Open Space and academic research
Tonnie van der Zouwen
info at tonnievanderzouwen.nl
Thu Dec 3 05:05:28 PST 2009
Well spoken Suzanne!
Don't think we are smarter, just other experiences to share J.
Tonnie
Van: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] Namens Suzanne Daigle
Verzonden: donderdag 3 december 2009 13:54
Aan: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Onderwerp: Re: [OSLIST] Open Space and academic research
Something else to add to the mix of this conversation. The world, our
organizations, our communities; so many system breakdowns everywhere: in
education , on environment, economically, socially, etc. No need to list
them all! So many places where having the opportunity to "open space" and
"invite the gift of time" would help, could transform, add some joy to this
beautiful life, deliver higher performance, raise consciousness about what's
important and as we know, the list goes on.
If only...!
If only people could know what they can not know until they "experience" it.
And because that is so, they just keep on working harder and faster trying
to fix what's not working (so much more of it too) doing what they've always
done before because that's all they know. Well...!
Well...when you care about Open Space; when you know what you know... that
it works every time (even when we think it didn't work, it worked) and you
want to do more of it because you have a passion for what you do in this
invitational and invisible role that we call facilitator.
And then when you are like me, still very much an Open Space student having
facilitated only 6 times but participated in a total of 11 since "falling in
love" with this process last April because I just knew from my entire life
experience that this is not a technique, not a tool box process, it's
something much bigger than that.
And that's why, "with trepidation", I posted an appeal to help fix the
Wikipedia site (without any of the knowledge of a Tonnie van der Zouwen, or
a Jeff Aitken, or a Larry Peterson; and without the experience and know-how
of those who do so much (like Harrison of course, Diane Gibeault, and
Michael Herman managing this wonderful list that gives me a place to
speak...doing this, for years!) . So in spite of the butterflies in my
stomach when I post here and certainly when I facilitate, I see a need to
document, to invent, to create a way to say what we are doing, to describe
from a place of conversation where people are at now in that not knowing
place...not bend to academia but partner with academia so that some day,
when people do a google search (Open Space way of life) on the internet
(Open Space way of life) and Wikipedia pops up (Open Space way of life),
there will be fewer red flags and it will be a little easier for us to scale
that first mountain of "inviting people to do what they can not know until
they do it".
And while a bunch of people smarter than me on that stuff are doing this
(Tonnie, Jeff, and others) , I've got a lot of "Just do it" to do in Open
Space. Life sure is grand when you know there's a bunch of folks who speak
their mind, care a lot, live in chaos, pain and joy, self organize and share
leadership; people who are so plain generous with newbies like me and the
welcome I've felt...those are the folks in this Open Space community.
Enough for now, passion is exhausting really! :-}
Suzanne
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Tonnie van
der Zouwen
Sent: Thursday, December 03, 2009 6:24 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: Open Space and academic research
Harrison, thank you for your ideas about right and wrong. It is about
expectations, but also about our benchmarks for performance. I think I
understand what you are trying to say. What happens is the only thing that
could have happened. I agree, it's true. And that some control helps is
paradoxically also true. We can't control the waves, but we can increase our
skill to ride them. I think that is why you share your wonderful stories
about your experiences, and that is why learning about technique of wave
riding (from academic research or other practices) might help too. For me
those practices are part of the self-organizing world as well, and they
helped to bring us where we are now. Still leaves me puzzled about your
remark, wherein I sensed some regret, about the ignorance of academics for
25 years of Open Space. I think that will change if some researchers care
and feel responsible. I do. Also part of the self-organizing world. Will it
make things better? I hope, that's why we Open Space, isn't it?
Tonnie
Van: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] Namens Harrison Owen
Verzonden: donderdag 3 december 2009 1:03
Aan: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Onderwerp: Re: [OSLIST] Open Space and academic research
Going "Wrong" is an interesting thing. My "wrong" could be your "right" It
all depends. So when I hear about Open Spaces that go "wrong" I always
wonder what the expectations were. As for self-organizing systems - they
always (in my experience) try to "optimize." That would be called "search
for fitness." And in the great sea of life, everything works out . but some
of it can be quite painful. I think that comes with the territory, and no
small amount of the pain comes from the fact that things did not work out
the way we desired. Funny thing: The Cosmos was not created for our pleasure
and benefit, I think.
Or put another way - I think self-organization always aims at High
Performance (by definition) - and some make it and others don't. Or at the
very least, some do not perform as well as others - which is how we derive
our benchmarks for "High Performance."
Could there be another way? Maybe. And for sure if the "Ruler of the Cosmos
(Him/her/It)" had consulted with us early on, doubtless we could have come
up with something better. But I am not sure about "better." Seems to me that
for all the warts, pain, foibles, weirdness, false starts, etc. - it is
totally amazing that we are all here 13.7 billion years from GO! - Albeit
some of us are complaining about how bad things are. Personally, and all
evidence to the contrary - I think it is wonderful!
Harrison
Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, Maryland 20854
Phone 301-365-2093
Skype hhowen
Open Space Training <http://www.openspaceworld.com/> www.openspaceworld.com
Open Space Institute <http://www.openspaceworld.org/>
www.openspaceworld.org
Personal website <http://www.ho-image.com/> www.ho-image.com
OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives
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-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Tonnie van
der Zouwen
Sent: Wednesday, December 02, 2009 9:42 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: Open Space and academic research
Hi Harrison,
For sure, I'm having fun doing my research. Talking to you and many other
people who are experimenting with Self Organizing systems for High
Performance (an interesting reframing of my Large Scale Interventions for
sustainable change, to what extend do we mean the same?). I really
appreciate your sharing of insights and experiences, the great gift of your
books. Actually the experiment is repeated many times, by many practioners,
matching conditions and following procedures (that is what I call
interventions) for high performance results. My point is that it doesn't
always bring high performance, and that things can go wrong. We don't talk
about the ones that didn't produce good results in publications. To put the
cat among the pigeons: If we want to be taken seriously in the academic
world, maybe the invitation should not only be "repeat the experiment", but
also "come and review our experiments, what performance did they bring and
why?" Finding out how the power of self organization can be utilized and
assisted even better or more widely.
Tonnie
Van: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] Namens Harrison Owen
Verzonden: woensdag 2 december 2009 13:26
Aan: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Onderwerp: Re: [OSLIST] Open Space and academic research
Hi Tonnie - My experience for the last 25 years is that OS has been a
marvelous natural experiment that I just fell into. My hope would be that
any and all curious people (people with curiosity - which hopefully includes
academicsJ) would have as much fun as I have. Truthfully, my interest in
Open Space is less focused on large group interventions, indeed any kind of
intervention, but rather on the function and power of self organizing
systems and the ways in which we might utilize and assist their gifts.
The message of Wave Rider was not that Open Space creates High Performance
(although I think it does), but rather that High Performance is a function a
well performing Self Organizing system. Open Space (for me) became a
critical (but not only) part of the experimental environment in which I
considered all that business. You will notice that I set the book up as a
report on that experiment, detailing the experimental conditions, procedure,
and results to date. The invitation is to run the experiment for yourself.
All the questions you raise are totally valid and should you run the
experiment I am sure you will find your answers - which may or may not
accord with the answers (results) I found. But that is the nature and fun of
a good experiment. So how will you know? Just do it and find out. Have fun.
Harrison
Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, Maryland 20854
Phone 301-365-2093
Skype hhowen
Open Space Training <http://www.openspaceworld.com/> www.openspaceworld.com
Open Space Institute <http://www.openspaceworld.org/>
www.openspaceworld.org
Personal website <http://www.ho-image.com/> www.ho-image.com
OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives
Visit: <http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html>
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-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Tonnie van
der Zouwen
Sent: Wednesday, December 02, 2009 6:13 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Open Space and academic research
Dear Harrison,
Yesterday I was reading (almost) all emails on this list. Learned a lot
again. What I kept wandering about last evening is your remark about how
little attention to OST is paid so far in academic research and
publications. Since I am doing research on large scale interventions
(Success factors and effects and a practical guide for effective use of LSI)
this triggered me: What research questions would you like to be answered in
academic research? What would you like OST to be compared with? Then I
realized that touches the question: How to see OST and what is it used for?
In your book Wave rider you give examples of OST as a method for creating
high performance systems. The practitioner in me reacts: Ok, I know it
works, let's do it. The academic researcher in me sais: He, interesting, how
do I know the high performance system is there? How long will it last? What
is the influence of the length of the meeting? Does it ripple off, why/why
not? Et cetera.
We had two conferences with researchers, practitioners and clients about my
research on success factors and effects of LSI. Thanks again Harrison for
contributing to the online conference. In the discussions, especially in the
live conference on September 17th, a wide gap showed between LSI practice
and academic tradition. I think that explains part of the relatively little
attention in academic research. Some practitioners say: "we don't need
evidence from research, we already know it works", or "research will never
be able to grasp the magic of .." . While some researchers say: "It is all
self reported success from founders and practitioners with an interest in a
positive image", or "If you can't conceptualize it you should try harder".
Moreover, you have to work with sophisticated qualitative research methods
to do justice to complex situations and the richness of an intervention as
OST. It is my opinion most academic institutes still operate in a classic
quantitative or linear research tradition. They don't want to burn their
hands on what they think wooly stuff, or they simply don't know how to
inquire complex interventions.
Another problem with finding articles on research on OST is that the
phenomenon is labeled with different names. On the level of OST as a large
group intervention, or as an interactive method for change more literature
is available. But you don't see OST in the title. I gathered a long list of
references, so if you are interested let me know.
Luckily, there are also practitioners and researchers who see possibilities
and added value in academic research. Especially those who combine both
activities.
What would you want from research?
Tonnie
Drs. Tonnie van der Zouwen MCM
Beneluxlaan 66
5251 LE Vlijmen
The Netherlands
Tel.:
Mobile:
E-mail:
Internet:
+31 73 - 51 11 600
+ 31 6 - 50 69 79 82 <mailto:info at tonnievanderzouwen.nl>
info at tonnievanderzouwen.nl
<http://www.tonnievanderzouwen.nl/> www.tonnievanderzouwen.com
<http://www.largescaleinterventions.com> www.largescaleinterventions.com
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