[OSList] Designing an OS way

[Artur Silva]

I
continue to have a disagreement with you on this point, Harrison.
 
I
agree that "all systems are self organizing
-- it is the preexisting condition here on planet earth"
 
But
I do not conclude that they are all open ! 
 
Let's
think of physical phenomena first - it is self organization that creates
diamonds (see, for instance http://www.allaboutgemstones.com/diamond_chemistry_formation.html). 
But
after they are created, they are not
open anymore - they are quit
closed, especially if we compare them with other forms of carbon (like graphite
- see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon), not to talk
when carbon is combined with oxygen, to form a gas, like in CO2.
 
The
same is true, IMHO, about organizations. Some are more open, but many are
really closed, like Government burocraties or large companies. And some are
more closed than others (let's take as an example IBM or Microsoft when
compared with Google or Dell). 
 
This
has other consequences, namely in what concerns the organizations' capacity to
learn and adapt to the changing environment.
 
I
don't believe that we can continue to say that we (or the sponsor) "opens
the space", if it was always already open ! 
 
Indeed,
what we do in OST is, IMO, to create a pattern that has been previously
designed - what, many moons ago, I have called the "foundations of
OST" are indeed a pattern - that is different from the patterns of the
World Cafe and, even more different, from the pattern of "Future
Search".
 
I
thing that your remarks that we can't "design for self organization"
applies to the "conventional engineering way of thinking about
design": first we design and then we implement and control. 
 
But
if we think about Chris Alexander's "Patterns" to create a
"Timeless Way of Building", from regions, to cities, to neighborhoods,
to buildings (see for instance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Alexander)
we may create an analogue for organizations and try to imagine what are the
patterns that allow for an organization or community to become more
"open" and then more able to learn. 
 
This
is, I believe, what many of us are doing in many different domains and
situations. 
 
Regards
 
Artur


________________________________
From: Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net>
To: 76066.515 at compuserve.com; 'World wide Open Space Technology email list' <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>
Sent: Friday, September 16, 2011 1:44 PM
Subject: Re: [OSList] Designing an OS way

Doug -- You may be working too hard. If you start with the idea (I would say
fact) that the folks are already "in" open space, they are just not doing it
as well or intentionally as they might. After all, all systems are self
organizing -- it is the preexisting condition here on planet earth :-) Also,
you have a group of consenting adults (the so called "students.") who
probably have some idea of how they might like to spend time together in a
useful and supportive fashion. If it were me, I would convene a 1 day Open
Space for anybody who cared (presumably students and faculty) with the
theme, "Issues and opportunities for supporting each other as we build our
businesses." It might turn out, for example, that they would rather have a
weekend together once a quarter. Or something totally different.

At the very least you would avoid the awful
 oxymoron of "organizing a self
organizing system." As for "The Principles, etc" no need to organize a
thing. You would already "be there." And best of all you would be treating
the "students" like adult human beings which I would consider to be a real
plus. 

Harrison 



Harrison Owen
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-----Original Message-----
From: oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org
[mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of douglas germann
Sent: Thursday, September 15, 2011 8:19 PM
To: oslist
Subject: [OSList] Designing an OS way

Friends--

An opportunity has been dropped in my lap, and I need your help to
noodle it through, please:

A local college created a program for beginning entrepreneurs. They now
have a dozen graduates of this continuing education program, and they
are doing follow-on sessions: once a month, from 9 to 10 am, local
experts present and consult with them. For those who pay the fee for
this continuing portion, this session is mandatory.

Now they want to do something at these monthly meetings which will
encourage them to consult
 and conspire with one another on the
challenges they are facing as they start their businesses. This is
voluntary.

The sessions would run from 10:30 am to 1:00 pm. Many people may have to
get back to work by 1:00 so may leave early.

They had a 3-hour OS session half way through their program before they
graduated, so most of them have had some experience with OS.

My sense of what they need is to be sounding boards for each other, to
engage one another in deep and meaningful conversation, to have some
bonding or cohesiveness time.

I would like to design some way that uses OS principles that becomes
their way of being together. They would like me to help some of them
learn how to do OST, and that might be part of it.

How would you design an OS way of life for these women for their once a
month meeting?

Thanks!

            :-
 Doug.

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