[OSList] Open Space and boundaries

Thu Apr 10 04:01:46 PDT 2014

Chris wow,  thanks.  You reminded me of work in the studies of water
properties now being discovered,  and the influence of light on the flow of
water based cells that have no membranes but are held together more by a
field "force"  let's say.  That center of cellular identity is there
holding and relating to other realms of fields that constrain one another
in some way,  providing constraints  like capillary walls smaller than the
bigger blood cells pushing through smaller capillary walls..  It's almost
like the constraints of contrasts are facilitating the movement,  and they
have recently learned that the movement of blood through the body is deeply
facilitated by light, not only the heart pumping.
There's a lot going  on in Open Space (self-organizing life) that is like
this - fields of coherence,  moving in and out of coherence,  it's said,
from chaos to order.  And a lot of what we point to it seems is at the
level of "feeling"  sensing much of this movement. I think this continues
to be difficult to capture in words, but not impossible if we keep looking
to the metaphysics - the underlying assumptions of reasoning beyond the old
world views of consistency logic etc.
I love this process in which we are engaging.  This used to be called,
doing philosophy, the studying of experience to find common shared knowings
towards unification that allows the whole of our experiencing. How's that
for a paradox?  THat's life!  THanks all.

On Wed, Apr 9, 2014 at 10:40 PM, <chris.corrigan at gmail.com> wrote:

> I'm a little late to this and see that other threads have spun out but I
> have a thought or two.
>
> Containers - social containers - are absolutely essential to any level of
> order.  Without something to contain the chaos you simply have chaos.
>  Order arises when there is coherence.  The coherence inside a container is
> different from the coherence or the chaos outside a container.  The place
> where this transition happens is the boundary.  The boundary may be
> permeable to various degrees but it is certainly real.
>
> As to how the boundary is created, I think my experience says that it is
> socially constructed.  It can be influenced by many actions - including
> intention, invitation, the nature of the shared culture within the
> container, and the action that is undertaken.  Open Space facilitators
> become helpful when we can work with this container.
>
> How do you do that?  In my experience, the most powerful and generative
> containers are those that gather around a centre, rather that those that
> are contained by a boundary.
>
> In practical terms what this looks like is simple: drop a powerful
> invitation into the centre of a group (passion and urgency) and a group
> will coalesce around that and "fall in together."  Your other option is to
> create a fence and gather people up and put them inside it.  This is much
> more work and rarely effective.  You have a container, but you also have a
> prison.
>
> When life gathers around a powerful centre you are invoking a pattern that
> is replicated at many scales all through the natural world from galaxies to
> atoms. The Milky Way is not a THING by virtue of someone maintaining a
> fence around it; it is a thing by virtue of proximity to it's centre.  Same
> with an atom.  Same with social containers formed around invitation.
>
> the Open Space facilitator's job I think is to pay deep attention to the
> the centre of the work and to support a co-holding of thet centre with the
> calling team for whom the work is really important. When you start making
> rules about who is in and who is out, you are really getting lost in
> container making.  When you create just the right invitation, you feed the
> hunger for togetherness, work and creativity that is essential for Open
> Space - and any other generative, complex and self-organizing process - to
> thrive.
>
> Chris
>
>
>
> On Apr 3, 2014, at 9:01 AM, Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net> wrote:
>
> > It has been common for us to speak of Containers and Boundaries as
> somehow
> > essential to Open Space. I can't quite find the place, but I do remember
> > saying something like that myself, as in, "The role of the facilitator
> is to
> > create the container..." It certainly made sense at the time, but I
> always
> > felt a little uncomfortable with the image. Too mechanical, coercive...
> too
> > something. And Michael has brought the subject up again. "So...here we
> have
> > a situation where the 'boundaries' are actually in a state of complex
> flux
> > and uncertainty. The financial 'givens' are ambiguous; there is no
> 'locum'
> > pastor in place because of legal uncertainties with the existing
> > pastor...etc." You might call it "messy boundaries" -- and he raises the
> > question whether one should press ahead with Open Space, or wait until
> the
> > "mess" is settled down. On the one hand, Michael "hunches" that one
> should
> > press on -- Open Space. But his hesitation comes, I suspect, from the
> prior
> > notion that fixed boundaries/containers are necessary for an effective
> Open
> > Space. What to do?
> >
> > Some thoughts (new ones for me): Containers are great for cooking soup,
> but
> > are unneeded and maybe even problematical in Open Space. It is all about
> > holding things together. In Open Space groups of people come together to
> > deal with their issues. At the very least that would mean gathering in
> some
> > common time/space, be that physical or electronic. It would seem that
> this
> > co-location could be facilitated were some suitable "container" provided,
> > presumably by the sponsor/facilitator. This certainly makes sense, and
> as a
> > rough way of speaking, it seems to describe what is going on. But as I
> think
> > about it, I think we may be missing a most important point. Coming
> together
> > in Open Space happens because people care to come. And they continue
> their
> > connection as long as they care to do so. (Law of two feet)
> >
> > From the "outside" it might look as if they were held in place by a
> > container, but that is illusory. The actual dynamics are centripetal, the
> > force is mutual attraction... people are "there" because they care to be
> > there and not because they are contained by some external structure. In a
> > word, we as facilitators really don't do a thing, and creating a
> container
> > is the least of what we DON'T do. The people, from the beginning, do it
> all.
> >
> >
> > Of course, there are situations where groups come together under orders,
> > mandates, whatever. And they are definitely "contained." It is also true
> > that the tighter that container, the less likely self organization will
> take
> > place. If true, providing a container is not only unnecessary but also
> > destructive. In the name of Opening space, we effectively close it. Or
> so I
> > suspect it might be. Just thinking...
> >
> > Anyhow Michael, should my mental peregrinations lead anywhere useful, it
> > would seem that your "hunch" was spot on. Forget the
> boundaries/container.
> > Just invite the space to open.
> >
> > 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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> > Go to:
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> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org
> > [mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of Michael
> Wood
> > Sent: Tuesday, April 01, 2014 9:59 PM
> > To: 'oslist at lists.openspacetech.org'
> > Subject: [OSList] Open Space and boundaries
> >
> > A Case Study....
> > One of the principles that I have generally worked with in Open Space is
> > helping the client get clear on the 'boundaries' of the space that's
> being
> > opened. For example, helping people who come into the space to know
> 'what up
> > for grabs here and what isn't? What decisions have already been made?'
> >
> > So picture this (purely hypothetical of course)....a church community in
> > which the pastor has (in many peoples' opinion) run off the rails and the
> > main church body is in the process of trying to dismiss him; the church
> is
> > in compete disarray and completely conflict ridden, many people have
> left;
> > the pastor who holds all the keys, banking passwords; church telephone
> > connections etc etc, has taken legal advice and had hunkered down in the
> > church owned house where he continues to hold the reigns of power (via
> some
> > of his 'allies' in the church) despite not formally being the Pastor of
> the
> > church anymore....
> >
> > So...here we have a situation where the 'boundaries' are actually in a
> state
> > of complex flux and uncertainty. The financial 'givens' are ambiguous;
> there
> > is no 'locum' pastor in place because of legal uncertainties with the
> > existing pastor...etc etc.
> >
> > So in terms of 'Opening Space', do we wait a bit longer until some of the
> > legal boundaries are clarified, OR open space right away in the midst of
> the
> > mess....my hunch is the latter, but any thoughts from anyone?
> >
> > Cheers
> > Michael
> > _______________________________________________
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-- 
*Skye Hirst, PhD*
President - The Autognomics Institute
*Conversations in Radical Self-Knowing*
www.autognomics.org
@autognomics

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