FW: Open Space being badly defined

Harrison Owen hhowen at verizon.net
Tue Jun 16 05:08:35 PDT 2009


Doug -- I guess I wouldn't quite put it that way ("So self organizing is
really doing less and less?") -- but in my case as I did less and less I
began to notice what was happening all by itself. Even more importantly I
began to notice what was happening all by itself which I thought I was
doing. Most importantly, I began to notice how much of what I did actually
got in the way of useful things happening -- and when I stopped doing all
that, things just got better and better. Please note -- I am talking about
me as facilitator. However, I along with everybody else actually do some
useful things. Living in a self organizing world does not mean doing nothing
at all. It does mean, I think, acting in the clear recognition of the
context in which we operate (a self-organizing world). 
 

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
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-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of douglas
germann
Sent: Monday, June 15, 2009 10:29 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: Open Space being badly defined

Harrison--

So self organizing is really doing less and less?

			:- Doug.



On Mon, 2009-06-15 at 15:44 -0400, Harrison Owen wrote:
> Holger -- After Open Space? ("Regularly, I have been asking the
provocative
> question: "OST - so, what's next?" Not that I want OST to disappear. But
we
> can't possibly assume that it will be around for the next 1300 years.")
One
> way of thinking about how to answer that question might be to consider how
> we (or at least I) got to Open Space in the first place and see if there
are
> any clues. What were the design principles? First answer might be, Drink
Two
> Martinis -- but I am not sure how far that would take us. But when it
comes
> to serious design principles, there has been exactly one in all the 25
years
> that I have been fussing with OST. That principle is: "Think of one more
> thing NOT to do." At the first Open Space, we did some small amount of
> "community building" and "warm up activities," all of which were quite
> pleasant, but as near as I could see, they didn't add much. So the next
> time, we didn't do them -- and everything seemed to work better. I could
go
> through a pretty lengthy list of things we peeled off here and there --
but
> the bottom line is that Open Space as I would "do" it today happened by
way
> of elimination. Less and less turned out to be more and more. Following
this
> line of thought and general trend it could be that the "What next?" After
> Open Space is nothing at all. Actually I rather like that. If we really
get
> it right we won't need extraneous processes to become fully what we are --
> self-organizing critters. Or something.
> 
> 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
>  
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Holger
> Nauheimer (Change Facilitation)
> Sent: Monday, June 15, 2009 12:44 PM
> To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> Subject: Re: Open Space being badly defined
> 
> Chris,
> 
> you said:
> 
> "In the world of self-organizing systems and evolutionary processes what
> matters is variety and diversity.  Things only get better when millions of
> experiments are underway.  From those experiments come the mutations and
> modifications that help create the next level.  It's how Open Space
emerged,
> and it's how it will disappear in good time too."
> 
> I draw my hat in admiration - this was the most intelligent thing I heared
> somebody saying about whether or not Open Space Technology must be used in
> its original format (which we all love, and usually fight for) or not.
> Regularly, I have been asking the provocative question: "OST - so, what's
> next?" Not that I want OST to disappear. But we can't possibly assume that
> it will be around for the next 1300 years. Maybe it will: Robert Jungk's
> Zukunftswerkstatt still seems to be around, and that tells something about
> stickyness of methodologies :) . 
> 
> It reminds me of the question, "After John Cage, can there be any other
new
> music?" John Cage produced the famous piece 4'33" in the early nineties -
> four and a half minute of pure silence:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUJagb7hL0E. But of course, there is new
> music, even if it will be difficult to beat the radicalism of John Cage.
> 
> OST might probably remain the purest "technology of participation", as
John
> Cage's 4'33". I wouldn't know how to simplify self-organized meetings. But
> as much as we love OST, people need to experiment in order to find out
which
> borders to cross or to stretch. We (the OST aficionados) are in a way the
> keepers of The Holy Grail of OST and we need to be. But then, we mustn't
be
> to change resistant. Sometimes, OST does not solve the issues of a client,
> even if more participation and collaboration is at stake.
> 
> I repeat myself: if more and more groups who have different rituals and
> cultures find a way to host meetings with a self-organization component, I
> think we (and all the other Sandras, Marvins, Juanitas, Davids, etc.) can
> proudly say, "we were part of a global paradigm shift in collaboration."
> 
> Some people will like OST better, and some not. I don't care. I love it as
I
> love John Cage.
> 
> Holger
> 
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