Open Space being badly defined

Mon Jun 15 22:53:18 PDT 2009

I think as communities learn how to live into Open Space they need "the
facilitator" to do less and less.... until capacity becomes distributed in a
community and they understand collectively how get the most out of the form
for themselves and also not to enclose it - well they still need a
facilitator to create space and invite them into it and to hold it.

 The identity community is finally really getting to understand the creative
possibility that open space brings them to work together to solve almost
impossible and very complex problems - we are going on to our 9th
semi-annual conference using the format AND in the past 4 years there were
an additional 8 events within the community that I facilitated that used
open space.   Only now they are starting to fully "get" the form.

Some in our community try to replicate the form (Vendor Relationship
Management Workshop) but don't fully "get it" - then end up feeling like
they the conveners should have editorial control over the agenda wall....

I think that when we develop our collective capacity to be in space together
and not just follow then yes - do less but until we see that happening with
our own eyes in groups there is a role for space creation and "doing" to
help that come into being.

On Mon, Jun 15, 2009 at 7:29 PM, douglas germann
<76066.515 at compuserve.com>wrote:

> 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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