"rules" and self-organization

[Larry Peterson]

Back to Michael's statement, as I mentioned earlier, I do think the
"selves" in self-organization make a difference.  It is in the
relationships between the selves and the patterns that emerge in those
relationships that "organization" or pattern happens.  Tavistock
Institute and T-Groups created intentional "self-organising" events or
groups before OST was conceived.  No focus or theme, no principles and
law, people just gathered stared and talked and saw what happened.  They
stopped doing that experiment (I think) and did not find it as rewarding
as we find OST.
 
We choose to have a focus (theme) for OST events, mostly.  We also
suggest some ways of "being" in OST, some assumptions for people to
make, that engender a certain kind of self-organizing.  To me it
suggests values to live by that enable the most powerful
self-organizing.  Are those "rules"?  Only for those then need them.
 
I understand that Complexity Theory talks a lot about the "simple rules"
that create the conditions for self-organization.  Certainly Kaufmann
does with his experiment.   I agree that the Principles and Law are more
descriptive that prescriptive.  However, as I see people "practice"
using the law of two feet and getting more "liberated" to be full
participants in self-organization, I believe stating the new (for them)
assumption to live by consciously makes a difference.  As I see people
choosing to end a discussion in 10 minutes or keep it going the whole
time, consciously stating a new (for them) behaviour assumption is
liberating.  Not everyone needs this "permission", particularly new Gen
Tec folks, but some "selves" do if they are to engage more fully in
self-organizing.
 
Larry
 
Larry Peterson
Associates in Transformation
Toronto, ON, Canada
416.653.4829
 
 <mailto:larry at spiritedorg.com> larry at spiritedorg.com  
 <http://www.spiritedorg.com> www.spiritedorg.com 
 

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20070601/ca582d60/attachment-0016.htm>