Questions about selforganization SWEDISH WORKSHOP NOV 28TH
douglas germann
76066.515 at compuserve.com
Mon Dec 1 17:51:12 PST 2008
Peggy--
Thank you for sharing this with us all. I wanted to take some time to
digest it before responding. Please see my responses below:
On Sun, 2008-11-23 at 13:46 -0800, Peggy Holman wrote:
> Hi Thomas,
>
> This isn't quite organized in categories, but thought I'd
> share some ideas from a keynote talk I did in June for Seattle
> University's Organization Systems Renewal Program. It was on
> the changing nature of change.
>
> I spoke about three common strategies for addressing change:
> acting from habit (and suppressing disturbance), acting from
> certainty (and managing disturbance) and acting from inquiry
> (and embracing disturbance). While there is an appropriate
> time for each of these strategies, when the actions taken
> don't work, the disturbance tends to get louder and nastier.
> Ultimately, acknowledging that you don't know what to do
> makes room for facing the uncertainty that is a natural part
> of self-organization. It is where there tends to be a
> willingness (or desperation) for consciously working with
> self-organization. If you'd like a short article elaborating
> on the three strategies, it's here:
> http://www.opencirclecompany.com/papers.htm
>
> Below are some additional thoughts on the implications of what
> changes when leaders, change practitioners, and groups begin
> to work with the knowledge that everything is self-organizing.
>
> have a wonderful event!
>
> appreciatively,
> Peggy
>
>
>
>
> The Evolution of Change:
> Some Implications for Leaders and Change Practitioners
>
Peggy, it is significant that you sought to avoid dichotomies by
speaking of current framing and current framing plus. I am wondering if
there might be a way to melt the walls a bit more, maybe even to come up
with a metaphor that takes us beyond boxes and compartments. For
instance, would leaves on a tree work? Or a river?
> (in no particular order)
> Current Framing
>
>
> Current Framing +
>
>
> Both/and
>
>
> Transcend and include
>
>
> Either/or
>
>
> Differentiate and integrate
>
>
> Newtonian
>
>
> New sciences
>
>
> Strive for Stability
>
>
> Move with the dynamic
>
>
> Build/Construct
>
>
> Support/Invite Emergence
>
>
> Difference as problem
>
>
> Diversity as resource
>
>
> Predictable
>
>
> Mysterious
>
>
> Logistical
>
>
> Hospitable
>
>
> Mainstream
>
>
> Margins
>
>
> Process design
>
>
> Container creation
>
>
> Rows and squares
>
>
> Circles
>
>
> Hierarchy
>
>
> Network
>
>
> Outcomes
>
>
> Intentions
>
>
> Charismatic leader
>
>
> Shared leadership
>
>
> Work solo
>
>
> Work in community
>
>
> Incremental part by part
>
>
> Whole system via
> macrocosms/microcosms
>
>
> Top-down or bottom-up
>
>
> Multi-directional
>
>
> Classical
>
>
> Jazz/improvisation
>
>
>
> What you do
> Restrain disturbance
>
>
> Welcome disturbance
>
>
> Facilitate
>
>
> Host
>
>
> Declare/Advocate
>
>
> Inquire
>
>
> Follow the plan
>
>
> Follow the energy
>
>
> Harvest
>
>
> Midwife
>
>
> Plan the work/work the plan
>
>
> First next step -- now, now,
> now…
>
>
> Take initiative
>
>
> Be receptive
>
>
> Conform to belong
>
>
> Unique to belong
>
>
> Focus on the form of things
>
>
> Focus on the unfolding of
> things
>
>
> Do your homework
>
>
> Do your inner work
>
>
>
> What it creates
> Predictability
>
>
> Experimentation
>
>
> Rationality
>
>
> Whole person presence
>
>
> Alignment through
> agreement/compromise
>
>
> Coherence through intention and
> co-sensing
>
>
> Sameness
>
>
> Differentiated wholeness
>
>
>
>
> Useful Mental Models
> 1. Behavior shifts when people have a lived experience of
> a system. Rather than serve just the good of individuals or
> the collective, when people view themselves as part of a
> larger body and that larger body as supporting what they love,
> they act so that the good of individuals and the good of the
> collective are mutually served.
>
> 2. Conversation is fractal. By sharing their stories,
> people discover what is most personal is also universal. As
> they reflect together, even very diverse and conflicted people
> experience each other’s humanity, discover shared meaning and
> intentions, envision possibilities that creatively integrate
> differences into a larger whole -- all of which cultivate a
> sense of community.
>
Peggy, I love this picture of fractals! What does the geometry of clouds
and shorelines and leaves pull us to find out about conversation?
What you are affirming, I think, is that people are most whole, most
fully human (Maslow), while conversing. It is the most natural thing for
human beings to meet, find their differences, and make something good of
them.
>
> Design to create a lived experience of the system
> 1. Create hospitable space. Context -- assumptions,
> history, culture, environment, constraints, resources,
> relationships -- shapes what happens next. Hospitable space
> emerges when we create stable “containers” that take context
> into account, that provide life-enhancing physical
> environments, that open up inner/psychic space, and that
> enable the flow of vital energy through dynamic processes.
>
> 2. Invite in the whole person. People are more than their
> rational minds. They are head, heart, body, spirit…
>
> 3. Invite the diversity of the system to be present and
> express itself. Bring the whole system into the room with all
> its passions and messy interconnectedness -- and welcome
> whatever it has to tell itself. Banish the unspoken cultural
> norm that belonging requires conforming by enabling unique
> expressions of what has heart and meaning to be fully heard.
> Such work fosters coherence into a “differentiated wholeness”
> that includes and transcends complexity and diversity, in
> which differences shape new connections and a new sense of the
> whole that integrates tensions previously experienced as
> disturbances.
>
I would love to have you and others in this community to share what
"enabling unique expressions of what has heart and meaning to be fully
heard" can look like, both in groups and one on one....
> Prepare to lead
> 1. Do your own work. It takes clarity and courage to
> remain equinanimous in the midst of messiness. The more
> capacity you have to stay centered in your sense of purpose
> and grounded in the questions that matter, the more you create
> the space for people to hear, see, and love themselves, each
> other, and the whole they are creating.
>
> 2. Be receptive. Move from the edge of what's known and
> predictable. Focus through clear intentions, staying open to
> outcomes that emerge out of the mystery of attractive,
> compelling inquiries as people are inspired by the spirit of
> invitation to take initiative -- taking responsibility for
> what they love as an act of service.
>
> 3. Ask, rather than tell. Ask compelling questions you
> are curious about, that you can’t answer on your own, and that
> open up space for new possibilities to emerge. Keep your
> certainties creatively flexible and open with humility.
> Engage your fear creatively using curiosity to access the
> deeper sense in the situation. Keep your initiatives fresh
> and creative through receptivity to the conditions, people,
> and ideas around you.
>
> 4. Name emerging patterns. In addition to harvesting the
> fruits of the work, sense the seeds of emerging patterns that
> are ready to be called into being and invite them into
> form. Plan the first next step.
>
> 5. Do it again. It is easy to get discouraged, wondering
> if the effort is making a difference. Iteration maximizes and
> sustains the ongoing benefits of what emerges. As outcomes
> become inputs into subsequent stages, systems learn and evolve
> and seemingly random connections among people and ideas begin
> to form coherent patterns that carry the system's shared
> intentions into reality.
>
> ______________________________
> Peggy Holman
> The Open Circle Company
> 15347 SE 49th Place
> Bellevue, WA 98006
> 425-746-6274
> www.opencirclecompany.com
>
> For the new edition of The Change Handbook, go to:
> www.bkconnection.com/ChangeHandbook
>
> "An angel told me that the only way to step into the fire and
> not get burnt, is to become
> the fire".
> -- Drew Dellinger
>
Thanks, Peggy.
:- Doug.
>
>
>
>
> On Nov 18, 2008, at 4:20 AM, Thomas Herrmann wrote:
>
> - Forwarded message from my collegue Agneta Falk (and me;-)) -
> Hi listmembers,
> We are having a day in Sweden at the end of November on
> Selforganization and Open Space. Unfortunately, Harrison is
> unable to make it here, so we will carry it out among
> ourselves in the Swedish Open Space Institute, hopefully with
> the help of Larry Peterson on DVD and you wave-riding folks on
> the list. As inspiration, we plan to enlarge and post the
> answers to the questions below in the conference room under
> four headings:
> 1. Selforganization and leadership
>
>
> 2. Selforganization and high performance
> 3. Selforganization and the importance of conversation and
> storytelling.
> 4. Prerequisites for self organization: natural systems
> (Stuart Kaufmann) - human systems
> We would appreciate it very much if you would help us to
> elaborate on one or more of these concepts and are looking
> forward to receive answers from all over the world!!
> If you have time to answer within a week we would be very
> grateful (answers received before Nov. 26 will of course also
> be posted). MANY THANKS in advance!
> Agneta Falk & Thomas Hermann for the Swedish Open Space
> Institute
>
> * *
> ==========================================================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
>
>
>
>
>
> * * ==========================================================
> 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
*
*
==========================================================
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/20081201/c6acac78/attachment-0007.htm>
More information about the OSList
mailing list