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

Wed Sep 4 06:04:20 PDT 2013

Thanks Suzanne! Amazing story, and almost as amazing - I never heard of it.

ho

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
Go to:
<http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org>
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 Suzanne Daigle
Sent: Tuesday, September 03, 2013 10:14 PM
To: World wide Open Space Technology email list
Subject: Re: [OSList] A Time for Questions (Warning: Very Long)

One more contribution on this topic... 

9-11 The Great Manhattan Boatlift...9 hours, 500,000 people rescued!

An 11 minute video you will never forget

...Open Space? Self-organizing? 

http://www.youtube.com/embed/MDOrzF7B2Kg?rel=0

On Tue, Sep 3, 2013 at 8:36 PM, Suzanne Daigle <sdaigle4 at gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Brett, David, Harrison, Chris, and Chris, Skye, Dan and others that I'm
missing, 

The original topic on the Federal Reserve (Brett) and all that transpired on
the OS list afterwards ( A time for questions)  was so thought-provoking and
conversation rich. It led to a great "in the moment" Skype exchange today --
one that was truly living in Open Space and not a doing Open Space. The
theme emerged naturally around the value of Questions and so much more. It
was enough to get us going. Real life experiences,client situations, real
issues and problems were discussed. So very much in 1 hour or a bit more --
all from the comfort of our own home space.

We truly reveled in our time together, able to see each other by Skype and
conversing as if we were seated next to each other in a circle. In some ways
it felt even more intense and connected than if we had been together in
person. There was room for laughter, for confusion, for digging deeper, for
perplexed frowns, for thumbs up aha moments, and just being with each other.

I did not take notes, maybe someone else did -- I wonder if we could ever
capture the deep learning and sharing that happened moment by moment. We
were five from 2 continents. It felt special! 

Thank you Tricia for initiating this wonderful Skype meeting every week.  I
imagine that over time, it will grow and evolve in ways that we can't yet
conceive-- in a self-organized easy way!

It truly was sheer delight to pick up on an OS topic that touched us deeply
and continue the conversation. I encourage you to check your calendars and
if you're free at noon Eastern Standard Time on a Tuesday, next week or
another week.

Sign up ahead of time at : OS Marketplace <http://tinyurl.com/nxbndq8> 

Include: your Skype name if you have never attended an OS hotline Skype or
send a note to Tricia Chirumbole to make it quick and easy to join whenever.

Suzanne, an appreciative participant

On Tue, Sep 3, 2013 at 11:58 AM, Skye Hirst <skyeh at autognomics.org> wrote:

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 OSLIST
Go to:http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org

-----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.

_______________________________________________
OSList mailing list
To post send emails to OSList at lists.openspacetech.org To unsubscribe
send an email to OSList-leave at lists.openspacetech.org
To subscribe or manage your subscription click below:
http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org

----------------------------------------------------------------
This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program.

_______________________________________________
OSList mailing list
To post send emails to OSList at lists.openspacetech.org To unsubscribe send an
email to OSList-leave at lists.openspacetech.org
To subscribe or manage your subscription click below:
http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org

_______________________________________________
OSList mailing list
To post send emails to OSList at lists.openspacetech.org
To unsubscribe send an email to OSList-leave at lists.openspacetech.org
To subscribe or manage your subscription click below:
http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org

----------------------------------------------------------------
This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program.

_______________________________________________
OSList mailing list
To post send emails to OSList at lists.openspacetech.org
To unsubscribe send an email to OSList-leave at lists.openspacetech.org
To subscribe or manage your subscription click below:
http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org

-- 

Skye Hirst, PhD

President - The Autognomics Institute

Conversations in the Ways of Life-itself

www.autognomics.org

@autognomics 

New Phone Number:
207-593-8074

_______________________________________________
OSList mailing list
To post send emails to OSList at lists.openspacetech.org
To unsubscribe send an email to OSList-leave at lists.openspacetech.org
To subscribe or manage your subscription click below:
http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org

-- 

Suzanne Daigle
NuFocus Strategic Group
7159 Victoria Circle
University Park, FL 34201
FL 941-359-8877;  
CT 203-722-2009
www.nufocusgroup.com
s.daigle at nufocusgroup.com
twitter @suzannedaigle

-- 
Suzanne Daigle
NuFocus Strategic Group
7159 Victoria Circle
University Park, FL 34201
FL 941-359-8877;  
CT 203-722-2009
www.nufocusgroup.com
s.daigle at nufocusgroup.com
twitter @suzannedaigle

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20130904/b3468c4d/attachment-0008.htm>