Causing Trouble

Catherine Corbaz c.corbaz at hispeed.ch
Sat Mar 24 05:39:46 PDT 2007


Dear Harrison,
Many thanks for this contribution. Yesterday we had a meeting  
(mentoring circle in the GC program). And that was exactly one of our  
observation and preoccupation. How to promote OST to improve exactly  
one of
Catherine Corbaz
Roseaux 20
CH-2503 Bienne
+41 32 323 38 43
+41 79 794 38 55
www.c2f2.net




Le 21 mars 07 à 14:47, Harrison Owen a exactly :

> A friend of mine who teaches in a business school wrote to tell me  
> that she
> was introducing Open Space to her students in a "Change Management"  
> course -
> and she asked if I might write something for the occasion. I didn't  
> tell her
> what I thought about the oxymoron "change management" - but I did  
> write a
> little something (see below). Hopefully we will remain friends.
>
> Harrison
>
> **************************
>
> To My Young Friends -
>
> I understand from my friend Devorah Weiner, your Lecturer in Charge  
> of the
> Change Management course, that you are being introduced to Open  
> Space. I
> think this is wonderful, but I do have to warn you that this  
> introduction
> may entail some serious problems and could in fact be hazardous to  
> your
> career as a Manager.
>
> Open Space, as you will discover, is an extraordinarily simple  
> means of
> enabling groups of people to deal respectfully and productively  
> with highly
> complex issues. In fact, all the people have to do is sit in a circle,
> create a bulletin board displaying the issues they choose to  
> address, open a
> market place to negotiate matters of time and place of meeting -  
> and then go
> to work. There is a facilitator who typically spends 15 minutes  
> getting the
> process started, and then essentially disappears. There is no prior  
> warm-up
> or training, and during the gathering no form of intervention is  
> required.
> The people do it all by themselves.
>
> Over the 20 years that Open Space has been around, groups from  
> 5-2000 have
> had the experience well over 100,000 times in 124 countries. These  
> groups
> have included Israelis and Palestinians dealing with issues of war and
> peace, 1800 street kids in Columbia discussing how to get off the  
> street and
> into a job, and 500 Boeing Engineers redesigning the way they make  
> doors for
> their airplanes. In every case, the groups met or exceeded  
> expectations, and
> more usually just blew all expectations away.
>
> At this point you might be asking yourself - What's the problem?  
> Here things
> become a little interesting. In the first place, everybody knows  
> that you
> simply cannot take 2000 people, sit them in a circle and expect  
> anything
> other than massive chaos, particularly when the facilitator spends  
> only 15
> minutes getting them started and then basically disappears. How could
> something so simple do so much? And if it did work, why are we  
> spending so
> much effort in other situations?
>
> I am reminded of a luncheon conversation I had several years ago  
> with the
> Vice President of ASTD (American Society for Training and  
> Development) who
> wanted to know about Open Space, so I told him. Before I had  
> finished he
> stopped me to say, "Harrison, I am not doubting what you say - but  
> if what
> you say is true 95% of what we are currently doing doesn't need to  
> be done."
> After all managers and trainers are supposed to organize and  
> control things
> - but if the people can do it all by themselves, where do we fit in?
> Interesting question!
>
> Even more interesting (I think) is the deeper question of what is  
> going on
> anyhow? Why does Open Space work? Conventional organization and  
> management
> theory is pretty clear on the matter. Open Space shouldn't work. In  
> fact it
> can't work - but unfortunately it does. So now what?
>
> After 20 years fussing with this anomaly I have been driven to the
> conclusion that Open Space works because self-organization works.  
> And it
> gets worse. I now strongly suspect that there is no such thing as a  
> NON
> self-organizing system, there are only some mildly deluded people  
> who think
> they organized it. And when it comes to managerial control, we are  
> really in
> trouble. If the theorists are correct, self-organization takes  
> place without
> benefit of our wisdom and care.
>
> Of course, I could be totally wrong which would save a lot of painful
> re-thinking, to say nothing of the necessity of finding new  
> careers. But I
> have warned you.
>
> In any event, please have fun. I certainly have had fun, even if I  
> didn't
> end up where I thought I was going. Should you be interested in a  
> little bit
> more about that particular journey as it relates to Open Space, you  
> might
> check out http://openspaceworld.com/emergent_order.htm
>
>
>
> Cheers!
>
>
> 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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