[OSList] Beginnings, Middles and Ends... Where are we?

[Harold Shinsato]

Harrison,

An excellent meditation - thank you. About your Spirit Chart with level 
against time, there is another graph with Potential on the vertical, 
Connectedness on the horizontal, and time is reflected as an infinite 
path that cycles between different levels of structure along what looks 
like an infinity symbol.

http://peopleandplace.net/media/file/36/adaptive_cycle_2d.jpg

The idea comes from the book " Panarchy: Understanding Transformations 
in Systems of Humans and Nature" by Lance Gunderson and C. S. Holling, 
though I first encountered the idea in Michael Quinn Patton's excellent 
book "Developmental Evaluation".

It might seem like squeezing OS Inc. into a box, but I think it offers 
Open Space Technology a clear place in the life and death cycle for 
organizations to both acquire and expel structure. Not that they 
ultimately have a choice to die. But as the Apostle Paul said "I die 
daily", were our organizations to practice Open Space Technology they 
might have an easier time letting go of what isn't working, and see the 
solutions that are already embodied in the system, and might even have a 
better chance at longevity (or at least serving Spirit rather than 
contributing to Soul Pollution.)

As you said in Wave Rider, and as I heard you report at a lunch table at 
the "What is Leadership in a Self-Organizing World" conference, OST has 
a deep connection to the grieving process that Elisabeth K übler-Ross 
described as a part of facing death. Which for me is fascinating given 
how much joy I always experience - but it is almost always accompanied 
other deep emotions as well.

     Harold


On 11/19/12 5:26 PM, Harrison Owen wrote:
>
> I've been thinking about us, or should I say OS....
>
> It seems to be a truth of life that everything (us included) has a 
> beginning, middle and an end. The separation between beginning and end 
> can be quite various (longer or shorter), but one thing is for 
> certain. For every beginning, there is an end. Along the way it is 
> inevitable that people ask, how are they doing, and what next?
>
> What is true for life in general seems to be true for organizations of 
> all sorts, including ours, by which I mean the Good Old OS Community. 
> Perhaps you never thought of the OS Community as an organization, and 
> certainly if you understand organization to be what might be called 
> The Standard Model (The Leader, Board of Directors, and all the Rest) 
> the OS Community doesn't qualify. On the other hand, were you to look 
> at what OS Inc. has done, that assessment changes, I think. As a 
> matter of fact there are loads of Standard Model organizations that 
> don't even come close to our accomplishments. First of all we have 
> been around for 27 years with thousands of "members" all over the 
> world. Each year "we" produce global gatherings in multiple places, 
> along with training programs and consultations. And when it comes to 
> the end product, Opening Space, the numbers get a little mind 
> boggling. Not bad at all -- just don't look too closely at how it all 
> gets done. J So how are we doing? Well past the Beginning for sure, 
> but what now, and where next?
>
> Quite a while ago, I found myself thinking and writing a lot about the 
> natural life cycle of organizations ("Spirit: Transformation and 
> Development in Organizations" and "The Power of Spirit"). Beginnings, 
> middles and ends were pretty central to this -- but there was more. 
> All about what seemed to be happening along the way, and what, if 
> anything, we might do about that.
>
> To represent my understanding of the natural history of organizations, 
> I came up with a simple graph which, for lack of a better term, became 
> known as The Spirit Chart. Unfortunately we cannot do graphics here on 
> OSLIST, but the graph is simplicity itself, and so I am sure that you 
> can quickly draw it, or imagine it in your mind's eye. The vertical 
> axis is titled "level" and the horizontal axis is "time." On the 
> chart, there are two lines, one called "Spirit" and the other 
> "Structure." At Time 1 (the beginning) Spirit is high and Structure is 
> low. Over time (moving from left to right) the lines cross in the 
> middle, and at the end -- Spirit is low, and Structure is high. And 
> there you have it: Beginning, Middle, and End.
>
> As you might suspect, I did not gather masses of data in order to 
> construct my chart. Indeed I really can't imagine precisely what that 
> data might be or how to gather it. All that said, common sense and 
> experience supports the story that the graph seeks to tell... All 
> organizations start out with High Spirit(s) -- and virtually no 
> Structure. At the moment of creation it is all potential, a wonderful 
> idea, a gigantic WOW! The good news is that something is moving and 
> shaking. Excitement and optimism rule the day. But there is a price. 
> Orderly procedures simply do not exist, massive amounts of energy is 
> burned for minimal results, the Wheel is constantly re-invented.
>
> But then things change. Rules and Structures are created to focus and 
> direct all that wonderful Spirit. Initially there is resistance from 
> some Free Spirited Folks, but the net result is positive and 
> beneficial.  Work gets done, schedules are kept, product goes out the 
> door. And best of all there is plenty of Free Spirit around to 
> creatively explore new opportunities, new ways of doing business.
>
> But over time, the lines cross. The Spirit Line and the Structure Line 
> intersect and then separate, with Structure rising and Spirit falling, 
> being constrained in smaller and smaller spaces by the overburden of 
> Structure. For a while nobody notices, for the organization is doing 
> the business in productive and orderly ways, and who could complain 
> about that? But there comes a time when the organization is defined 
> and imprisoned by its structure and rules. Spirit is in evidence 
> mostly by its absence -- except in the stories and memories of how it 
> "used to be." When you are out of Spirit, you are out of business. At 
> least that is the story.
>
> But there could be a different ending. Were it somehow possible to 
> release the Spirit from its prison, renewal might happen. But for that 
> to occur, the prison walls must break. Or to put it in slightly 
> different terms, the confining structure must shatter so that the 
> Spirit may reform in new ways. This, I think, is an accurate, albeit 
> metaphorical picture of Transformation: Spirit breaking loose to take 
> on new form (trans-form).
>
> So where are we? Clearly we have had our initial WOW! And although it 
> is certainly true that each time some new person joins our happy 
> Tribe, having just experienced the opening of space for some group of 
> people -- that WOW is heard once more. It is also true that for a 
> large (and increasing) number of our band the experience is no longer 
> a strange one. We've been there before, and while it is always a 
> delight, it really becomes quite predictable. I would never say 
> boring, but predictable for sure. Sit in a circle, create a bulletin 
> board, open a market place, and the folks will go to work. Every time.
>
> The curious thing is that 27 years into our adventure, our 
> organization is still as lively and spirit filled as it is -- a status 
> that just about everybody recognizes in all of our common gatherings, 
> as for example the recent WOSONOS in London. In my own experience of 
> organizational life, this record is pretty remarkable. In every other 
> organization I have known, or been a part of, by the time it reached 
> its 27^th year, an awful lot of the original Spirit, enthusiasm, to 
> say nothing of agility and flexibility had disappeared.  People talk 
> about "mature organizations" -- when they finally got beyond the "wild 
> days in the garage" (computer start-ups, for example) and settled down 
> into a more orderly mode of being. Think of Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, 
> et al. Somehow we seem to have escaped some of that, and how could 
> that be?
>
> I think part of the answer comes from the nature of our "product" and 
> what we do. The truth of the matter is that every time we think we 
> have it all figured out, and have "finally" arrived at the "right" way 
> of doing things -- we are in for some surprises. It turns out that we 
> really didn't know what we were talking about. Somehow, Open Space 
> was/is so much more than we ever thought, and what we do/did, so much 
> less. What starts out looking like just another approach to better 
> meetings or group technique subtly morphs into the story of the cosmos 
> (self organization). And we really don't DO anything at all. We simply 
> offer an invitation, and then get out of the way.
>
> To be sure, there has been a developmental process in our approach as 
> we have gone along, but it apparently moves in the diametrically 
> opposite direction from similar processes found with other approaches. 
> Put it all under the heading of "Thinking of one more thing NOT to do" 
> and pretty soon (well maybe someday) -- we'll end up with nothing. No 
> approach at all!
>
> Of course, there have been a few signs of approaching Middle Age. You 
> might call it hardening of the organizational arteries -- 
> conversations about the "right" way to conduct an Open Space, usually 
> accompanied by an expanding list of critical details with attendant 
> Do's and Don'ts. Fortunately we then receive a marvelous report (Sandy 
> Gee, being the latest) how just about everything was "wrong" -- but 
> surprisingly -- it all worked just perfectly.
>
> To be sure I have heard some chatter about "guidelines" (Thomas H. J) 
> -- but no proposal that we "get ourselves organized" -- and certainly 
> nothing as forbidding as a governmental structure with appropriate 
> Boards and Bylaws! So we seem to be dodging the bullet, at least for 
> the moment. And it may be that we have some distance to go before the 
> end. I doubt, however, that our longevity will ever have anything to 
> do with what might be called The Standard Organizational Approach, 
> usually characterized as "institutionalization." Indeed I more  than 
> suspect that once again we will find success by going in the opposite 
> direction. Rather than building durable structures that might last for 
> the ages (none do ... so far) -- it will be a story of the constant 
> shattering of structures and procedures to release the Spirit in new 
> and vital directions. Transformation, I believe it is called.
>
> But there will come an end, of that I have no doubt. But I hope that 
> the end of OS Inc might occur with hardly a ripple or note. Not unlike 
> old soldiers who never seem to die -- they just fade away. OS Inc will 
> become quite invisible when it is clear to all that everything is Open 
> Space. Blending into the woodwork, as it were. Nothing new, Nothing 
> special. Just what is.
>
> Harrison
>
>

-- 
Harold Shinsato
harold at shinsato.com <mailto:harold at shinsato.com>
http://shinsato.com
twitter: @hajush <http://twitter.com/hajush>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20121120/4a168917/attachment-0008.htm>