Why is a grid sometimes useful?

[Michael M Pannwitz]

Dear Suzanne,
after 12 years of os work and close to 200 events and trainings, angst 
is not an unknown force to me. I respect her although we are not really 
buddies! She is part of what keeps me on my toes...another part being 
the butterflies that populate my innards every time I "feel" 
selforganisation unfold. Actually, I had that sensation a long time 
before I ever heard about OST and before I had "reflected" on 
selforganisation... I remember it from situations in coop contexts (when 
I lived in the UCLA coop housing project decades ago, when I worked with 
farmers engaged in coops in India and Southeast Missouri, with community 
groups in Los Angeles and Berlin "organizing" themselves around issues 
they had passion for and couldnt wait to take action on and when 
watching groups of children on the playground here in my Berlin 
neighborhood).
It wouldn't surprise me if all of us remembered "smelling" self 
organisation...and in the context of the bulletin board and the grid we 
have been talking about in this string and the stuff going on around it, 
I have often "smelled" it.  (By the way, I call the Bulletin Board 
"issue wall" in my German rendition of ost).

If you want to find out more around perception and percept language, 
have a look at "Don't Just Do Something, Stand There!" a grand book by 
Marvin Weisbord and Sandra Janoff...Chapter 8 "Get Used to Projections" 
addresses percept language more directly. And if you want to see a 
stunning bunch of videos showing the Weirs (I keep making the mistake of 
calling them "Weirds", have fun exploring that!)talking about perception 
take a look at
> http://www.allankobernick.com/fsn_videos/

and click on "Percept Language Lecture".

Marv and Sandra are offering workshops on "Don't..." that I have 
attended and also organised (in Berlin)...here is the link
> http://www.futuresearch.net/method/workshops/index.cfm

Its great stuff for open space facilitators.
Great to see you took me up on the invitation to include yourself in the 
world map...
Have a great day
mmp

Suzanne Daigle wrote:
> Thx so much Michael,  another nuance with enormous depth ie:
> self-organization is the process or it just *is* I guess... not even a
> process.  The act of *opening space*  in our lives so self-organization and
> individual/collective leadership can happen is what draws me so much.  Now
> for my angst....well, that's a big one..and that will come with time.  It's
> a giant step for me to learn to let go and not feel responsibile or inept.
> Don't know or understand the Weirds and perception?
> Smiles from sunny Florida!
> Suzanne
> 
> Suzanne Daigle
> www.nufocusgroup.com
> s.daigle at nufocusgroup.com
> 
> 
> On Fri, Aug 7, 2009 at 4:29 PM, Michael M Pannwitz <mmpanne at boscop.org>wrote:
> 
>> Dear Suzanne,
>> you got it, the ownership is with the group where passion and
>> responsibility reside.
>> Its not in the process! I think.
>> Unless you mean by process the forces of selforganisation (whatever that
>> is, sometimes I smell it)...and thats with the group, too.
>> So, knowing about the forces of selforganisation (they will be active
>> regardless of what you trust in or believe in or hope for) calms me.
>> And if you feel angst in the room, rest assured, its your angst and
>> everything else are assumptions (to get further into this string, a good
>> orientation is what the Weirds found out about perceptions).
>> Now, having said all of this, I humbly invite you to include yourself in
>> the Open Space World Map so everybody can "see" you.
>> Regardless of where you are, Canada or Florida in the US.
>> Here is the link
>>
>>> http://www.openspaceworldmap.org/
>>>
>> And here is the direct link to the inclusion form
>>
>>> http://www.michaelmpannwitz.de/index.php?id=198
>>>
>> and invite the rest of your bunch, too.
>> Greetings from Berlin at tropical heats near midnight
>> mmp
>>
>>
>>
>> Suzanne Daigle wrote:
>>
>>> The gem for me was this: The issue is not “organization” – but who does it
>>> and when does it happen? I get it...I hope, I think.  It means then that
>>> the
>>> ownership is where it should be: with the group from A to Z and they lead
>>> the dance of chaos and organization.
>>>
>>> Thank you for this topic on the grid which already has caused me grief and
>>> self-doubt when I facilitated. What I learn from this is that it won't
>>> matter exactly how I do the grid as long as I am mindful about what my
>>> true
>>> role is as a facilitator: to assist in the convening, to open the space,
>>> hold the space, (be invisible) and then close the space. It's so hard to
>>> trust the process sometimes when you're still internalizing it yourself,
>>> feeling the angst in a room and honoring what is.
>>>
>>> Suzanne
>>>
>>> Suzanne Daigle
>>> www.nufocusgroup.com
>>> s.daigle at nufocusgroup.com
>>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, Aug 7, 2009 at 9:00 AM, Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>   Artur – we will be looking forward to your return! And an odd thought
>>>> passed through my muddled mind. It occurred to me, I think because you
>>>> mentioned being an engineer that it might somehow appear that “getting
>>>> organized”  and “being organized” are somehow anathema to Open Space. It
>>>> might even seem that I have implied as much – if so that would be a
>>>> massive
>>>> mistake on my part. The issue is not “organization” – but who does it and
>>>> when does it happen? The truth of the matter is that every Open Space is
>>>> highly organized, usually more so than any facilitator or planning
>>>> committee
>>>> could ever imagine.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Consider 2108 German psychiatrists X 236 concurrent sessions in an 8 hour
>>>> period. That would take a planning committee years! And they would never
>>>> get
>>>> it right -- things would always be late, and great frustration would be a
>>>> predictable outcome. In the instance, the people did it all themselves in
>>>> something less than an hour and it all worked out perfectly including
>>>> written reports for all or most of the sessions. Now Mr Engineer, Can you
>>>> beat that? Just kidding J
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> For me the real issue is efficiency and effectiveness – which are
>>>> presumably positive values that all engineers will ascribe to. In that
>>>> case
>>>> the only question is how do you get there fastest and bestest? The
>>>> curious
>>>> answer would seem to be Do Less!
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Harrison
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Harrison Owen
>>>>
>>>> 189 Beaucaire Ave
>>>>
>>>> Camden, ME 04843
>>>>
>>>> 207-763-3261 (Summer)
>>>>
>>>> 301-365-2093 (Winter)
>>>>
>>>> Website www.openspaceworld.com
>>>>
>>>> Personal Website www.ho-image.com
>>>>
>>>> OSLIST To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options
>>>> http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>  ------------------------------
>>>>
>>>> *From:* OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] *On Behalf Of
>>>> *Artur
>>>> Silva
>>>> *Sent:* Friday, August 07, 2009 6:57 AM
>>>> *To:* OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
>>>> *Subject:* Re: Why is a grid sometimes useful?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Being out of my office with bad internet contact and short of time, I
>>>> only
>>>> red some of this rich exchange.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I must say, like Bernd, that, probably because of my education as an
>>>> engineer, I never thought about doing it without a grid. And living in a
>>>> Chatolic country, even with a grid, most managers think that OST is too
>>>> much
>>>> for them...
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> But then some coments from Harrison and Lisa make me think...
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I will continue to think, and after the 18th, with better conexion, I
>>>> will
>>>> coment something.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> But don´t ask me what ;-)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Regards from the countryside somewhere in the north of Portugal
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Artur
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -----------
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --- On *Thu, 8/6/09, Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net>* wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> From: Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net>
>>>> Subject: Re: [OSLIST] Why is a grid sometimes useful?
>>>> To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
>>>> Date: Thursday, August 6, 2009, 5:17 AM
>>>>
>>>> Lesley, I think you got it! (“It is my sense of things that the more we
>>>> order….the more we take away from the process……..however this can be very
>>>> uncomfortable for us(facilitator”). It is all about organizing a self
>>>> organizing system. Not only is that an oxymoron, but also of questionable
>>>> intelligence – regardless of the alleged increase of comfort.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Harrison
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> * * ==========================================================
>>>> 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
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>> --
>> Michael M Pannwitz, boscop eg
>> Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany
>> ++49-30-772 8000
>> mmpanne at boscop.org
>> www.boscop.org
>>
>>
>> Check out the Open Space World Map presently showing 443 resident Open
>> Space Workers in 72 countries working in a total of 141 countries worldwide
>> Have a look:
>> www.openspaceworldmap.org
>>
>> *
>> *
>> ==========================================================
>> 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
>>
> 
> 
> 

-- 
Michael M Pannwitz, boscop eg
Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany
++49-30-772 8000
mmpanne at boscop.org
www.boscop.org


Check out the Open Space World Map presently showing 443 resident Open 
Space Workers in 72 countries working in a total of 141 countries worldwide
Have a look:
www.openspaceworldmap.org

*
*
==========================================================
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