OST & Scientific Method

Thu Nov 25 10:59:22 PST 2010

So I have used OST several times within academia as a way of organizing gatherings.  I have worked with scientists (including most recently some of the top brian scientists in the world looking at early adverse childhood brain trauma), medical scientists, business school folks, diversity departments, continuing education people and many others.

The trick to tthis ease of application is to focus on the work and not on the process.  Academics, whether they are artists, social scientists or scientists, love to think and debate ideas and abstractions...that is what they are paid to do.  If you introduce OST as an idea, they will immediately engage in it critically and my experience is that they will either support it or oppose it, purely on grounds of theory.  However, if you have a real business issue at hand, then there is no need to discuss the idea of Open Space...you simply need to to create the conditions for them to get down to work.  In other words, no mess, no fuss, opening of space.

Engage in the concrete, not the abstract.  people find it hard to be opposed to actually doing work, but they will find a million hypothetical and ideological reasons why your process will fail.  the easiest way to do tis is to open space without talking about Open Space.  Skip all the interesting bits about how it's a self-organizing meeting process that combines passion and responsibility and works with high levels of complexity.  Forget all that.  Just invite people to make their own conference complete with two plenary sessions - at the beginning and end - and a series of concurrent breakouts.  This goes for any group of people for whom ideas are paramount: academics, politicians, activists, unions, philosophers, lawyers...

And as for scientific research and evaluation, I have recently stumbled upon the discipline of "developmental evaluation" which is a fantastic framework for understanding learning with in complex adaptive systems.  Here are a few resources I have found and I reccomend Michael Quinn Patton's book on the subject as well.  This could be the academically acceptable theoretical framework we are looking for.

http://chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot/?p=3001

Chris

----
Chris Corrigan
chris at chriscorrigan.com
http://www.chriscorrigan.com

On 2010-11-25, at 4:58 AM, Harrison Owen wrote:

> I would be delighted if the academic community would take a serious look at
> Open Space, not because that would constitute some sort of validation, but
> rather because I suspect that the several disciplines could deepen our
> understanding of what happens and why. As to why such a look has not
> happened to date, I am afraid that Siona has it precisely right. It could be
> very threatening, especially to those in the applied social sciences. As a
> friend once said to me (who was very much of an applied social scientist) --
> "Harrison, if what you are describing is true most of what we are currently
> doing (process design, facilitation, etc) doesn't need to be done." A pretty
> stark statement which has some very negative implications for professional
> standing, academic tenure, to say nothing of billable hours. Considering the
> risks it is not too hard to understand the behavior.
> 
> Harrison 
> 
> Harrison Owen
> 7808 River Falls Dr.
> Potomac, MD 20854
> USA
> Phone 301-365-2093
> www.openspaceworld.com
> www.ho-image.com (Personal Website)
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of
> oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
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> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Siona van
> Dijk
> Sent: Wednesday, November 24, 2010 11:33 PM
> To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> Subject: Re: OST & Scientific Method
> 
> Juan; Harrison:
> 
> I would venture that academia as a whole exists as an institution
> vaster, and more pervasive, than that which OST practitioners have
> opened space within, and as such would find the necessary trust in and
> mystery of the process challenging--even dangerous--to its established
> structures and systems. I say this only to grant the room for each;
> that is, that OST has a role in the world (an important, even
> necessary, one) and yet for those systems that are still, to some
> extent, functioning, the acknowledgment of shattering processes can be
> unsettling at best.
> 
> I don't mean to somehow grant systems or institutions a personal
> autonomy here, though, so perhaps more accurately, those within such
> organizations might not wish to be the ones to point to an alternate
> process or route, or might shy from a too-broad espousing of something
> that, in my view, can't be entirely grasped by the intellect, nor
> explained away. To me OST is--necessarily, and beautifully--a threat
> to established order, and as such I can understand why academia may
> not leap acknowledge it.
> 
> Although does it really matter? To me part of the beauty and the
> success of OST is precisely that it's not been institutionalized or
> owned; to me such necessary outsides ought be tended to and furthered.
> My sense is that if academia "catches up" it will no longer be
> academia--and although that's fine with me I'm not sure many academics
> would be overjoyed. ;)
> 
> Siona
> 
> On Wed, Nov 24, 2010 at 7:10 PM, JL Walker <jlwalker at terra.cl> wrote:
>> Thanks you Harrison.
>> 
>> In a way then we could ask the following questions:
>> 
>> Is it possible that the scientific method can also may account for the
>> results of the Open Space Technology, if groups of academic interest
> permit,
>> although it is not so clear that they would be suitable for them?
>> 
>> How to understand then that something that has been repeated over 100,000
>> times in over 140 countries for over 25 years do not possess adequate
>> documentation from the standpoint of scientific method?
>> 
>> Or is it rather depends on the particular characteristics of its
>> practitioners who do not like or simply hate this point of view?
>> 
>> Or is there some scientific research efforts that heretofore are unknown
> or
>> has not been published yet?
>> 
>> Appreciatively,
>> 
>> Juan Luis
>> 
>> http://www.espacioabierto.net
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> De: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] En nombre de Harrison
>> Owen
>> Enviado el: martes, 23 de noviembre de 2010 14:34
>> Para: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
>> Asunto: Re: [OSLIST] OST & Scientific Method
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Juan - I would not hold my breath. To the best of my knowledge, the
> academic
>> community has totally avoided Open Space, even though there have been
>> multiple OS held within the sacred walls of Academe. Just two weeks ago I
>> helped the Arkansas State University to get on with their Strategic Plan.
>> The lack of scientific evidence did not seem to bother them much. Of
> course
>> you could offer him the opportunity for an academic scoop, if he has the
>> courage. After all when you have done something in excess of 100,000 times
>> in 140 countries, over 25 years - one might suspect that something useful
>> has been going on. All without benefit of the wisdom of academia. Maybe
>> someday they will catch up?
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Harrison
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Harrison Owen
>> 
>> 7808 River Falls Dr.
>> 
>> Potomac, MD 20854
>> 
>> USA
>> 
>> Phone 301-365-2093
>> 
>> www.openspaceworld.com
>> 
>> www.ho-image.com (Personal Website)
>> 
>> To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of
>> oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
>> 
>> http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of JL
> Walker
>> Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 2010 12:10 PM
>> To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
>> Subject: OST & Scientific Method
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Dear Friends
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Yesterday I shared a coffee with a colleague who is one of the greatest
>> exponents of positive psychology in Chile. My interest was to motivate him
>> to know how is that an open space experience brings out the best of a
> human
>> being and thus allows for experiencing many of the theoretical concepts
> that
>> he manages. Great was my surprise when he said he was not interested in
>> anything that was not strictly and rigorously related to the scientific
>> method and that before he can accept my invitation, he first needed to
> know
>> some scientific publications which demonstrate "objectively" the benefits
>> and results of the methodology.
>> 
>> What would you respond to him? What are the sources or scientific research
>> on Open Space to which we could refer him?
>> 
>> I know that this issue has been discussed here in some way before, but I
>> would love now that you could refresh my memory and my knowledge in all of
>> this matter.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Hugs,
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Juan Luis
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> PS: I know also that Frederik Wortmann from Boscop in Berlin is working
> just
>> now on his thesis with this optical, but I don't know about the details
> and
>> his results.
>> 
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