[OSList] Open Space and boundaries

Skye Hirst skyeh at autognomics.org
Thu Apr 10 05:03:25 PDT 2014


Ah yes,  the necessary   positive and negative charges - they show up on
many levels of life/living process.  When out of balance they seek to find
a way to move back towards symmetry. (directional symmetry, therefore
oscillatory processes) And what might be the reason?  Coherence seeking
might be one idea, a mixing of all possibility (a still point of
peace/loving?) so that it might begin to act out from that coherence
towards new becoming events, expanding through ever greater integration
that keeps folding back on itself,  (fractals) Patterns show up notice?
Whew  isn't this life amazing?


On Thu, Apr 10, 2014 at 7:39 AM, Daniel Mezick <dan at newtechusa.net> wrote:

>  I am enjoying this discussion as a spectator. OSLIST for the vast
> majority is, after all, a spectator sport.
>
> Thanks to each of for adding to the richness of the discourse on this. Now
> I am attracted enough into the conversation, attracted enough to say
> something.
>
> Here it is: The flip side of attraction is repulsion.
>
> What's very attractive to some is repulsive to others, and vice versa.
> This plays out in fractal terms across the (self-organizing) universe.
>
> "Fields" of attraction and repulsion are extremely commonplace. Is Open
> Space simply taking what is, and making it explicit?
>
> " In everyday life, magnetic fields are most often encountered *as an
> invisible force*..."
>
> "... *Energy is needed *to generate a magnetic field both to work against
> the electric field that a changing magnetic field creates and *to change
> the magnetization of any material within the magnetic field. *
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_field
>
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> On 4/9/14 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> <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
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> Harrison Owen
> 7808 River Falls Dr.
> Potomac, MD 20854
> USA
>
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org
> [mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org <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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>
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-- 
*Skye Hirst, PhD*
President - The Autognomics Institute
*Conversations in Radical Self-Knowing*
www.autognomics.org
@autognomics

New Phone Number:
207-593-8074
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