[OSList] Open Space and boundaries

chris.corrigan at gmail.com chris.corrigan at gmail.com
Thu Apr 10 08:41:22 PDT 2014


Hello old friend…a few comments


On Apr 10, 2014, at 12:58 AM, Michael M Pannwitz <mmpannwitz at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear Chris,
> regarding the fourth paragraph of your note, "In practical terms..", my experience makes me pick the term "field" where you speak of "group" for "drop a powerful invitation into the centre of a (group) field".
> This often generates higher levels of diversity in the group forming in response to the invitation. It also seems to have an effect if you "describe" the "field" in the invitation.
> 

Field is a good terms but I think group is useful sa well.  Our work takes places in fields.  There are edges to the field.  Within the feild there are groups, and there are boundaries to the groups.  For examples, the Open Space I ran on the weekend took place in a field that, if you paid attention, you might have noticed that you were a part of. We talked about it on twitter and facebook and there were some postings at a blog site about the results.  You were in that field too, but very very very far from the centre.  Somewhere near the very edge of awareness for our work.  

However you were certainly not in the group.  There was a definite boundary to the group.  It was those who committed to gathering around the invitation,a nd those with the responsibility to meet their passion.  They were in a space and if you weren’t there, we would all have a hard time duplicating the experience.  There was a definite boundary.  The field and the boundary were co-created and emergent.


> I am not sure about the adjective "powerful" in connection with "invitation"... this having to do with my experience of apparently powerful invitations having little resonance and, on the other hand, pretty powerless invitations a lot when they "drop" into a "field" where stuff is burning.
> 

For me a powerful invitation is one that resonates with me.  It seems to “light me up” in a dnifferent way.  This inquiry on the OSLIST for example, has drawn me out of my usual oberserver role becasue I am quite interested in the ideas of container and boundary at the moment. And so this conversation stands as a powerful invitation to me.  

I think the nature of fields is such that one can create an invitation that has a good chance of being powerful, but alos misses the mark.  I’ve had lots of experience with that as well.


> As far as chaos and order are concerned (this is not only a theoretical aspect), order arises out of chaos, especially if there is nothing but chaos. The emergence of order does not require a pre-existing "containers" ((in German, the word container has entered the language and is often used for temporary structures which turn out not to be temporary at all for refugees, students in educational systems, homeless folks and (with even fewer windows or none) for architects and construction managers on large building projects))... it will create the structures/boundaries/etc. it needs for "order" which will suffice till chaos takes over again.
> 

In the Art of Hosting community of practice one of our key mental models is this one:  


OUr role as hosts is to walk that chaordic path, bringing form where we can (Opening Space perhaps) and allowing chaos to do it’s work (getting out of the way).  If we go to the extremes of control (locking everything down) or chamos (just doing nothing and expecting the work to happen on its own) it will will lead to apathy.  Neither condition creates a compelling enough invitation to invite the field to self-organize a group that is devoted to the work of what lies at the centre.  


> My understanding of my work as facilitator, as I have often mentioned on this list, is to pay attention to getting out of the way of the selforganisation-force so that it can have its day less hampered by boundaries, rules, containers, control, space invaders... it also seems to thrive on daylight, fresh air, fresh fruit and such.
> 
> And, I feel, is at the core of what I feel OST is all about.
> 

Me too!  


> Have a great day
> mmp
> 

Chris



> On 10.04.2014 04:40, 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
>>> 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
>>> 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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>> 
>>> 
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> 
> -- 
> Michael M Pannwitz
> Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany
> ++49 - 30-772 8000
> 
> 
> 
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