[OSList] : Illegitimate Authority

[Jeff Aitken via OSList]

Yes! Folks who know me know what I will say...

Open Space has some roots in a cultural story that is told each year, in
which some people decided to depart from illegitimate authority and 'cross
the open space' to find fresh inspiration and create a new agreement among
themselves.

I find these cultural stories powerful in the present day because of the
practice of retelling and reenacting them in the myriad contexts we find
ourselves. In this sense every OS could be a story of liberation... And
that's when the real work begins...!

Jeff
San Francisco

On Aug 22, 2016 5:40 AM, "Michael M Pannwitz via OSList" <
oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:

> When the Man with the Hat was not in the mood to invest another year's
> work into organizing etc another one of the OT events OST was born. A way
> to run a conference... and then bit by bit it turned out that stuff happend
> nobody had expected (often the case in experiments). Thorough reflection
> and further testing revealed that OST - as its essence - was a fine way to
> expand time and space for the force of selforganisation to show up.
> So, as far as I can tell, it was not designed to subvert illegitimate
> authority. But its certainly true that when the force of selforganisation
> gets running its devastating if not lethal to illegitimat authority.
>
> Dan, how did the exchange run after you asked your question and HO
> answered. I wonder how the group responded.
>
> Her a story:
> In one OST I facilitated, a learned and assured man got up during the
> posting issues part with five issues in his hands: "Here are the five
> issues I have identified that we need to talk about for anything worthwhile
> to  happen" and dropped them into the center. I asked him to read the 5 out
> loud and post them on the bulletin board. He did. Nobody showed up in any
> of the 5 sessions.
>
> Greetings from Berlin
> mmp
>
> On 22.08.2016 14:20, Daniel Mezick via OSList wrote:
>
>> 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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>>
> --
> Michael M Pannwitz
> Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany
> ++49 - 30-772 8000
>
>
>
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