[OSList] The Tyranny of Structurelessness
Daniel Mezick via OSList
oslist at lists.openspacetech.org
Mon Oct 5 13:50:34 PDT 2015
Howdy Harrison,
Thanks for describing the context of the Ralph Copleman story- I'm very
thankful for that info.
I notice that, lots of times here, there are references made to notable
OST episodes, and situations from times past...
...the "OST-mythos" as it were.
These mythical stories often have me wondering what I missed, and what I
might now be missing. (Being clueless as I am.)
I'm sure these story-fragment postings are not posted with intent to
exclude anyone, or to be discourteous, or unkind. More like: some good
old basic camaraderie is taking place between some old friends.
Still: Do these "inside-story-fragments" on OSLIST tend to evoke
feelings of exclusion in readers who were /not/ there at the time?
Not sure.
<CONFESSION>
As for me, personally, I sometimes find myself experiencing curiously
odd feelings of exclusion, when a told-fragment of an old OST-mythos
story lacks explicit context. So I can follow the story, you know? The
terms "outsider" or "clueless" or "not in the story" describe these
feelings fairly well. "Not invited?"
I sometimes wonder if some of the hundreds of /other/ members of OSLIST
ever feel this way...or if it is "just me."
</CONFESSION>
Daniel
On 10/4/15 2:59 PM, Harrison Owen via OSList wrote:
>
> âEverything is moving.â .... Michael -- I remember that moment
> very well. And Dan, Iâm not sure the context, etc, would help very
> much. But just for the record the odd phrase popped out at one of the
> International Symposia on Organization Transformation which happened
> to be taking place at a small college south of Seattle. I have no idea
> why Ralph said what he did, and Iâm not sure Ralph did either. But
> then again a lot of marvelous stuff seems to burst out with no obvious
> logic train. Indeed it may be that the lack of logic train enables the
> thought?
>
> Â
>
> Whatever the genesis, the phrase wandered about my head for some time,
> quite unattached, and it also happened that I was working my way
> slowly through one of the masterpieces of 20^th century western
> philosophy when a fuzzy connection began to form. The work was that of
> Alfred North Whitehead, and the title: âProcess and Reality.â
> Iâve been through the book probably 4-5 times, and I am frank to
> confess that I donât think I really understand it. But then
> again Iâve heard a number of people with much greater credentials,
> tenure, etc â say the same thing. But I did get that it had
> something to do with, âEverything is moving.â And the more I
> thought and read, the more I felt that the good philosopher had made a
> small mistake on his title. It shouldnât be âProcess /and/
> Reality,â but rather âProcess *is* Reality.â
>
> Â
>
> Now, Anna Caroline we come to âstructure,â or perhaps I should say
> the fallacy of Structure? Yes I know â weâve all been taught that
> structure is the precursor, the âdeterminatorâ of everything. My
> face looks as it does because of my bone structure. My life proceeds
> the way it does because of my social structure. My business works as
> it does because of the organizational structure. And of course,
> meetings happen the way they do because of meeting structure, which
> apparently is the prime domain of âfacilitators.â And even if
> we hadnât been âtaughtâ all this, the primacy of structure would
> appear to be blatantly obvious â as plain as the nose on your face.
>
> Â
>
> Unfortunately, it does seem to turn out that sometimes the blatantly
> obvious is not necessarily so. For example just looking at things it
> is pretty clear that the world is flat, or at the least bumpy flat.
> And any fool can see that we are the center of it all â Sun, moon,
> and stars whiz around us. But when we think about it, as we have been
> doing for the last 500-600 years, the obvious isnât so obvious.
>
> Â
>
> It is reasonable to ask what would start to make us think
> differently â to the point that we begin to question the obvious,
> and even come to see things in a different way? Taking a leap, I will
> suggest that it all begins with the perception of anomaly. Things
> just donât make sense. Our eyes tell us one thing... but???? And
> then we start making up stories to explain the apparently
> unexplainable. We imagine different ways of looking at things so that
> the nonsensical makes sense. Some of those stories get pretty strange,
> but if they actually work â that is to say, help us to see in new
> and useful ways â thatâs great!
>
> Â
>
> There is, of course, a proper term for the activity I have been
> describing. It is called Theory Building. And for whatever it
> is worth, âtheoryâ comes from the Greek â/theoreinâ/ â to
> see. In a word, theories are ways of looking at things â likely
> stories you might say.
>
> Â
>
> Now, at long last (too long?) we come to the odd story I was starting
> to tell, to the effect that Structure is only a figment of our
> imagination, a flash frame of a moment gone by. Interesting, and
> helpful under some circumstances... but always partial and in a sense
> illusory. Whatâs âreallyâ happening is all flow. Everything is
> moving â Thatâs Ralphâs story, and I guess it is mine too.
>
> Â
>
> So how did I get to such a weird condition? It was all about
> anomaly â more particularly, the anomaly of Open Space. Everything
> that I had ever learned told me that it could not work. Unfortunately
> it did (work) â and not just once, but every time, hundreds of
> thousands of times. Something was definitely weird. It seemed to me
> that I had to re-consider all those things I thought I had learned,
> beginning with the basics... such things as Structure.
>
> Â
>
> Common sense would say that Open Space works because we somehow
> created a structure that enabled it to work. Thatâs the way things
> get done, or so I had been taught. But thatâs not the way things
> happened in Open Space. Structure emerged along the way and only
> momentarily. Worse yet it (structure) seemed to have little to do with
> the obvious power, connections, creativity.... all of which created
> structures, and passed them by. And actually it always seemed to me
> that the âstructuresâ I âsawâ existed only because I wanted to
> see them â or perhaps that I âshouldâ see them. But they were
> only momentary wisps, figments â never to be mistaken for what was
> really going on. Or so Iâve been thinking.
>
> Â
>
> Harrison
>
> Â
>
> Â
>
> Â
>
> Â
>
> Â
>
> Â
>
> *From:*OSList [mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] *On
> Behalf Of *Michael Herman via OSList
> *Sent:* Saturday, October 03, 2015 6:31 PM
> *To:* JL Walker; World wide Open Space Technology email list
> *Subject:* Re: [OSList] The Tyranny of Structurelessness
>
> Â
>
> you remind me, harrison, of one morning news session years ago,
> somewhere, probably OT... where ralph copleman walked to the center of
> the circle and announced, all serious and mischievous at the same
> time, "it's all moving!" Â
>
> Â
>
> then put the stick down and went back to his seat.Â
>
>
> Â
> --
>
> Michael Herman
> Michael Herman Associates
> http://MichaelHerman.com
> http://OpenSpaceWorld.org
>
> Â
>
> On Sat, Oct 3, 2015 at 1:47 PM, JL Walker via OSList
> <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org
> <mailto:oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>> wrote:
>
> I was thinking that maybe the antidote to the eventual tyranny of
> structurelessness is to open space, again and again, until true
> democracy can emerge.
>
> Â
>
> Juan Luis
>
> Â
>
> *De:*OSList [mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org
> <mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org>] *En nombre de *Rosa
> Zubizarreta via OSList
> *Enviado el:* sábado, 03 de octubre de 2015 12:19
> *Para:* Daniel Mezick; World wide Open Space Technology email list
> *Asunto:* Re: [OSList] The Tyranny of Structurelessness
>
> Â
>
> Hi Daniel,
>
> Yes, this is a key piece... I see it as very similar in some ways to
> what Ken Wilber wrote later,
>
> about the "shadow side of the green meme". (Each meme has its own
> shadow, as well as its own gift...)
>
> So, I love "green". I love circles, I love non-hierarchy, etc.
> And, part of the "shadow side of the green meme" is how ideologically
> anti-structure it can become...
>
> to the point where some people may not even agree that OST does, in
> fact, offer a very simple and effective structure.
>
> By way contrast, think of a situation where group of people (who don't
> know about OST, and/or, who are having a power struggle around "which
> process to use", and/or.... ) might easily spending a whole weekend
> arguing /about /"how to self-organize ourselves"... with a great deal
> more pain and frustration and a great deal less value.
>
> whereas, instead, IF someone knows about OST, and, a clear invitation
> has been extended, and, there is enough trust/suspension of disbelief
> so that participants are willing to enter into that format,
>
> then, we end up with a very simple and elegant structure that allows
> people to self-organize beautifully....
>
> at least that's how i see it! :-)
>
> with all best wishes,
>
> Rosa
>
> Â
>
>
> */Rosa Zubizarreta/*
>
> /Developing Participatory and Co-intelligent Leadership
> Author of *From Conflict to Creative Collaboration*
> <http://www.conflict2creativity.com>/
>
> /For more resources and learning opportunities, visit
> *www.DiaPraxis.com <http://www.DiaPraxis.com>*/
>
> Â
>
> On Sat, Oct 3, 2015 at 9:26 AM, Daniel Mezick via OSList
> <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:
>
> THE TYRANNY of STRUCTURELESSNESS
> by Jo Freeman aka Joreen
>
> I find this essay extremely interesting. I hope you do, too.
>
>
>
> Here is a pertinent quote, from the essay:
> ".../the idea of "structurelessness" does not prevent the formation of
> informal structures, only formal ones."
>
> /
> Circa 1970. Context: the women's movement. Quick summary of the main
> points: from the essay...
>
> * /During the years in which the women's liberation movement has
> been taking shape, a great emphasis has been placed on what are
> called leaderless, structureless groups as the main -- if not sole
> -- organizational form of the movement. /
>
> * /The idea of "structurelessness," however, has moved from a
> healthy counter to those tendencies, to becoming a goddess in its
> own right./
>
> * /Contrary to what we would like to believe, there is no such thing
> as a structureless group. /
>
> * /This means that to strive for a structureless group is as useful,
> and as deceptive, as to aim at an "objective" news story,
> "value-free" social science, or a "free" economy. A "laissez
> faire" group is about as realistic as a "laissez faire" society;
> the idea becomes a smokescreen for the strong or the lucky to
> establish unquestioned hegemony over others. /
>
> * /This hegemony can be so easily established because the idea of
> "structurelessness" does not prevent the formation of informal
> structures, only formal ones. /
>
> * /For everyone to have the opportunity to be involved in a given
> group and to participate in its activities, the structure must be
> explicit, not implicit. /
>
> * /It is this informal structure, particularly in Unstructured
> groups, which forms the basis for elites./
>
>
>
> Just in case you have not yet encountered the full text of this essay,
> here it is:
>
> THE TYRANNY of STRUCTURELESSNESS
> by Jo Freeman aka Joreen
> http://www.jofreeman.com/joreen/tyranny.htm
>
>
>
> Regards,
> Daniel
> http://www.OpenSpaceAgility.com/about
> http://www.DanielMezick.com
> 203 915 7248 <tel:203%20915%207248>
>
>
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