Theory - Practice Dialogue

[Harrison Owen]

What we do and what we think about what we do are (or at least should be) in
constant conversation. It is in this dialogue that our capacity for
effective action and our consciousness of the meaning of our actions are
both enhanced. It is all too easy to get hung up on one side of the
conversation or the other - but clearly both are essential, and when theory
and practice are separated, or one takes priority over the other, the loss
on all sides is substantial. To me one of the enduring strengths of this
electronic community is that the dialogue has been maintained, some times in
a most fractious way, but maintained none the less. 

Writing a full history of this ongoing dialogue is a subject requiring more
than a brief note - but how about a dissertation?? --  You PhD students out
there??? We began with a funny way of holding meetings which was lots of
fun, very effective, and made no sense at all, at least no sense in terms of
the way such things are normally understood. This lack of sense led, for
example, to an exploration of the primal mechanisms of human community, the
work of the shaman - which doubtless sent some of our more traditional
organizational types around the bend, or at least out of The Open Space
Community. The word was out - something is weird, these folks are strange.
They even talk about Spirit. Voodoo can't be far behind. But the questions
were posed, and I think we have learned a lot about the role that we play in
opening and holding space. Practice improved.

Somewhere along the line we entertained thoughts of creating The Open Space
Organization. I even wrote a book about it with the odd title, "The
Millennium Organization." The thought was a simple one, if Open Space felt
so good, and worked so well, why not do it 365 day a year? Why Not??

But then a funny thought happened on the way to the future. All about
self-organizing systems, which seemed to have lot to say about what
transpired in every Open Space. Seen as a self-organizing system, the Open
Space event (experience) suddenly made a lot more sense, at least to some of
us. But there was an unintended consequence, a spanner in the works so to
speak, at least in terms of our plans for The Open Space Organization,
especially if that was something we were going to create. Should it turn out
that self-organization not only underlies the function of Open Space, but
also the entire cosmos, as some would suggest - then the notion of creating
an Open Space Organization is rather a waste of time. All organizations, by
definition, are already Open Space Organizations (self-organizing), it is
just that some don't do it very well. 

Interesting new starting point. Forget about introducing Open Space - it is
already there. The job now becomes helping people to understand more fully
what they already are. A Buddhist thought might be helpful here - something
about finding our Original Face! 

And is all of this "right" and "true"?  Who knows, but collectively we have
certainly traveled many miles. And I think we are just getting to the good
parts, and not a moment too soon. I don't know how you personally read the
state of the planet, or more especially the state of the planet's
passengers, but it seems to me that we are at a most interesting moment.
Anybody who ever thought they were In Charge, should by now be disabused of
that spurious notion. And all those who were hopeful that at least
"somebody" was in charge (but certainly not me!) may just be getting the
picture that The Big Man will somehow save us with the ultimate design just
won't make it. Doubtless some folks will see the present moment as an
occasion for a monstrous state of depression. I can understand that,
particularly if we are limited to doing what we have always done and
thinking as we have always thought. But there are some wonderful
alternatives, and I think we may be finding a few of them here in our
conversations.

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
Personal website www.ho-image.com 
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