Philosophical Question

[Harrison Owen]

Fun Stuff! I am on the road and away from my library -- which means I can't check on what Stuart K. said nor what I said. But no mind, what I should have said (even if I didn't) is that the first condition is a "relatively safe neutrient environment." It must be neutrient or nothing will grow -- but the safety should be "only enough." Only enough to let something happen. If it is too safe, nobody would care to make any changes. And not to be forgotten is that the last "essential condition" is to "be on the edge of chaos." So I guess you could say that "more or less safety, verging on chaos" will do just perfectly. Just so many words, I suppose, but in an Open Space, I don't worry too much about the creature comforts and helping the folks to feel comfortable. Marginal comfort will work just fine. Hard nosed and nasty, I guess -- but a little suffering is good for the soul :-)

Harrison

>From: Koos de Heer <koos at auryn.nl>
>Date: 2008/01/20 Sun AM 08:37:38 CST
>To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
>Subject: Re: Philosophical Question

>Hi Marty,
>
>Interesting questions! The way I understand it, Kaufman does not refer toan environment with abundant food supply. Neither does he mean anenvironment where the food supply is constant. I have always taken it asreferring to an environment that provides at least a minimal level ofnutrition and is relatively stable, in the sense that it does not changeradically in a short time span. Of course the food supply, the number ofnatural enemies, the weather conditions etc. will change over time. Butfor a self organizing system to exist, there has to be a reasonableamount of stability. If we look at a biological example: the Earth has anatmosphere. The atmosphere provides not only an important part of thenecesarry nutrients, it also works as a buffer to eliminate radicalchanges in temperature and radiation. On a planet without an atmosphere,it is much more difficult for life forms (at least as we know them) todevelop, for lack of both nutrition and stability. But this does not meanthat the atmosphere never provides any challenges! It changes constantlyand does not always make us feel comfortable. But these changes have sofar been within acceptable limits.
>
>Now I am not sure how to translate that to organizational change. I guesthat it has something to do with the notion of Ilya Prigogine (Order outof Chaos, 1984) that a system tries to adapt to a changing environmentuntill it can no longer keep up with it using the old paradigm. Therewill be a point where it discovers, as Harrison has put it in The Spiritof Leadership, that it is not doing something wrong, but it is doing thewrong thing. It will either die or reinvent itself. If it dies, anothersystem will take its place, which is essentially the same as when thesystem would have reinvented itself. This will happen, whether or not wemingle with the whole thing or not. The reason that we as consultantsfind ourselves useful is that we may make the transition somewhatsmoother, by sewing the seeds of the new system while the old system isstill alive. The destruction/creation cycle will have to take place nomatter what. But by helping it a little bit, we may make the ride alittle less bumpy and we may limit the nubmer of casualties. If we wantto provide a suitable environment to help this destruction/creationprocess along, we think of it in terms of an environment that is stableand nutrient enough for the new system to emerge. The old system is stillthere, in whatever shape it may be. So there is still an environment thatcan suppport a system. The environment is slowly changing, and it isprobably time for our system to reinvent itself or die. But theenvironment is still there and I tend to assume that it is stable andnutrient enough. So I would not worry too much about it. I think our aimwould be to create room in (or close to) the old system for new sparks toflare up. It is not that we have to tweak the environment at large, it isthat we have to create small environments, small pockets of nutritiousspace where the seeds of the new system can be sewn and take root. Thosepockets have to be relatively stable and nutritious. This means thatpeople have to be safe there, the things they say and do there should notbackfire on them unexpectedly, they have to have the opportunity to learnand grow, and of course there have to be food, drinks, toilets, beds andwhat other practical things people need. I think it will look quite a bitlike an Open Space Technology meeting.
>
>Just my view. Very interested in what others have to say aboutthis.
>
>Koos
>
>
>At 17:23 20-1-2008, Martin Boroson wrote:
>Dear all:
> 
>I have a couple of philosophical questions about the concept of a “stablenutrient environment.”  According to Stuart Kauffman, as quoted byHarrison, this is Condition #1 for self-organization.
> 
>My questions:
> 
>a.  What does this mean scientifically?  Presumably Kauffman istalking primarily about biological systems, as he is a biologist. Does he mean sufficient food supply?  That would make sense – youneed sufficient food in order to do anything -- but on the other hand,fundamental environmental challenges to a system (such as lack of foodsupply) are surely one of the perturbations that can induce are-organization. 
> 
>b.  I’m also curious to know how each of you would interpret “stablenutrient environment” in terms of organizational change.  What wouldbe the “stable nutrient environment” required?   Abundantcoffee and cake at your conference?  Lifetime job security for allthe organization’s employees?   Or something inbetween?
>
>;)
> 
>Namaste
> 
>Marty
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