Open Space being badly defined

[douglas germann]

Harrison--

Christopher Alexander speaks in much the same frame as you on this
matter saying in effect that life is increased when life helps life.

Which to me is very close to your "not doing nothing...acting in clear
recognition of the context...."

This is the care and feeding of self organizing. What is the role of the
person who wants to care for and feed a self organizing whole? If it
self organizes, how do you help...and not interfere?

			:- Doug.



On Tue, 2009-06-16 at 07:47 -0400, Harrison Owen wrote:
> 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 
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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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