[OSList] Passover, Self organization, boundaries, authority and where new things happen... a bit long

[Chris Kloth]

For those of you who are of the tribe, Happy Passover!

On this Passover I am experiencing an opportunity for integrating my  
own thoughts on several threads OSLIST from the last several weeks...  
linking a 2000+ year old story to my own story of incorporating Open  
Space into my work for 20-ish years. [HO - what a long strange trip  
it's been :-)]

My experience is that good things and bad things happen everywhere,  
whether or nor space has been opened or not. Self-organization is  
always occurring everywhere, sometimes to a good end, a bad end or  
simply adapting to what is - for better or worse. Sometimes we notice  
and sometimes we don't. Once we do notice we may or may not fully  
understand what we are noticing. The terms perception/selective  
perception and framing/reframing come to mind. Both seem to involve a  
story or narrative, as well as a matter of choice.

In 1989 I was part of a group in what was still the Soviet Union  
exploring issues of change. I experienced perception and framing  
challenges so many times some days that my head was spinning.

One narrative that apparently still has legs is this: They pretend  
tend to work. We saw all kinds of examples of how the formal  
structures created boundaries, silos and authority that reinforced  
dysfunction. But under the surface we noticed incredible examples of  
creativity and resilience as people figures out how to get good  
results despite all the barriers. The first OST User's Guide had yet  
to be published, but passion and responsibility were busting out all  
over despite boundaries and without formal authority.

While we were officially on an organized learning mission with the  
group we were part of, my wife and I also decided to smuggle 50  
Russian/Hebrew Haggadahs (prayer books) to a congregation in Tashkent,  
Uzbekistan. At the time religion and religious material were still  
illegal in the Soviet Union. Paradoxically, in this setting Islam was  
the dominant religion in Uzbekistan. We knew no one in Uzbekistan so  
our only strategy was to show up, pay attention and figure it out...  
passion, responsibility and self-organization in action despite laws  
prohibiting the exercise of passion and responsibility. The right  
people showed up.

We were able to get the Haggadahs to the congregation through  
intermediaries we engaged along the way. We know for sure because  
several years later we met a young man who had recently immigrated to  
Columbus from Uzbekistan and discovered he had been a child in the  
congregation when the books arrived only a few days before Passover.  
Good, new stuff can happen anywhere.

We boarded a train from Moscow to Helsinki on Passover that year.  
Several of us on the trip who are Jewish decided we wanted to do  
something for Passover. Several people in Moscow took some risks to  
help us put together a plate. Passion, responsibility,  
self-organization and the right people... reframing the narrative  
about what is possible.

Every year Jews read the Torah from start to finish. It is the same  
story every year. It is also a new story every year. In the context of  
our own lives each year we have  the opportunity to find new meaning  
in the story and how it drives passion, responsibility,  
self-organization and new possibilities.

In some sense the history of the Jews is a history of passion,  
responsibility and self-organization. There are parts of the story  
that make me very uncomfortable. Bad stuff happens sometimes, quite  
often when people (Jews and non-Jews) are more focused on authority,  
boundaries and a rigid view of the secular or religious meaning of the  
stories by the story tellers... Christians, Jews, Muslims and others.

This year we will be adding a second Story of Oppression to our Seder.  
It is a story of good and bad stuff happening for and to Jews in  
Uganda during the time of Idi Ammin and a particular Passover. Yes,  
more passion, responsibility, self-organization and the right people  
showing up.

What I love most about OST, and why I have been using it as a part of  
my work in communities and organizations for so many years is how  
organic (literally a reflection of natural systems from atoms to  
stars) the principles are. For me opening space is an opportunity to  
invite people to notice new things with the help of the right people -  
whoever that might be, to create a new story rooted in passion and  
responsibilities and make it easier for good, new things to happen.

Yes, I do understand that there are practical considerations we  
typically call authority, boundaries, sponsorship, etc. related to  
opening space in an organization setting, especially in communities or  
organizations where OST is new. I also realize that I am spoiled. Here  
in Columbus, Ohio, USA it is harder for me to find people who have not  
experienced OST than those to have.

I think the invitation for all of us is to resist limiting our sense  
of what is possible when we encounter these terms in a client system  
or in our own internal dialogues. When in doubt, reframe!

-- 
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

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