[OSList] A Time for Questions (Warning: Very Long)

Mon Sep 2 20:11:29 PDT 2013

Harrison, et al...

I have been reflecting on your history piece since it was posted. It  
has taken me down several paths that were both perplexing and  
energizing.

First, being old enough to have experienced all those decades first  
hand, the storyline certainly resonates with me.

Second, the value of questions. One reason I was attracted to OST and  
you some 20-ish years ago was that I had been struggling with finding  
methodologies or frameworks within which to apply what I had been  
exploring in David Bohm's work on dialogue and on "implicate order."  
Just as his Nobel prize winning work in physics revealed, it was clear  
that what was needed was a way to engage the paradox of complexity and  
simplicity in the same space. Questions were/are key, as were/are  
multiple perspectives. I quickly recognized the potential of OST to  
take me further down that path.

Later, as I got to know you and others better, and began making OST an  
important part of my work, your thinking/writing about spirit that  
became more important to me than the methodology or process questions.  
One important element of that work is the power of the story... the  
cultural myths, the creation stories, etc.

Which brings me back to the history piece. Something is in the wind,  
you say. You also suggest that the questions vastly outnumber the  
answers. Finally, you suggest we are at a turning point and that there  
is a sense reminiscent of the sixties. In the spirit of Bohm's  
both/and thinking, I couldn't agree more and have what may be another  
take.

I think one aspect of the fifties story that helped create the  
possibility the sixties was the Cold War. Yes, on one level we had a  
sense of some of the answers and acted like we knew more. But on the  
other hand there was also a sense of fear that there were powers and  
forces that were beyond our control and comprehension...a real sense  
that the world could be blown to bits in no time flat.

It was 1962 when Bob Dylan said, "The answer, my friend, is blowin' in  
the wind." In the context of Harrison's contrast of the 50s and 60s it  
now strikes me as creating an interesting sense of movement: "THE  
answer" feels very fifties and "blowin' in the wind" feels very  
sixties. The focus was still on the answer, an answer, but chasing the  
wind we began to consider the possibility of multiple answers. We  
started asking more questions, but they were initially more  
confrontive and judgmental and more oriented toward offering an  
alternative set of best answers...ours!

Certainly there were some matters of justice that deserved confronting  
and there were people plumbing the deeper questions and possibilities.  
As you suggest, this energy propelled us into the 70s and 80s with all  
kinds of questions and answers and options ans tools and mental models  
blowing in the wind... some of it as hurricane force.

The new rules you refer to were quite a relief for people after a  
hurricane. Let me tie my boat back onto a dock and take a breath. Your  
image of the dream of the 90s brings to my mind both a sense of  
breathing for reflection or aspirational dreaming, as well as a sense  
of dreaming as a way to avoid reality by creating illusions... Then,  
WHAM - Hello! Wake up. Yes, 9/11 had some unique American attributes,  
but like the Cuban Missile Crisis (also 1962), there were ripples  
throughout the world.

I, too, recognize some similarities in the energy of the present  
moment and the present generation and that of the sixties. I believe  
we are at another turning point. The question that raises for me is  
whether this means that those who say history repeats itself in cycles  
(the pendulum story or the going in circles story) have it right. Or  
is it possible that what we are seeing has similarities with the  
sixties but, because we learn and advance in a direction, there are  
important differences worth noting.

I say "Yes! Both are true." One of the most durable principles of  
early childhood development is Piaget's Developmental Spiral. A spiral  
is circular and also moves in a direction. Briefly, children go  
through cycles of growth that can be faster (hurricane force,  
everything changes over night) or slower (step by step) in the same  
person in different parts of her/his life. These periods of growth are  
followed by periods of integration and synthesis. During this period,  
as people make sense of the growth, it is harder to notice what is  
happening. In healthy children (and families and communities and  
institutions, and meeting methods and...) this period is followed by  
another period of growth and a period of integration... going around  
and around in an upward direction such that each time around we notice  
both similarities and differences...

...which is one way to read the story you shared with us.

So where is all this going?

Storylines...myths...space...questions...Spirit...

My question for David was intended to explore a question I think HO  
refers to being in the wind on occasion: is it the use of the method  
(OST) that leads to the change or is the change that is in the wind  
deeper and broader and rooted in how the spirit of OST has the  
potential to bring to life new possibilities? The question recurs on  
this list in various forms periodically, but this is the first time I  
have known enough about a situation being mentioned to ask a specific  
question.

Brett asked about the Fed...David said something is being done...In  
other work I do I have been in contact with people at the Fed and know  
there is some cool stuff happening but have heard no mention of OST.  
One very real possibility is that I just plain haven't heard about  
it...another is that David knows about how the spirit of OST is  
influencing what's going on at the Fed without the/an event.

I am especially interested in this question because I have been  
working with an early childhood collaborative for almost as long as I  
have known Harrison. (By the way HO, Diane Bennett recently retired  
and remarried.) At a particular point in time I introduced them to  
OST. It didn't take long for them to make it the basis for all their  
annual planning retreats. It crept into more and more of their  
meetings. Over time "it" morphed from OST as a method to working in  
the spirit of OS. They must be doing something right... people from  
all over the US and, recently from Russia, have come to see what they  
are up to. What visitors soon realize is that these folks don't know  
anything special about early childhood... what matters is how they  
work together... their spirit.

These days we still use an explicit OST event for some purposes, but  
as people retire or move to other jobs and others join the  
collaborative there are people who work together there in the spirit  
OS without ever having heard of "It." Eventually they hear their  
"creation story" and it includes the principles and the law. It's in  
the culture. I suspect it is also "in the wind" because when those  
people who leave turn up somewhere else in early childhood they seem  
to take "it" with them.

I have been looking for stories of sustained, long term change that  
goes beyond the method to the spirit of OS. My hope is that maybe  
David knows something about the Fed that might fit here. If others of  
you know similar stories I would love to learn more.

-- 
Shalom,

Chris Kloth
ChangeWorks of the Heartland
254 South Merkle Road
Bexley, OH 43209-1801
ph 614-239-1336
fax 614-237-2347
www.got2change.com

Quoting Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net>:

> David Osborne's statement and Chris's question precipitated something in my
> head. Needless to say David can and should speak for himself. However from
> my relatively isolated corner of the universe (Maine) I have noticed a few
> interesting suggestions that something of a shift might be in the wind.
> Whether it will be sufficient to save Homo sapiens from ossification, only
> time will tell.
>
> One such suggestion in the increase of questioning. As a child of the 50's
> (and yes there really were human beings walking the earth in that primal
> time), my world was firmly described by answers. Everybody knew precisely
> how life should be lived. There were rules to be followed, and if followed
> success was assured. Of course there were deviants who were largely
> marginalized and suppressed, but WE knew the Answers... the right way.
>
> And then a funny thing called the '60s blew all that certainty away. It was
> at once terrifying, refreshing, and exhilarating. And one thing was for
> sure: The primacy of answers gave way to an avalanche of questions. It is in
> the nature of questions to open space. Answers close it.
>
> With all the fresh air of openness, the forces of creativity soared to the
> joy and terror of all involved. Space in all dimensions exploded, and the
> tight societies of Philadelphia and New York, in which I grew up, shattered
> to merge with insular rural communities, and make contact with strange
> creatures on The Other Coast. Strange new world!
>
> The 70's and early 80's possessed a rich nutrient openness. New stories, and
> the answers they purported to provide, popped up like mushrooms. Some were
> weird, some substantive, some technological and all of them creating as many
> new questions as the answers they supposedly offered. Thrilling!
>
> But as the 80's ended and the 90's arrived it seemed that the age of answers
> were settling more than a few of the questions. Author's could write
> knowingly about "New Rules"... and while there was a breath of novelty it
> seemed the rules (answers) were known.
>
> The 90's slid by with almost dream like certainty. At least that's how it
> seemed to me. The Markets were up, America ruled. Some were even suggesting
> that the Age of Aquarius had actually begun! I guess there were still some
> questions, but none that we couldn't handle with the right Process or
> Procedure. And if not today, then tomorrow. So ended the Millennium.
>
> The New Millennium rolled in as predicted. Surprise! But in a funny way it
> seemed pretty anti-climactic. To be sure there were lots of parties,
> fireworks, speeches, the usual turn of the Millennia Fantasies. But at the
> end of the day it was pretty much more of the same... Until a bright clear
> day in September. September 11th to be exact. Maybe this was just a turning
> point for those of us in the USA. But I do believe, as I listen to my
> friends and colleagues from around the world -- we were all there. Doubtless
> with different feelings and interpretations. But for better, for worse, for
> richer, for poorer... it was a very different world!
>
> How different, we are only just beginning to understand. And for the first
> time in some long time -- the Questions vastly outnumber the available
> answers. This is a Turning Point. And a wonderful one, I do believe. When we
> as a species are compelled to sit in that really uncomfortable and juicy
> moment created by truly profound questions, the Space is truly OPENED. I
> think that is where we are at, and best of all I see lots of new faces
> rising to the bait. Call them "Millennials" or whatever... but it is every
> bit as exciting as the "60's" and we may or may not survive to tell the
> tale. But that has always been true.
>
> 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
> www.ho-image.com (Personal Website)
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of OSLIST
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>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org
> [mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of Chris Kloth
> Sent: Saturday, August 31, 2013 8:15 PM
> To: World wide Open Space Technology email list; David Osborne
> Subject: Re: [OSList] Federal Reserve Employees Survey
>
> David,
>
> I wonder if you could share a little more about what is going on already. I
> have had conversations with Fed officials in San Francisco and Cleveland
> and, while they are doing some things I am very interested in and impressed
> by, I have yet to see evidence of OST.
>
> --
> Shalom,
>
> Chris Kloth
> ChangeWorks of the Heartland
> 254 South Merkle Road
> Bexley, OH 43209-1801
> ph 614-239-1336
> fax 614-237-2347
> www.got2change.com
>
>
> Quoting David Osborne <dosborne at change-fusion.com>:
>
>> Yes Brett. Being Done.
>>
>> Consider looking beyond the reporting....to the fact that space has
>> been opened for this to be shared and talked about. What is in the
>> news is not always the best reflection of what is actually happening.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> David Osborne
>>
>>
>>
>> www.change-fusion.com | dosborne at change-fusion.com | 703.939.1777 On
>> Sat, Aug 31, 2013 at 12:35 PM, Brett Barndt <barndtbrett at gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>>> Can the OST community perhaps help here? It is a sad state of affairs
>>> in which we all have a stake. Even citizens of the world have a stake
>>> in this dysfunction owing to the interconnected nature of the global
>>> economies, our livelihoods, and well-being.
>>>
>>> The appointees, and congress by association, should not be permitted
>>> to let it go on this way any longer. People are dying out there with
>>> higher poverty, food insecurity, mortality, and suicide rates as a
>>> result of this situation.
>>>
>>>
>>> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/28/federal-reserve-employees-su
>>> rvey_n_3826165.html
>>>
>>> Discourse and dialogue are the last thing that should be stifled by
>>> culture or any other dysfunction in an institution like this one.
>>>
>>> OST and an open process of multi-stakeholder engagement is of course
>>> part of the solution.
>>>
>>> This seems like it should be well within our rights to insist upon at
>>> this moment in time. We are stakeholders. Albeit. we are
>>> non-consulted, unrepresented stakeholders in the current practice.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>
>>
>
>
>
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