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

Tue Sep 3 08:58:34 PDT 2013

I would love to meet you on Skype conversation.  This stream is soo rich.
THanks for this long summary. Also what comes to mind is Claire Graves work
(Sprial Dynamics)  human history develops in spiraling pattern.  Skye

On Mon, Sep 2, 2013 at 11:11 PM, Chris Kloth <chris.kloth at got2change.com>wrote:

> 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
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>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: oslist-bounces at lists.**openspacetech.org<oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org>
>> [mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.**openspacetech.org<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<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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>
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-- 
*Skye Hirst, PhD*
President - The Autognomics Institute
*Conversations in the Ways of Life-itself*
www.autognomics.org
@autognomics

New Phone Number:
207-593-8074
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