[OSList] The 5th Principle / Sardinia

Tue May 24 05:13:33 PDT 2011

Harrison and all who started commenting on the 5th principle:

Yes and No is my opinon:
----
Yes 
---
in the sense, that your are right, H. of course: wherever it is, is the right place.
And when I read what you told about Claudias story, it reminded me of other places where similar things happened, maybe not at this scale but still. Europeans will still remember Christiania. The free town in Scandinavia.
I still remember the Vienna ARENA 1976 , Hundreds of young people flooding an area with historically interesting buildings (old slaughterhouse of Vienna), when the town wanted to sell it. They simply did not leave and for several months a space was open. People danced, feeled responsible for "everything" and "everybody"....ok, I do not want to go into details ( & my romantic memory) here. 

For me personally it was one of two events, that influenced my further life because they gave (mathematically spoken although not at all an abstract thing;-) An experiential PROOF OF EXISTENCE. At that time I said: By participating got the proof that FREEDOM does exist and that people can self-organize in a way to nurture it and increase it. Nowadays I could also say: I got the proof that OPEN SPACE exists and that people can......
All the ingredients had been in place Mainly extreme (1)diversity of people, a (2)sense of urgency, a (3)common vision (in that case of a free place for the young people to express and continue creating their culture (in contract to high-culture) and (4) enough space that this diversity could express itself in lots and lots of sub-groups without being forced together in an unnatural way. 

(Just to mention the second PROOF OF EXISTENCE that influenced my life: That was being part of the first Austrian free school for 10-15 year olds (Eltern-Schüler-Lehrer-Kooperative Wien) and so getting the experienced proof that free education is feasable and not only a dream. So I then survived the praxis shock in the regular school system, to which I then transferred the methodology and basic attitude from the free school in my role as a highschool and univ. teacher.)

Since Open Space is everywhere, although not visible when under the weight of externally managed communication of people (by rules, laws, manager, facilitators, you name it), it seems to be Evident (although not necessarily "logical") that this feeling&this way of self-organization of OS comes up. People in the Commune of Paris did it the same way, as far as we know. It is expression of all MOVEMENTS for Freedom at similar points, because... well, I think, no because necessary. Its these moments and periods in time/history, when the frozen structures (in the heads) become fluid, when ICE becomes WATER. And therefore

YES of course: WHEREVER IT IS, is the right place

But here comes my 
----
NO:
----

I want to differentiate between implicit and explicit. I can easily accept that the RIGHTPLACE thing is or might be an implicit principle.

But my question is: why do we make the 4 principles explicit and tell the people before going to work in OS?

The answer: (all of you know it, I suppose:) Because this has the function to get rid of bad habits from the ICE context, that inhibit self-organization when they dominate/hegemonize the heads!

Principle-telling by a facilitator is an intervention with a function at the beginning of an OS event. It is not a set of knowledge in the classical sense. If you look at them, they are from one point of view: evident/trivial, from another point of view they are absurd.  And their truth is deep and completly superficial at the same time.

And this evidenttriviality & absurdness produces the tension/the contradiction that makes them a helpful intervention. They are the ICE braker for an OS, although not in the traditional way, ICE brakers are used by classical trainers and facilitator (those we do not need at all in OS, of course)

"Whoever Comes is the right People." works against the idea, that people need to be homogeneous, that there has to be a set of access criteria, that people have to have a certain level, a certain minimum age, be specialists, not be blind......etc.

"Whatever happens is the only thing that could have" facilitates to be prepared to be surprised and inhibits the classical: well if this and that would have been different, I would have invested my energy here, but so.... So as a principle it is a tool against not taking responsibility

"Whenever it starts is the right time" helps to stay free from "time scheduled un-spontaneity" helps to wait until the right feeling is in the room. Helps to give priority to deal with interfering things that suck your energy if you do not care for them (like not going to the toilet, because it is 30 seconds before START;-)
"When it is over, it is over" To make this principle explicit helps to notice that everything has been done although the time is not yet "up", it helps to organize a continuation or an extra session if important things are undone, although there is no more scheduled time for it....
(Of course the refined way of expressing these principles in the various languages gives some more and some more subtle support for healthy communication that the usual habits of communication by the "well-educated" in various cultures (nearly in all cultures, it is a rule that you give the resource "time for talking" to the powerful even if they abuse this.....but fortunately we have one LAW).

So, of course this 5th "principle" makes us aware, that Open Space does and did happen at places, we never would have thought, like Harrisons story about Claudias story made clear to me, that there have been many OS events in revolutionary movements throughout history, alright. 

But wherever we open space in the sense of OST. There are no other, places. There is only a HERE. So whats the use ot make "Wherever it is, is the right place" a fifth principle?

And there is a very nice meta-principle that Harrison repeatedly used, and I think it IS important: "Let us think about one less things to do". The meta-principle of minimal intervention, the old great idea of Occhams rasor.

So my conclusion is:

Yeah, great storytelling. And maybe some more understanding of "underlying things" with regard to Open Space, but we do not need to have a 5th principle and to bother future participants with such a principle that does not help to inhibit bad habits of communication in Open Space.

Bernd/Bernard 
Colombo/Sri Lanka

Bernd Weber
> Change Facilitation s.r.o., A Global Partner Who Makes Change Happen in Complex Environments; www.change-facilitation.com, www.change-management-toolbook.com bernd.weber at change-facilitation.org; (iPhone Austria: +43 664 135 4828, landline + 431 5968657); Sri Lanka landline +94 11 2785859, iPhone Sri Lanka: +94 777740757,

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Am 24.05.2011 um 16:29 schrieb fischer florian:

> Dear Harrison,
> 
> »Wherever it is ... and if it´s within the own brain ... is the right place«.
> 
> You practiced it actually 
> by accepting the diappearance of Claudia´s last name
> opening space for the next step.
> 
> 
> A hug
> Florian
> 
> Florian Fischer
> ff at begleitung-im-wandel.com
> www.begleitung-im-wandel.com
> Münchener Straße 6
> 10779 Berlin
> Fon (030) 2116752
> 
> 
> Am 23.05.2011 um 23:31 schrieb Harrison Owen:
>> ... A special gift for me was a series of extended conversations with Claudia,
>> whose last name has disappeared in my senile brain. ....
> 
>> NOW – the new one. “Wherever it is, is the right place.”
>>  
>> ..... it will take us to some places we have never been. I’m ready.
>>  
>> And if Claudia will reveal her last name, I would be deeply appreciative.
>> Not to say thankful, for she gave me a great gift.
>>  .....
> 
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