[OSList] From linkedin today
Harrison Owen
hhowen at verizon.net
Sat Jan 25 07:16:18 PST 2014
Pernilla - I have certainly heard about situation such as you describe, but
personally I can't recall ever seeing it myself - and I was wondering why???
I think the reason may be that in all the Open Spaces I have been involved
with I always make several points as conditions of my participation. 1) That
the convening issue be something that people really care about - what I have
called a "real business issue." This would be in contrast to an issue made
up for the occasion, or softened so as not to offend. But a real issue
stated succinctly and with clarity. 2) That the invitation list extend (so
far as possible) to all those who MIGHT care about that issue. And their
"caring" is the ticket for admission - even if, or most especially if, they
might not seem "appropriate participants." 3) That the "invitation" be
genuine - which means for me that it is an invitation that can be refused.
The under lying principle here is Voluntary Self Selection, first, last, and
always.
My experience has been that when folks come together around an issue they
really care about, and do so of their own free will - they don't leave, and
they do strongly engage at all levels, even if they are a minority of one.
Actually, when you think about it...seems like we are all a minority of one.
If only because everybody will inevitably see everything from their own
point of view, and those POV's are just as different as we all are. Or
something.
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>
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 Pernilla
Luttropp
Sent: Friday, January 24, 2014 5:34 PM
To: World wide Open Space Technology email list
Subject: Re: [OSList] From linkedin today
I so enjoy reading about your different perspectives on "self-organisation",
most of them makes perfect sense to me.
Still, when I have a room full of
men/white/adults/heterosexuals/professionals - pick the majority of your
choice - and one or maybe two single voices of
women/black/youngsters/homosexuals/amateurs, where the tool for contact is
spoken and written words, often well formulated on what is considered
"relevant" for the group, I feel uncomfortable.
That doesn't necessarily mean that I as the facilitator need to fix anything
and there is always the opportunity for the minority to leave the room. But
I still feel uncomfortable. I've seen that "natural" behaviour in a group
many times; the majority either ignores the minority or makes a big thing
out of their "otherness". The minority don't get to be individuals, just
representatives. And the individuals in the majority group easily become an
unreflected "we", very comfortable in what is considered to be "normal". To
me that's another "natural-or-it's-been-around-forever" behaviour. And I'm
not comfortable when I see it being reproduced over and over again. When
someone from the minority brings this up with me, I usually remind them of
their two feet. But it makes me sad to see them leave the room. Something
else could have happened and I was there, both as a human fellow being and a
facilitator, feeling uncomfortable.
But feeling uncomfortable isn't necessarily bad, there's movement in that
feeling. And I'm not sure it has to be fixed. But I'd like to hear if anyone
else shares this feeling and your thoughts on it.
Pernilla
from Sweden
Den 2014-01-23 21:55, skrev "Michael Herman" <michael at michaelherman.com>:
well, i've managed to catch up on quite a heap of oslist emails without
typing even one peep, but here i am at the last message of the last thread
and i can't resist chiming in, if only to help make sense of all this for
myself...
david said along the way something about holding space for coherence. i
think we hold the space for both coherence and fragmentation. we never
really know which one will come up more strongly, or when. both are just
stories or labels or guesses we wrap around the aggregation of a the various
two-feet decisions that participants make and make and make all through an
event.
in this way, what we're really holding space for is individuals' right or
opportunity to choose for themselves. we can invite them to come together
and be quiet, but some linger in side conversations in hallways or corners.
sometimes everyone lingers, and evening news happens later than we thought.
sometimes we suggest that morning news is over at 9:30 and the circle lasts
until 10, because many people choose to stay in the circle together. it's
always the sum of everyone deciding at once.
if anyone would try to control this, invade the space of individual
choosing, sometimes the best we can do is leave the room, as harrison has
described many times, modeling a choice. in that case it's pointing to
fragmentation in the face of an attempt to force coherence.
anyway, the other question that caught my eye was christine's something
about how to help organization stay healthy and alive. it reminded me of a
quote i carried in my wallet for about 10 years or so, from francisco varela
(a scientist, among other things): "if a living system is unhealthy, the
way to make it more healthy is to reconnect it with more of itself."
stories and invitations and questions (are these really different or
separable?) seem to be a very common way to connect, and then truth must be
what bubbles up in the spaces, between the words, as harold mentioned, and
between the people, between the breakouts and the plenaries, and so on that
peggy described in the physical movements.
so i think where i end up here is that self-organization is already always
happening because everyone is always moving and deciding, and the "big"
decisions in any "organization" can only ever be the high peaks, visible
from some distance, that sit atop the many many individual moves and
choices, piled up over any length of time.
so maybe stories are the words we wrap around piles of choices, and
organizations show up as the people who choose to wrap themselves around
various stories?
michael h
--
Michael Herman
Michael Herman Associates
312-280-7838 (mobile)
http://MichaelHerman.com
http://OpenSpaceWorld.org
On Sun, Jan 12, 2014 at 7:11 AM, Daniel Mezick <dan at newtechusa.net> wrote:
Yes, and play is fun. Play is invigorating. Play brings action. Play brings
movement. Life is action. Life is movement!
An entertaining example of play ... action and movement from some
surprising players, in open space:
http://youtu.be/Iqmba7npY8g
"Let us play"...
On 1/11/14 3:03 PM, Harold Shinsato wrote:
Harrison,
I was going to ask you to say more about "High Play", but it was easy to
learn more about your ideas here with a quick google search. From
http://www.openspaceworld.com/Opening%20Space%20for%20The%20Question.htm.
The emphasis is mine.
High Play denotes the manner in which the people involved approach their
task - playfully. Quite often play is understood to be a trivial incidental
compared to the real business of living. I think this is a profound error.
Play for me may be the most serious (important) of our many undertakings.
The importance of play derives from the fact that when we experience reality
in different and unexpected ways, we seek to understand (develop knowledge
about) our new experience by telling likely stories, or in more formal
terms, creating theories. We take the available evidence, combined with our
prior experience and try to construct reasonable explanations for the newly
observed phenomenon. Almost inevitably our first attempts are flawed, and it
is often the case that there are as many theories (stories) as people
telling them. If everybody treats their version as the "gospel truth" it is
not long before the dead hand of dogma descends, and the search for
understanding degenerates into a fight amongst ideologues. On the other
hand, when people treat their new adventure in a playful fashion, there may
well be serious competition, but there is also deep respect for the
"opponents," and a real joy in the game. In Open Space it is very common to
see the game of knowledge building played with real skill and enjoyment -
even by people who have never done anything like that before.
I really like the presence of "real joy in the game" of finding the best
likely stories (theories). I also love the value you express for "deep
respect for the 'opponents'".
Game on!
Harold
On 1/11/14 11:58 AM, Harrison Owen wrote:
Harold - I like your last line, "If we can hold our theories in the same
fashion as "a likely story", maybe we'll start being able to tell better
stories (theories)." Actually, my words for this are High Play. I've found
that good theory building is best done playfully, which does not make it a
trivial activity, but it does guard against dogmatism. Good theory,
playfully created, and playfully held is always open to revision - or just
plain discard.
Harrison
Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Dr.
Potomac, MD 20854
USA
189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer)
Camden, Maine 04843
Phone 301-365-2093 <tel:301-365-2093>
(summer) 207-763-3261 <tel:207-763-3261>
www.openspaceworld.com <http://www.openspaceworld.com%20>
www.ho-image.com <http://www.ho-image.com%20> (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 Harold Shinsato
Sent: Friday, January 10, 2014 7:55 PM
To: World wide Open Space Technology email list
Subject: Re: [OSList] From linkedin today
Harrison,
It seemed like you were having a problem with understanding when you wrote
the following:
"When I was confronted with what was happening in Open Space (25 years ago)
it made absolutely no sense to me at all. And what makes no sense does not
lend itself to understanding. I "knew," as did everybody else of my age,
background and training - that what seemed to be taking place in Open Space
simply could not happen. Organization was something that we created,
managed, and controlled."
There are so many theoretical frameworks that have begun to embody the more
adaptive systems thinking required maybe not to fully understand, but to
start to improve our models of organization not something as something we
impose - but something that we can nurture, cultivate, or just open
ourselves to experience.
It seems like this thread has been about understanding self-organization. I
love that you brought something from Quantum Mechanics that "somebody's
formulation was good, but not crazy enough to be true." This reminds me of
the Tao Te Ching. The Tao that can be spoken is not the true Tao.
It reminds me a lot of what you wrote in Spirit, and which you mentioned in
your TED talk. Story tellers don't tell the truth. But in the story, truth
emerges. Probably between the words.
If we can hold our theories in the same fashion as "a likely story", maybe
we'll start being able to tell better stories (theories).
Harold
On 1/10/14 5:08 PM, Harrison Owen wrote:
Harold - I have no problem with "understanding." Good and useful
enterprise. Question is: Understanding of what? And in what frame or
context. I think we have come to a point where we "understand" J that there
are multiple logics, each appropriate to different senses of reality.
Newtonian Physics really does work. AND Quantum Mechanics was/is crazy. In
fact one of the framers of Quantum Mechanics (Heisenberg I think) remarked
that that somebody's formulation was good, but not crazy enough to be true.
Or something. I think we may be at a similar paradigm/shift point. We'll
see how it all turn out.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20140125/9c7864ce/attachment-0008.htm>
More information about the OSList
mailing list