Discoveries in Maslow

[douglas germann]

Hi space opening friends--

Here are some more thoughts, inspired by my reading of Maslow:

        When I asked my subjects, after they had described their peak
        experiences, how the world looked different to them, I received
        answers.... My own boiling-down and condensation of this
        multitude of words, and these many descriptions to the way the
        world looks to them, from perhaps a hundred people, during and
        after peak experiences would be: truth, beauty, wholeness,
        dichotomy-transcendence, aliveness-process, uniqueness,
        perfection, necessity, completion, justice, order, simplicity,
        richness, effortlessness, playfulness, and self-sufficiency.
        Abraham H. Maslow, The Farther Reaches of Human Nature, p 106

Is this not indeed what we see in open space? Is it possible that what
we are up to is opening for peak experiences?

Maslow also speaks a lot about people becoming fully human; it is a
scale with a normative end.
        
This triggers thinking about groups: when are people in groups, or more
precisely, groups of people more human and less human? They are more
human to the the extent they: encourage creativity; develop the use of
all capacities of the individual and the group; engage more of the
person; engage more of the inter-dynamics of the persons between and
among themselves. For sure there are others.
        
The point is reflected as we turn it around and compare various
alternative scenarios for getting people together and ask of each how
good they are at getting people to the fully human end of the scale? For
instance, consider lecture, seminar, workshop, The World Café, and Open
Space Technology: where is each on this continuum of the fully human
group?
        
Do we want each group to be fully human? Certainly we do if we are
trying to develop a movement in society, and if we are trying to get
something done in large scale and short time frames. What if we purpose
to create a tyranny? What if we want to change a way of thinking from
say, prejudice to inclusiveness? When would we want not to have fully
human groups?

Maslow also posits something like this (seen with open space eyes):

Best people
+ Best moments
+ Best conditions
= Peak experiences
~ What open space invites

When we bring together the best people (anybody with a good head and a
good heart), and the best moments (space-times in which issues they care
about are on the table and they really get into the meat of the issues),
and the best conditions (a space in which they can safely, fully express
themselves and hear all voices), we get the possibility of peak
experiences; this is what open space and any conversation that matters
proposes and invites. It is an experiment worth trying.

So does open space = peak experiences, or does it at least conduce to
them?

			:- Doug.

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