[OSList] OST / Gaming

[Harold Shinsato]

"our current discussion of Gaming (Game theory, Finite and Infinite 
Games, etc). [...] I still don't understand how it advances our 
understanding of our world as encountered in Open Space, and more 
specifically, how it enables me to more effectively navigate that world 
for myself, and with others, who may choose the journey."

There are two beautifully contradictory answers to this:

1) It makes no difference.
2) It makes worlds and worlds of difference.

I experience much truth in both answers. And looking at those "answers" 
as conversations, there are many more questions in each answer. Are both 
conversations truly welcome?

Let me speak to conversation one. People encountering Open Space for the 
first time don't need more than those 10-15 minutes to be invited to 
play in it. In fact, adding much more to those minutes usually starts 
crowding out the voice of the new person being invited in.

What about people wanting to facilitate Open Space? There are multiple 
books. Multiple trainings. Does one really need more than the 
description of OST on wikipedia to do it? If that becomes an excuse for 
not setting up an Open Space that's ready to happen - then I say the 
answer is No No No! You're ready, you can do it, you can learn as you go.

I'm sure I could go on and on with scenarios where more than the basics 
is not helpful.

That said, I'm still wishing there were more space for conversation 2. 
Hey, maybe I'm hallucinating, but it's persistently feeling like the 
people in conversation one are saying "You shouldn't be in conversation 
two". Psychological safety? I'm not feeling it.

     Harold


On 10/24/13 2:38 PM, Harrison Owen wrote:
>
> Anne -- I noticed your pebble! And I think you are dead right. 
> Magnificent, complex, living systems simply defy capture in a single 
> frame. It isn't their problem, it is the problem of our language... 
> always too small to do the job. But I don't see that as a "problem" 
> either. For me it is really an opportunity and an invitation to keep 
> framing and reframing. It just gets richer, and the conversation 
> continues. I think we only get in trouble when we (whoever "we" is) 
> get stuck in the "one right way" syndrome. Even controversy is 
> valuable, if only because it offers the chance to refine our pictures. 
> And best of all, allows us to hold several pictures at the same 
> time... especially when they are contradictory. Sort of the Wave and 
> Particle kind of thing. It is always tempting to ask which one is the 
> right one? And the answer is clearly, Both. It just depends on how you 
> are looking at things. Marvelous!
>
> All that said, I do have to confess to being a died in the wool, 
> American Pragmatist. I can usually always see the value of somebody 
> else's picture, but then I have to ask -- What does it do? What does 
> it do to enable me to perform some needed function, understand my 
> current reality with greater clarity, get on with the business, so to 
> speak. I also find it useful to combine pragmatism with a good dose of 
> Occam's Razor -- AKA The Law of Parsimony. There are lots of ways of 
> describing the "law" -- but it could be, "How can you say the most 
> with the fewest words?"
>
> I suppose that is just academic obfuscation... but it does have a lot 
> to do with our current discussion of Gaming (Game theory, Finite and 
> Infinite Games, etc). I know a fair amount of the literature, have 
> used the approach in multiple situations creating policy and 
> practice... and I still don't understand how it advances our 
> understanding of our world as encountered in Open Space, and more 
> specifically, how it enables me to more effectively navigate that 
> world for myself, and with others, who may choose the journey. 
> Doubtless this is a case of the hardening of the senile 
> neuro-pathways, but that is where I is.
>
> Thanks for the Pebble!
>
> Harrison
>


-- 
Harold Shinsato
harold at shinsato.com <mailto:harold at shinsato.com>
http://shinsato.com
twitter: @hajush <http://twitter.com/hajush>
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