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

Tue Nov 20 11:36:38 PST 2012

hello to all. I rarely post as I do not actually do Open Space for any event. But I have experienced it and practice a form of Open Space in mySelf, my life and my work. 

I was intrigued by your email, Harrison, because it woke up the Astrologer in me. Saturn symbolizes form and structure. I call him the Master Craftsman. This planet has a 28 1/2 year turn around the Sun, and so, in our lives, we have a Saturn return at 29, then 58, and then 87. Even though we appear to be born, live and die... ie, have a Beginning, Middle and End, there are also Cycles of Becoming constantly circling within and around us. The planets symbolize this.

Saturn is the planet that forces us to find the infinity of choices within the limits of our human lives...  at every level. In the old times, it had the label of "malefic", because of it's imposition of limits. But this is not truly so. Any of us who live life fully, understand that the limits of our physical bodies, or our relationships, or culture, or whatever.... can actually be what opens us to even deeper, more spacious places.

And so.... when you wrote that OS was 27 years old, I smiled. Ahhh.... I thought.... this "thing", this "organization", is reaching it's first turn around the cosmic wheel of maturation. In astrology, we say that one is not really an adult until they turn 30!!  Saturn continues to move around the Sun again, and so, it wakes up another 29 year cycle of deepening.... it is like a spiral that "crafts" us at every level. 

Many people, as they mature, become stiff and limited int their bodies, in their beliefs and in their world views. They buy into fear and constrict. But, if you are lucky, you can "dance" with Saturn and continue to open and grow... and let go and surrender. Structure and Spirit are like the Banks of the River and the River itself. Form and fluidity... in both, actually!

And so, OS is maturing!! 
It is a good time to check that things are not too rigid and still able to flow.  
I often think of the Leonard Cohen song, "Anthem"... There's a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in".... but then I also think.... "that's how the light gets out".  
The structure must also allow this light to shine... that is Saturn's high dream.

Thank-you Harrison.... for your words and insight and for this OST thing coming through you. 
And to each of you who present this work to others.... wonderful!

Sandra

On 2012-11-20, at 7:02 AM, Harrison Owen wrote:

> Nice Harold – and I think your infinity symbol is actually a mobius strip which is quite appropriate.
>  
> One problem with conversations such as I initiated is that it could seem that Structure was somehow bad. Nothing could be further from the truth, I think. But problems arise when the system is understood ONLY in terms of structure – when actually it is a dance. Spirit manifests as form/structure, which in turn dissolves to release Spirit and so on and on… until it stops. For me it is all about honoring Spirit and holding structure lightly. Letting Go, in a word. For us/OS continued vitality is in that dance – which is marvelous in any moment and never to be repeated. Every Open Space creates its own unique structure(s) appropriate to the people, place, and theme. There are certainly similarities, but never identity. And to force identity (same old structures in new environment) is to guarantee a less than happy result.
>  
> Harrison
>  
> Harrison Owen
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> From: oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org [mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of Harold Shinsato
> Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2012 8:52 AM
> To: World wide Open Space Technology email list
> Subject: Re: [OSList] Beginnings, Middles and Ends... Where are we?
>  
> 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 27thyear, 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
> http://shinsato.com
> twitter: @hajush
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take care,
Sandra 

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