
>> 
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