[OSList] : Illegitimate Authority

Daniel Mezick via OSList oslist at lists.openspacetech.org
Tue Aug 23 05:51:57 PDT 2016


Michael,

You ask,

"...Dan, how did the exchange run after you asked your question and HO 
answered. I wonder how the group responded."

I think the group was pleasantly surprised by Harrison's answer. There 
were nods and knowing smiles. We got it recorded and everyone was taking 
notes at the time.

Wait. I hope there aren't any illegitimate-authority types following 
this thread.

Daniel


On 8/22/16 8:40 AM, Michael M Pannwitz 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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>

-- 
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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