[OSList] Open Space - 2013 and Beyond

Marie Ann Östlund marieann.ostlund at gmail.com
Tue Feb 5 14:48:13 PST 2013


Just to clarify Paul, my "olderness" and :p was just tongue in cheek. :)


All the best,

Marie Ann


On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 1:40 PM, paul levy <paul at cats3000.net> wrote:

> Marie and Harrison
>
> I think the question "why does self-organisation work" is such a strong
> one and well worth exploring. I also connect to your notion that "selves"
> love to each towards each other. The following quote comes to mind:
>
> "We realise ourselves through those around us; they speak to us through
> our questions of them."
>
> I'm also fairly sure that we - as selves - have all been around even
> longer than the big bang, Harrison. I might even be older than you.
>
> Paul
>
>
> On 4 February 2013 22:35, Marie Ann Östlund <marieann.ostlund at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Thank you Paul for starting this interesting thread.
>>
>> Harrison writes:
>>
>> "I called it a “puckish” question (maybe “impish” would be better) if
>> only because it represents a delightful misstatement of the usual
>> understanding of “self” in the phrase “self organization,” which of course
>> has nothing to do with “selves” per se, but rather the perceived fact that
>> organization takes place all on its own – all by itself. But your twist is
>> all to a greater purpose, I believe: Driving straight to a really juicy
>> question – Who are we in a self organizing world?"
>>
>> We may also ask: why does self-organisation work? What is the impetus for
>> self-organisation? And the answer to that question may help us towards a
>> more subtle understanding of the self - not as a lone ranger in competition
>> with the world and other selves, but as a connected self (or a self
>> striving for connection) that enjoys giving, loving, contributing to the
>> whole - the both/and *personal* satisfaction of being connected to the *
>> whole*. We self-organise because we love it. That's what inspires me in
>> open space.
>>
>> Otherwise, I have a hard time with the idea that self-organisation
>> happens entirely by its own, almost like a chemical process. Take away
>> stuff that stops self/organisation and whoops - self-organisation happens.
>> Yes, it does happen, but why? Just saying - it does - does not really
>> satisfy me. Could it be that it has something to do with what we are as
>> selves? Could it be that we as selves want to connect and contribute, that
>> we as selves are loving beings after all. It may very much have to do with
>> the self bit in self-organisation.
>>
>> "People will say that they never have felt so valued and respected for
>> who and what they are (individual selves) – and simultaneously remark on
>> the intense experience of community to the point that the difference of
>> selves is hardly noticeable, and sometimes simply disappears. All one
>> flowing whole. That is the dance. That is self organization at work, I
>> think."
>>
>> Exactly. The perfect dance between being a self in the world, and the
>> world in the self :) Thank you.
>>
>> All the best,
>>
>> Marie Ann
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Feb 4, 2013 at 10:05 PM, Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net>wrote:
>>
>>> Paul – thank you for re-posting your blog here on OSLIST. I truly
>>> enjoyed and learned from your thinking because it represents the sort of
>>> sensitive probing necessary for beginning to understand the funny thing we
>>> have called Open Space Technology, and the infinitely deeper reality of
>>> Self Organization. As for your puckish question, “What is the ‘self’ in
>>> Self Organization?” – Marvelous. ****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> I called it a “puckish” question (maybe “impish” would be better) if
>>> only because it represents a delightful misstatement of the usual
>>> understanding of “self” in the phrase “self organization,” which of course
>>> has nothing to do with “selves” per se, but rather the perceived fact that
>>> organization takes place all on its own – all by itself. But your twist is
>>> all to a greater purpose, I believe: Driving straight to a really juicy
>>> question – Who are we in a self organizing world?****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> There are some folks who seem to think that a self organizing world
>>> annihilates the self – that it somehow eradicates our own unique identity
>>> and agency. We are pawns in a larger game, and very helpless pawns. The end
>>> of such thinking seems to lie in one of two spots. Either we are just the
>>> flotsam and jetsam in an unfeeling ocean with little to be or do – OR --
>>> the whole thing is non-sense. Ann Rand lives, and the notion of self
>>> organization is simply the product of an overactive, collectivist  plot.
>>> ****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> I suspect that neither of these conclusions is valid, although both have
>>> a contribution to make. At issue is our propensity for either/or thinking,
>>> when both/and is much more effective in this situation. Not to be opaque –
>>> it is common to think of the “self” and the “organization” as two separate
>>> entities, which should never be confused or combined. To do so is to
>>> destroy both. There is a degree of comfort here, if only because I am I –
>>> and all those other poor blokes (the organization) can do what they bloody
>>> well want to! The preservation of the Self as an island fortress may be a
>>> comfort– but I don’t find it to be all that useful or accurate in the long
>>> run. It is more about both/and.****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> Put somewhat differently Self and Organization are, in my view, polar
>>> concepts, and integrally related; you can’t have one without the other. In
>>> the world of philosophy this is often referred to as the self/world
>>> correlation, which means simply that you never had a self apart from a
>>> world/organization and *vice versa.*  This may seem a little obtuse,
>>> but I think we would all agree that you have never seen an organization
>>> that was not composed of selves. And the reverse is also true. Sounds a
>>> little strange maybe, but if I ask you who you are you will reply in some
>>> language, and if English that will tell me that one organization you are
>>> part of is the Anglophone world. And the likelihood is that you will
>>> continue with something like, “I am an engineer, at IBM – or whatever. Self
>>> and World in polarity.****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> Things get more dynamic, some might say sloppy, from this point on.
>>> Both/and thinking is a way (certainly not the only way) of thinking/talking
>>> about a dance between two poles. In this case Self and Organization. “We”
>>> (as individuals or collectives) are neither one and always on the way to
>>> the other. Kind of boggles the mind and maybe a needless sophistry – but
>>> begins to capture an experience we all share: Open Space.****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> Over the years of Open Space, I have noticed in myself and in the
>>> reports of fellow participants an odd contradiction which is actually a
>>> paradox. People will say that they never have felt so valued and respected
>>> for who and what they are (individual selves) – and simultaneously remark
>>> on the intense experience of community to the point that the difference of
>>> selves is hardly noticeable, and sometimes simply disappears. All one
>>> flowing whole. That is the dance. That is self organization at work, I
>>> think.****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> It is surely fun to think and share, particularly when we reach the
>>> edges of our certainty and the power of our expression. I do love this
>>> crazy OSLIST! And if that makes me Grandfatherly, Paul – so be it. ****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> Harrison   ****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> Harrison Owen****
>>>
>>> 7808 River Falls Dr.****
>>>
>>> Potomac, MD 20854****
>>>
>>> USA****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> 189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer)****
>>>
>>> Camden, Maine 04843****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> Phone 301-365-2093****
>>>
>>> (summer)  207-763-3261****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> www.openspaceworld.com <http://www.openspaceworld.com%20> ****
>>>
>>> www.ho-image.com <http://www.ho-image.com%20> (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 Of *paul levy
>>>
>>> *Sent:* Friday, February 01, 2013 8:14 AM
>>> *To:* OSList at lists.openspacetech.org
>>> *Subject:* [OSList] Open Space – 2013 and Beyond****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> Well, here's the whole thing...****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> Open Space – 2013 and Beyond****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> Be in no doubt, Open Space Technology is a thing. Harrison Owen
>>> specifically called (and continues to call) it a “technology”. It was a new
>>> technology designed to replace a tired old one. It was also called a
>>> technology at a time when, in management and organisational circles,
>>> facilitation methods and approaches were being called “technologies”; also
>>> “tools” and “”techniques” – more so in the United States than in the
>>> counties and cities of the United Kingdom. This particular technology was a
>>> way of conferencing and getting things done that was way better than
>>> over-fussy and over- formalised older “technologies”.****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> It was a neat cultural reaction to a future being painted as robotic,
>>> with society’s problems being solved by things of steel, microchip and
>>> plastic. By embodying “softer” processes as “technologies” we had a viable
>>> alternative to plugging things into our nerve endings and veins. We could
>>> deploy alternative ways of doing things, ways of seeing the world, ways of
>>> behaving. If these could be presented simply, and if they could have a kind
>>> of enduring repeatability in different situations, then they would be
>>> viable alternatives to machines and “stuff”-based innovation. A potent and
>>> softer technology to allow us to ride the waves of change. Oh, and of
>>> course, it was a wonderful and simple alternative to over-structured,
>>> facilitator-heavy meeting process to boot!****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> Open Space Technology is, therefore, presented as a fairly simple,
>>> resilient, and, most importantly, transferable and repeatable THING. It is
>>> something you sort of “switch on” and, to quote Harrison, it just about
>>> “always works”.****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> This particular thing is a “technology” so applicable, timeless and
>>> repeatable, because it operates according to natural law. It is an
>>> expression, in process, of self-organisation.****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> Open Space Technology isn’t self-organisation as much as
>>> self-organisation is Open Space.****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> Now, there’s been a fair amount of discussion in recent years as to what
>>> self-organisation is, and Harrison Owen himself has dived into that
>>> exciting pool of thinking and dialogue-ing. I think we are very much at the
>>> beginning of understanding what self-organisation is. It certainly begs the
>>> question “what is the self in self-organisation?”. There are a range of
>>> different answers to this and, not surprisingly, they sit on that old
>>> cherry of a line that runs from material science to religion and faith.
>>> Open Space as a field has always attracted people who see it as an
>>> embodiment of natural science in social action through a practical proof
>>> and expression of the truth of self-organisation as an underlying natural
>>> law. It has also attracted its fair share of spiritual faithfuls who see it
>>> as a magical process for making spiritual potential real in the physical
>>> world. It has given birth to articles about biological self-organisation in
>>> human social systems, alongside articles about the power of “holding the
>>> space”, walking anticlockwise, and the gonging of Tibetan Bells. And also a
>>> fair number of people who see Open Space as uniting science and
>>> spirituality in a meeting process that proves both can sit alongside each
>>> other without too much conflict.****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> Harrison Owen himself, when it suits him, expounds thousands of words on
>>> Open Space, how to do it, on self-organization, on wave-riding and so on.
>>> When others do the same, especially where attempts are made to elaborate
>>> the field, explore it, innovative or develop it, he often suggests that
>>> such thinking is a bit of a pointless exercise, and suggests we just go and
>>> “open some space”. It’s a charming, grandfatherly way to be, and I don’t
>>> mind it at all.****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> As 2013 dawns, I’m convinced that Self-Organisation is Open Space. But I
>>> don’t buy the definition that seems to be emerging that the “self” in
>>> self-organisation doesn’t refer to individual human selves. It most
>>> certainly does. When we contemplate the world (or even universal) process,
>>> it is too easy to forget that we are contemplating ourselves as part of
>>> that world process. We don’t sit outside of the universe we are a part of.
>>> When I derive universal laws of nature, I am also deriving those as laws
>>> that flow through me. And yet there is also a process of observation by my
>>> self of my self that is then taking place. If I say, “this is true for the
>>> universe”, then I am also saying “this is true for me in the universe”. But
>>> I am also saying “My self is observing that this is true for me in the
>>> universe”. It’s the classic observer part of ourselves that observes our
>>> observing!****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> There’s me (“I”), there’s the universe – and there’s also me in the
>>> universe and the universe in me.****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> When we self-organise, we both organise as a collective self through
>>> community action (the collective circle) but we also observe into the
>>> circle from a standpoint that no one else in that circle can occupy. No one
>>> can be me. No one can refer to me as ‘I’ except for me! Of course there’s a
>>> danger that such an ego or self-focused view can turn into egotism, where
>>> the self is self-viewed as more important than any other self-views. But
>>> there’s also an opportunity to live what Rudolf Steiner described as a
>>> community life where, in the mirror of each human, the community finds its
>>> reflection and where, in the community, the virtues of each one is living.
>>> ****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> Self-organisation occurs when the self organises. In community it is a
>>> dual process of the self (the individual) observing into the circle from
>>> their unique standpoint and where, he or she, also imagines and reaches
>>> beyond that singular point, into the circle, a collective space, a
>>> community endeavour, where individual selves are also cells connecting into
>>> a large self-organising being.****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> This happens sometimes so brilliantly in an improvisation troupe. We see
>>> moments of individual genius but also a contribution of each self to a
>>> bigger self – the group, and when this joins up and there is flowing
>>> collaboration, a synergy arises and the group performance is even greater,
>>> never quite explainable in terms of any individual performances.****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> Yes, yes! The whole can be greater than the sum of the parts when the
>>> individual offers their self-part to become part of the community, allowing
>>> it to self-organise, beyond their own individual ego. We freely flow into
>>> the community, and no one knows or cares who, at that moment is blowing the
>>> wind. Equally, we step out of that circle and sing our own tune – the
>>> community self-organises, and sometimes we individually self-organise.**
>>> **
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> Situations change, needs in communities and organisations change.
>>> Sometimes the lone voice is the only voice that needs to be heard.
>>> Sometimes the lone voice needs to quieten and listen to the circle.
>>> Sometimes a wonderful mess needs to ensue, a chaos for a while, sometimes
>>> it all needs to be neat.****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> Open Space Technology brings lots of individual selves together and – in
>>> a way born of natural genius – creates a market place for selves to address
>>> themselves to a community need, and also for a community need to manifest
>>> in individual, group and even whole circle endeavour. Open Space is a
>>> wonderful bridge between individual and collective self. When it is truly
>>> flowing self-organisation is both individual and whole. The dynamic is
>>> musical, and often akin to dance – as dance that can been seen both on the
>>> stage and under a microscope, or even out in the starry heavens.****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> But sometimes the technology needs adapting. For a very good and
>>> important reason that, ironically, lies deep at the heart of
>>> self-organisation itself. This is because, although nature itself reveals
>>> its laws as timeless, one little experiment in nature appears to elude that
>>> repeating consistency. To quote Steiner again, we will only really begin to
>>> understand the human self when we realise that each human being is a unique
>>> species of one. Each of us is a new universe, a new emergent day, every
>>> single second. There is no technology that can fully hold the space for our
>>> emerging selves. Self-organisation then needs to flex, flow and emerge with
>>> our own emerging mystery. For Open Space to embody a warm, loving truth, it
>>> has to expose itself to … open space. Open Space cannot sit outside of the
>>> emergent mystery of uniqueness. It may prove itself for a while as fairly
>>> resilient. But then it becomes dogmatic, rusty, nostalgic and even a bit
>>> sad. Self-organising open space technology has to be able include
>>> re-organising its-self!****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> What are you scared of?****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> Happy New Year,****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> Paul****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
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>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> "Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly
>> you are doing the impossible." ~ Saint Francis of Assisi
>>
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>
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-- 
"Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you
are doing the impossible." ~ Saint Francis of Assisi
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