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

Thu Nov 22 08:57:14 PST 2012

I think opening space is also creation of structure. 
The structure is like a body, where Spirit can live. 
When the body gets old, it dies and Spirit leaves the body. 
But Spirit needs the body or structure. 

Long moments of silence at the beginning are like pain of birth. 
After OS event everybody often feels like newborn. 
People, who like Structure, might feel Spirit as something evil, what destroys everything. 
People who like Spirit may feel the Structure as evil. 
But they both are just sides of the same dance. 
Opening Space is giving birth. It offers for Spirit a new body/structure to go on with dance.

With greetings,

Mikk Sarv

On Nov 22, 2012, at 4:45 PM, JL Walker wrote:

> Dear Arno,
> Anticipating the response of HO, I can take the risk to say that the structures of management are always part of the map and the structure of the principles and the law of OS is always part of the territory.
> Make sense for you this?
> Hugs,
> Juan Luis
>  
> De: oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org [mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] En nombre deArno Baltin
> Enviado el: jueves, 22 de noviembre de 2012 4:51
> Para: World wide Open Space Technology email list
> Asunto: Re: [OSList] Beginnings, Middles and Ends... Where are we?
>  
> Dear Harrisson!
>  
> Could you please elaborate on the difference between creating a structure and opening space. When facilitating OS meeting I also create a structure by setting the space and introducing the rules and law (isn't it?). And at the end of OS I leave the space opened as inviting to take the structure (of mind - some attitudes based on the OS experience, ther rules and law) with. 
>  
> Be well,
>      
>       Arno 
>  
> Narva mnt 25, 10120 Tallinn
>            Eesti Vabariik
> 
> 
> 
> 2012/11/21 Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net>
> Juan Luis – Always nice to hear from you! And my answer to your question is something like this: Only create structure when you have to, and then create as little as you possibly can. Structure is useful in organizations, but it certainly can get in the way. So don’t overdo it. Ask yourself, “What is the minimal amount of structure necessary to get the job done.” It is always easy to add if you need it, but once some structure is created (committee, procedure, etc) it seems to stay around forever, even when nobody can remember what it was for…
>  
> Harrison
>  
> Harrison Owen
> 7808 River Falls Dr.
> Potomac, MD 20854
> USA
>  
> 189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer)
> Camden, Maine 20854
>  
> Phone 301-365-2093
> (summer)  207-763-3261
>  
> www.openspaceworld.com
> www.ho-image.com (Personal Website)
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of OSLIST Go to:http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org
>  
> From: oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org [mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf OfJL Walker
> Sent: Wednesday, November 21, 2012 1:53 PM
> To: 'World wide Open Space Technology email list'
> Subject: Re: [OSList] Beginnings, Middles and Ends... Where are we?
>  
> Many thanks Harrison. Just now I could give me time to read everything about your email slowly.
> Makes me much sense for the moment that we are living here in Chile with our CDIC project (Centro de Desarrollo de la Inteligencia Colectiva), when we started to give us account that would be necessary some structure.
> The question is how we can move forward without that decays the Spirit and what could be the structure that would allow that purpose?
> Hugs,
> Juan Luis
>  
> De: oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org [mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] En nombre deHarrison Owen
> Enviado el: lunes, 19 de noviembre de 2012 21:27
> Para: 'World wide Open Space Technology email list'
> Asunto: [OSList] Beginnings, Middles and Ends... Where are we?
>  
> 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
>  
>  
> Harrison Owen
> 7808 River Falls Dr.
> Potomac, MD 20854
> USA
>  
> 189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer)
> Camden, Maine 20854
>  
> Phone 301-365-2093
> (summer)  207-763-3261
>  
> www.openspaceworld.com
> www.ho-image.com (Personal Website)
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of OSLIST Go to:http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org
>  
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