self-organization and "conscious" Open Space organizations [was OST and PD (Positive Deviance)]

[Harrison Owen]

Hi Raffi -- Curious! Birgit is a nice lady for sure, and surely entitled to
think what she thinks. There is no doubt that Spirit has always been a most
important presence in my thought and in all of my experiences with Open
Space. I can scarcely hide from that especially when my first book carried
the (at the time outrageous) title of "Spirit: Transformation and
Development in Organizations." (1987) But the reality of self organization
was right in there from the beginning. It is doubtless true that over time I
have gained some clarity about the function of self organizing systems, as
indeed we all have. But making the connection between our systems (human and
other sorts) and self organization was by no means a late arrival. I guess I
first spelled it out in some detail in my book, "Riding the Tiger" which was
published in 1991 -- which not incidentally has the first (abbreviated)
version of The User's Guide as an appendix. To tell the truth I guess I have
always been fascinated with the interplay of chaos and order in the evolving
process of our cosmos. Way back in 1960 the subtitle of my dissertation
could have been "Chaos, Order and the Creative Process." So for better or
for worse self organization has always been part of the mix, so far as I was
concerned. And what Birgit thinks happened in 1996, I really don't know. Of
course that doesn't make me right -- who knows it may all be the rancid
effect of ripe Roquefort cheese! Two martinis?

And it still all goes together so far as I can see. One might say -- Spirit
manifest in a self organizing world every time time/space is open. Of
course, when we close it all up, batten down the hatches, set arbitrary
limits, and seize control -- Spirit tends to go on holiday. 

Harrison


Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Dr.
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USA
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-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Raffi
Aftandelian
Sent: Thursday, November 11, 2010 1:27 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: self-organization and "conscious" Open Space organizations [was OST
and PD (Positive Deviance)]

Queridos todos,

I'm cross-posting a message that Birgitt Williams wrote to the Genuine
Contact list today in response to a request for examples of Conscious Open
Space Organizations.

I thought with the topic of self-organizing systems popping up again, I'd
share this here.

Perhaps, with us re-re-re-re-re-visiting the topic of self-organizing
systems and Conscious Open Space Organizations (Interactive Organizations?),
the conversation may take a new turn? Who knows, stranger things have
happened on OSlist...

abrazos,
raffi



Dear Alexander,
Warm greetings! I will get into this discussion a bit.

>From my perspective, there are a few things to consider. I don't give out
the contact info of organizations that we are working with, as there are
many people who are doing research now on such methods. We had one client
some time ago who stopped using us as consultants because of too many
inquiries. Another consideration is that when we developed the Conscious
Open Space Organization, we never postulated that it was a self organizing
system. Open Space Technology, when I learned it, did not include the
concept of the self organizing system and at the time the emphasis was on
spirit. The concept of the self organizing system attached to OST came much
later...maybe around 1996. And finally, at the request of our clients, we
stopped calling this type of organization a COSO. 

The concept of the COSO was that members of the organization would be
Conscious of where the space was open in an organization and where it was
not open, thus not wasting time to change what was not open but using their
consciousness of where it was open to be innovative in that arena. 

Unfortunately, according to ourclients, the staffs chose to emphasize
everything as open, causing a lot of mayhem. And so, sometime last year I
sent a proposal to the Genuine Contact Co-owners for a vote to change the
name...and so it is now changed to the Genuine Contact Organization.

Birgitt

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