Questions about selforganization SWEDISH WORKSHOP NOV 28TH

Tue Dec 2 03:59:08 PST 2008

Peggy, 

Thank you for sharing your speech!

This will serve much in talking with managers of organizations on this part
of the world who strive to survive with old models of organizing human
efforts including his own. 

The 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) are simple and elegant
context.  
Gratefully,

spark
~~~~~

Stanley Park
Open Space Institute of Korea
218-8 Gusan-dong, Eunpyung-gu
Seoul, Korea
spark at openspace.kr
Phone: 82-10-7237-0636
www.OPENSPACE.kr
'Liberate the Leader in Each of Us'

  _____  

From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Peggy
Holman
Sent: Monday, November 24, 2008 6:47 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: Questions about selforganization SWEDISH WORKSHOP NOV 28TH
Importance: High

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

(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.

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.

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

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.BO
ISESTATE.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/20081202/6b15bcae/attachment-0007.htm>