Reflections on OS and Self Organization

[louise]

This Self Organization topic and the place of humanity, and everyone of us as a member of the species, in nature and cosmos, brings me to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's Le phénomène humain,  translated in English under the title The Human Phenomenon or The Man Phenomenon, two different translations. A must read. Very inspiring for my reflection on OS and SO as well as OS as a mean for humanity to play its role as part of the "real world", or cosmos. For the context, Teilhard de Chardin wrote it while in China from 1938 to 1940.

Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net> a écrit :         st1\:*{behavior:url(#default#ieooui) }           Seems like we have all taken a breather – which, is probably a good thing, if only to allow some recuperation for our mailboxes! For myself, I am definitely in a recuperative state having moved north to the Great State of Maine. Time for boats to go in the water and the summer to begin!
   
  And – I was thinking back over our multiple conversations on Self-Organization and Open Space. Clearly there are many ways to think about and attempt to understand what transpires every time space is opened. Each one definitely adds a rich facet of understanding, and as near as I can tell, none are mutually exclusive. That said, I keep coming back to SO as a starting place. My reasons are several, and they may be useful to me alone, but I thought to share.
   
  1) Seeing OS as an example of SO immediately takes Open Space out of the realm of the strange, mystical, esoteric, and anchors it very firmly in the fabric of global experience. It is therefore not something that we as facilitators do or create. It has been there long before we arrived on the scene.
   
  2) Since Open Space is definitely part of the natural order of things, doing an Open Space is not a retreat from reality, but rather a direct engagement of the “way things are.” And so when participants remark, as they sometimes do – that this is all very nice, but eventually we have to get back to the “real world” – an appropriate response might be – This is the real world!
   
  3) Seeing Open Space as an exemplar of self organization enables us to use the insights gained in an event in the larger world of our daily experience. For me, this is perhaps the most compelling reason of all.  Chris Corrigan puts this very neatly when he refers to Open Space as “Training Wheels.” I believe it can be argued that the most profound pathology that humans experience is the alienation from the natural order of things. Clearly this is at work in terms of our relationship to the environment – which we have all been taught is something that we “own” and must control. At least that is what it used to say in all the books. The idea is whacko not only in terms of the health of the planet, but more immediately to the health of that smaller aspect of the planet, Homo sapiens. So perhaps the greatest contribution of Open Space is that it can enable us to find an appropriate fit with the world in which we live. Yes, I said, “fit” and I think fitness really applies –
 what is at stake is our relationship with ourselves and our world. 
   
  The meaning of “fitness” for me is “healthy relationship.” I am reminded of the work of Martin Buber who said 100 years ago, “In the beginning was relationship. (to be found in “I and Thou).
   
   
  Harrison
   
   
   
  
  * * ========================================================== 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 


Louise Brissette
ipsé, soi-même en latin
louisebrissette at ipsai.net
http://ipsai.net
+1.819.322.1489
       
---------------------------------
Le tout nouveau Yahoo! Courriel  
---------------------------------
Consultez vos fils RSS depuis votre boîte de réception.

*
*
==========================================================
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/20070610/cc286d52/attachment-0016.htm>