[OSList] deja vu / selforganizing systems

[Michael M Pannwitz]

Dear Birgitt,
I intrigue myself with your remark "I am not an advocate of self
organizing systems".
Its a new thought to me being under the impression that all systems 
(including man made systems)are by nature selforganizing. In other 
words, dont need advocates anyhow.
I cant speak for all systems but those I experience, especially man made 
ones, seem to selforganize constantly. In fact, I have the impression 
once they no longer selforganize or are capable of doing almost no 
selforganizing, they are, for all practical purposes, dead... although 
they still "exist" under conditions of high control.
Also, it seems to me that those systems (especially man made ones) that 
have a high level of selforganizing going on, for whatever reason, are 
more succesful, agile, productive and fun to be part of.
I am a friend of finding out under what conditions the selforganizing 
character of systems plays out most completely. Or put differently, 
under what conditions do the forces of selforganisation unfold most 
completely.
It also seems to me that this is a different question from that of 
self-management... at the same time noticing that self-management 
appears to be a common by-product of systems in which the force of 
selforganisation is able to expand and play out freely.
So my focus is no longer on promoting self-management or selforganizing 
processes (as in "we organize our work ourselves") as it used to be some 
time back in my days as an OD consultant, but rather looking for those 
conditions under which the force of selforganisation can do its thing best.
In addition to self-management there are other neat things that I call 
"by-products" of the work of the forces of selforganisation... the ones 
I observe are laughter, play, curiosity, productive patterns, intensive 
learning and inquiry, grand cooking, intense listening, surfing in 
chaotic environments, muddling through...
Oh well, here I went off ranting inspired by what I perceived as an 
odd-sounding remark. So, what is this emphasis of yours on not being an 
advocate of self organizing systems?
Have a great day
mmp

PS: Spent a good part of the last couple of years transposing "Don't 
Just Do Something, Stand There!" (Marvin Weisbord and Sandra Janoff) 
into German. It finally saw the light of day a couple of weeks ago under 
the name "Einfach mal NICHTS tun!" If I recall correctly, you do know 
German, so if you like a copy, let me know.


On 16.11.2011 19:31, Birgitt Williams wrote:
> Dear Julie,
>
> If you are contemplating a singular on line OST event for our global
> group, the best option is Gabriela Enders’ Open Space Online
> http://www.openspace-online.com .
>
> I wish to add a little more on the topic of global organizations and
> meetings. I like that you and your colleagues are adept at having
> meetings in which some are face to face and others are linked virtually.
> It is a testament of your work in and of itself that this is working for
> you.
>
> For the last eleven years I have steadily explored how to achieve
> successful, life nurturing, productive global organizations. The most
> passionate for me is the Genuine Contact community of professionals, now
> in its eleventh year. With lots of trial and error, staying true to our
> own five core beliefs, and consciously enacting both the principles of
> OST and the four immutable laws of Spirit of Angeles Arrien, we are now
> a lot wiser as a global organization. In 2006, ownership of Genuine
> Contact expanded to a co-ownership model, a legal structure was created
> now housed in Belize for as much neutrality as we could create, a
> leadership management team was formed of nine people from a number of
> different countries, and our organization has been guided by the
> Co-owners, the Leadership Management Team, and emergent leadership being
> enacted throughout our global community when people are inspired to do
> so. The meetings of all teams, workgroups, and co-owners take place in
> an on line environment. We have had a list serve for eleven years and
> only now have the good fortune to have a newly launched Virtual Home to
> give us greater opportunities for our sharing and collaboration. Using
> group purchasing power, we have ten Elluminate (Blackboard Collaborate)
> licenses, an online meeting platform that has allowed us to do most
> things that we want to in a meeting. Under the leadership of Thomas
> Herrmann, Laura Bolton, Marquis Bureau, Michael Nothdurft and some
> others, we now use Whole Person Process Facilitation (WPPF) as the
> meeting facilitation platform for all of our meetings, as adapted for
> the on line environment. It is highly participatory, with maximum choice
> and maximum freedom, yet more structured than OST. We have had good
> success, with groups of up to 25, of placing an OST meeting inside of
> the WPPF meeting container. I am deeply grateful to all who created this
> wonderful way of having our on line meetings and our online workshops.
>
> My work with clients is almost exclusively with global organizations
> with the kind of extraordinary leaders who understand about maximum
> choice and maximum freedom to get results. I am not an advocate of self
> organizing systems, although I am an advocate of self management within
> the organization’s givens. Most weeks, I am in at least four global
> virtual meetings using the above, with executives, amazing leaders, and
> with whole organizations. I am interested in developing their capacity
> to participate in well done highly participatory meetings globally, and
> having shared experiences that these can facilitate genuine contact, be
> life nurturing and highly productive. If you are interested in having
> discussions about sustainability of exceptional performance of global
> organizations who make a lot of use of on line environments for their
> meetings, please contact me at birgitt at dalarinternational.com
> <mailto:birgitt at dalarinternational.com> .
>
> All the best,
>
> Birgitt
>
> tingshaBirgitt Williams
>
> Author Genuine Contact Way
>
> Co-owner of the Genuine Contact program
>
> President and Senior Consultant,
>
> Dalar International Consultancy, Inc.
>
> www.dalarinternational.com
>
> Note: picture of the bells that have journeyed to numerous countries
> with me for twenty-two years as an international consultant. During the
> closing circle of every meeting, everyone in the meeting has held these
> bells. They have now been held by thousands of people, all doing their
> part to create life nurturing conditions for humanity. The bells have
> also been held in blessing and in prayer by countless people, who bless
> all who ever hold them, with the journey of the bells uniting all of
> their energies to make a difference for humanity, one person at a time,
> one organization at a time, one business at a time, one community at a time.
>
> *From:*oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org
> [mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] *On Behalf Of *Julie Smith
> *Sent:* Wednesday, November 16, 2011 1:35 AM
> *To:* oslist at lists.openspacetech.org
> *Subject:* [OSList] deja vu
>
> Dear all ~
>
> It's been a long time! I've just skimmed through the last several months
> of postings and find myself sitting here with a big silly grin. It's
> really amazing how vibrant and alive and connected everyone here still
> is. A real testament to what naturally happens when we self-organize. :)
>
> Two things bring me back here. One is that I recently came across a book
> of our conversation on the oslistserve that I compiled in 2002. The book
> is a little more than 300 pages and contains the remarkable conversation
> that unfolded here in the days from 8-25-01 until 9-27-01. Really. We
> created over 300 pages of conversation in the span of one month. We had
> a lot to say as we watched the world change on 9-11. I still count that
> experience as one of the highlights of my life.
>
> The name I gave to this compilation is A Partial Diary of the Collective
> Buddha. I included a bit of art to dress it up, put things in order,
> cleaned up the formatting and had it coil-bound with a cover to protect
> it. I like it a lot. For me, this book is a treasure. So much was felt
> and shared here, so many of us were so heart-moved.
>
> I long ago lost track of whatever computer I was using in 2002, so this
> copy is pretty much what I have. But still, I have this. I wonder if it
> would be worthwhile to take what I have back to the copy shop where I
> could cut off the binding and scan all the pages into a pdf document
> that I could then share. Is this something anyone is interested in
> having? If there is interest, I will find out more about how to make
> this available. Whether you are interested in the book or not, I look
> forward to hearing from you!
>
> The second reason I came back is to learn more about the ways in which
> Open Space is being used in virtual space. I'm pondering an open space
> event that serves a global community that doesn't have the capacity to
> get together in the same physical room. We are quite adept, however, at
> holding meetings in which we are connected in some combination of
> face-to-face, audio, and video conferencing. I know a bit of this has
> been done already, and I'm eager to learn from those who have done it.
> Can someone please point me to who I might connect with about this? Many
> thanks!
>
> Much love ~~~~~
>
> Julie
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> OSList mailing list
> To post send emails to OSList at lists.openspacetech.org
> To unsubscribe send an email to OSList-leave at lists.openspacetech.org
> To subscribe or manage your subscription click below:
> http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org

-- 
Michael M Pannwitz, boscop eg
Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany
++49-30-772 8000
mmpanne at boscop.org	www.boscop.org


Check out the Open Space World Map presently showing 440 resident Open 
Space Workers in 71 countries working in a total of 142 countries 
worldwide: www.openspaceworldmap.org