[OSList] : Illegitimate Authority

[Daniel Mezick via OSList]

Greetings Fellow Humans!

On a recent weekend, I had the wonderful honor of inviting up to 5 
friends up to Harrison's house in Maine, to discuss all things OST.

And it was really, really fun. I thought about "who to invite?" for a 
very long time, and carefully selected some truly great people for the 
invitation: Jon Jorgensen (West coast OpenSpace Agility guy,) Mark 
Sheffield (OpenSpace Agility HANDBOOK co-author,) Stuart Turner 
(OpenSpace Agility teacher and Scrum Alliance CST from Singapore,) Salah 
Elliethy (OpenSpace Agility teacher and Agile coach in DC,) and Todd 
Kromann (OpenSpace Agility and the OST guy who has arranged over-- get 
this-- 300 OST events inside WALMART since 2014).

And finally, the day arrived. And there we were all there, all of a 
sudden. Out on the porch with Harrison. Enjoying the lake. Chatting with 
Harrison. About everything. And the whole thing was very surreal.

And I mostly kept my mouth shut, in service to maximizing the time 
everyone else got with Harrison that day. Stuart, after all, came all 
the way from Singapore! Jon came all the way from California. Mark came 
from North Carolina. Salah came from DC. Todd came all the way from 
Arkansas.

So I just did my best to observe, and stay real quiet. And I was doing 
OK ...


...but the discussions were very triggering. To say the least! And I had 
to stifle myself several times.

And then: I did have this one persistent, burning question keep coming 
up for me. And I was definitely going to ASK it...


So I just waited till there a good long while, till there was a good 
long pause in all the interactions.

It was just the 7 of us. And after a long series of question and 
answers, back and forth, it finally did get real quiet.

And the moment arrived.

And right there I popped the question, into the silence...


*"...Harrison, I have a question... AND THIS IS IT: *

*
*

*Is Open Space Technology SUBVERSIVE to illegitimate authority?"*


And Harrison, without any hesitation, goes: *"(chuckle...) 
...Abso-lutely...that's the whole POINT!"*


Wow.

Who likes the idea that OST is designed to subvert illegitimate authority?

Who doesn't?

Is this subversive quality of OST a bug...or a feature?


-- 
Daniel Mezick
Culture Strategist. Author. Keynoter.
(203) 915 7248. Bio. <http://www.DanielMezick.com/> Blog. 
<http://www.NewTechUSA.net/blog/> Twitter. 
<https://twitter.com/DanielMezick>
Book: The Culture Game. <http://theculturegame.com/>
Book: The OpenSpace Agility Handbook. 
<http://www.amazon.com/OpenSpace-Agility-Handbook-Daniel-Mezick/dp/0984875336> 

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