[OSList] The Conversation deepens...

Wed Jan 29 10:15:28 PST 2014

Harrison, Beg and plead no more!  I feel the urgency for this, the passion
for it too!  I can hardly contain my emotions because this Trojan horse
that you speak of rocked my world.  I join you in inviting and inviting
these conversations and *most especially the experiences of it!*

For me, it was the Trojan horse of Open Space that became the swift kick in
the pants, that made me *feel *something different, made me desire
something more, long for it, and chase after it ever since. It felt like
life itself, as if my creative being needed to burst out of the madness of
my busy multi-tasking life to something so much bigger and better...away
from predictability, control, planning, strategizing ... to self-organizing
and riding the wave!  I feel still as a novice as I've not yet let myself
totally burst free and yet with such urgency, I feel the world is
waiting.... for new ways of managing and leading at work and in life.

I can attest to a similar experience for others, from a beginner's mind
living their  experience of this Trojan horse of Open Space. I know many
were deeply affected in New York last weekend. The ripple effects are
bubbling over, appearing in emails, on blogs, on Facebook, and in our Skype
chat with Tricia yesterday. Many have been pretty specific that something
big shifted inside of them, caught them by surprise; they are speaking of
it to others. It seems to be an infectious life force energy that touches a
chord deep inside of them.

There is a euphoria mixed with that delicate pause of wonder -- a wonder as
to what the hell have we been doing all this time that suddenly feels like
it's been a waste. A feeling that it's time to do something wildly
different that feels more natural and sane much of it mixed in with the
"not doing".

I struggle more with the speaking of self-organization, writing about
self-organization, or tying to understand the theory of self-organizing
from my logical mind. It's if language cannot fully capture it and as soon
as I start to put words to it or try too hard to understand, it slips
through my fingers and confusion sets in.  Somehow I just feel drawn to
inviting and inviting so that more and more can experience themselves the
magic and spark of Open Space on issues that matter to them.  And from this
I feel the possibility of real work, innovation, creativity, astounding
results, joy and struggle mixed in as in the vibrancy of life.

Two big things hit me this week.  One was spending time with Ms. Song and
Hulu.  Open Space... that Trojan horse is traveling through China.  Since
2002, many many communities are self-organizing, bringing neighborhood and
pride, dignity and connection; 7000 facilitators at a rate of 700/year
train the trainers in the past ten plus years. So many stories I heard and
such deep connection I felt.

In New Jersey, my heart also sings to see that from a single event in 2011,
Creative New Jersey has spawned 5 to 6 more.  One hundred glorious photos
posted yesterday on Facebook in the sequel of Creative Trenton -- all
happening on its own by people who are passionate about where they live.
The photos are the celebration of self-organization. The Market place wall
is brimming with topics. It speaks to the yearning that people have to bust
out of their gates. Always the same types of images and experiences with a
simplicity that belies what our brain tells us.

And then of course, there is the Agile Scrum world who has been using the
power of self-organizing and Open Space to bring connection to the world
through technology.

I also see it with the many students in St. Petersburg and Tampa who were
at the World Open Space. The seeds of self-organization are sprouting in
all kinds of places from that Trojan horse.

Ok... I know I went crazy a bit from your message. And perhaps others will
feel the urge to let loose and let it rip.  28 years of opening space...
tells us something!   Hundreds of thousands of people self-organizing
rapidly in 140 countries.

So Harrison, I don't quite know what you had in mind around the
conversations of self-organizing. I can only respond with what got ignited
in me with your Clarion Call around Self-Organization.

Suzanne

On Tue, Jan 28, 2014 at 4:22 PM, Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net> wrote:

> For the last several years I have been asking for, pleading for, begging
> for an extended and deep conversation which starts with the premise that
> this is a self organizing world, beginning, middle and end. Living fully
> and productively in such a world requires that we think some new, and (some
> would say) radical and heretical thoughts about management, leadership, the
> nature of organization, power...and much more. Good old OST gives us a good
> experimental base, but that is just the beginning. I think. And while some
> might see OST as a useful "tool" for the enhancement of organizations as we
> know them, in my view OST is a wonderful Trojan Horse, which, in a not so
> subtle manner, blows those understandings and ways of working quite out of
> the water. It clears some space for the new conversations to take place,
> while simultaneously offering some useful contributions to the content of
> those conversations. Some of these conversations are now taking place,
> thanks to our good friends from AGILE and SCRUM, and more participants are
> show up in some rather odd places. Our friend Claudia Gross (of Cairo)
> brought the following to my attention, and with great pleasure I pay it
> forward. Thank you Claudia.
>
>
>
> ******************************************
>
>
>
> "My second observation concerns hotspots of energy. What makes 2,500 of
> the world's elite business, government and thought leaders in civil society
> travel to this remote and (otherwise) sleepy small town in Switzerland? My
> sense is that they come to participate in a distributed field of energy
> hotspots. What fuels these hotspots? It's not the big staged events. It's
> not the tightly structured panels and speeches by heavy hitters and big
> names. There's a field of human interconnectivity that flows through the
> corridors, lounges, coffee bars, dinner tables, evening parties, and
> shuttle rides. It's like an inverted or flipped event: the formal public
> events are just an occasion to get together, a backdrop; but the real
> event, the real encounters and learning, happens in the fluid and mostly
> self-organizing space outside the meeting rooms.
>
> "
>
> - Otto Scharmer in this article:
>
>
> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/otto-scharmer/davos-mindfulness-hotspot_b_4671062.html?utm_hp_ref=email_share
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> "In other words, just through the experience of self-organising, people
> begin to question the need for traditional leaders, even if they aren't
> initially doing particularly radical things with their newfound freedom."
>
>
>
> taken from the guide to Constructive Subversion by Liam Barrington-Bush
>
>
>
> http://roarmag.org/2013/12/constructive-subversive-guide-change/
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> 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 <http://www.openspaceworld.com%20>
>
> www.ho-image.com <http://www.ho-image.com%20> (Personal Website)
>
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-- 
Suzanne Daigle
Open Space Facilitator
NuFocus Strategic Group

FL 941-359-8877
Cell: 203-722-2009
www.nufocusgroup.com
s.daigle at nufocusgroup.com
twitter @suzannedaigle
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