Advanced Butterfly Behavior/ collective butterfly and invitation

[Peggy Holman]

Ah, now it's flowing.  Here are some aspects surfacing for me:

>From Michael:
the importance of purpose

>From Harrison:
"The central issue for me is diversity. And a central principle (experience) for me is that the higher the level of diversity (by whatever measure) the greater the possibility of innovative outcomes."

>From Tree:
"What matters, I think, is the spirit in which the private meeting/session is born" and 
the pain of feeling excluded

>From Mark:
deep questions about the nature of butterfly-ness, such as:
Does the formal process and form of OST fundamentally reject "private"
   conversation and its manifestation in some forms of "butterfly-ness"?

>From Justin and Nancy:
The joy of being a butterfly

>From Diane:
What about convening groups of a type (e.g., for African-Americans only, for women only)?

>From Chris:
the discipline of energetic openness and
the need for a private conversation with myself

>From Ashley:
That a group can be a co-creative whole and like an individual need space to breathe and find resonance


Here's what's surfacing for me through all of these threads:

There are some natural and vibrant tensions that dance through these ideas:
primary focus on ideas and innovation/primary focus on relationships, 
transparency/privacy, 
inclusion/exclusion

Sometimes the primary purpose is innovation and posting sessions is paramount.  Sometimes the intention is not innovation but deepening relationships, creating resonance, harmony, communion.  I am thinking this is an aspect of Open Space that isn't nearly as well developed or understood as what's involved with innovating (where posting sessions brings the unexpected).  I believe that was the case in the PoP session that I described in the orginal message.  And I believe it is what increasingly happens when people live more and more in OS, as indicated by the trend towards fewer postings, more butterflying at Spirited Work, not to mention conferences in general.  

I think I used the term advanced butterfly behavior because in OS, in a sense, butterflies are the central organizing element for relational work.  My hunch is something is wanting to emerge that allows for the same quality of coming together with a purpose centered on deeping relationship that posting sessions has for innovating.  With this relational purpose, I may want to make conscious choices about who is there.  And this brings the questions of inclusion/exclusion and transparency/privacy front and center.

My initial query was around the transparency/privacy tension.  Yet, what I realized from Tree's posting was that underneath this tension lurks the question of inclusion/exclusion.  And it isn't excluding the wild cards with the potential missed opportunity that tears at me.  The painful tension is when it is people I love, who may well have something valuable to contribute, but for whatever reason - either consciously or unconsciously - aren't included.  I suspect we've all experienced being left out and it isn't fun.

It is in facing these incredibly challenging tensions that we might find a form for deepening as elegant as what serves innovating.  

In the most mature scenario, when a group wants to convene among themselves (a la Ashley's co-creative whole), why not post such gatherings (for women only)?  Make them visible.  Of course, it's much tougher when the criteria are more nuanced (people with whom I sense a resonance).  Still, if posted, it isn't a drag on the energy field.  It acknowledges the desire for a particular configuration to convene within the larger whole, in service in some way to the whole.  Somehow being transparently excluded seems more loving than doing something in secret.

I think these are really tough tensions to embrace.  Because I also believe that we grow more conscious by living in OS, I'm really wondering how to do this with integrity.  There's a form wanting to emerge...

glad for the wonderful companions in this inquiry,
Peggy


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