<HTML>
<FONT SIZE="2" POINTSIZE="10" DEFAULT="SIZE">Dear Julie,<BR>
Gunnar Hjelholt, Danish psychologist, wrote a book "Survival in the organisation" on his experiences in a concentration camp. <BR>
He also makes the point that we create things in our image(s) and tells this little story:<BR>
<BR>
"Where do systems come from?<BR>
In the Jewish narrative of creation, the creation of man is mentioned twice. The first time it is said that God created us equal to all other creation, that is, like nature: Everything which has to do with simple survival. The second time it is added that God created us <I>in his image</I>, that is, as spirit. People are nature and spirit and the two elements either struggle with each other or work together. Once mankind had been made in this way, it then created the organization - in <I>its</I> image. The wording "in its image" , means that we can not create something out of nothing. We can not construct something that does not have its roots in ourselves; and it appears as if what we do, over and over again, is related to simple survival - to "nature" rather than "spirit".<BR>
The organization of the concentration camp was not significantly different from that of other systems we have developed over time."<BR>
<BR>
Greetings from Berlin<BR>
michael<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
They posit the idea that self-organization is happening all<BR>
>the time, AND that we naturally self-organize around those beliefs/rules<BR>
>that we hold to be true. (This last part is new to me. Can't quite get<BR>
>my mind completely around it. Don't know if I agree with it. Is that<BR>
>what we mean by self-organization as we use the term here?)<BR>
<BR>
</HTML>
<HTML>
<LEFT>
<FONT FACE="Arial" COLOR="#000001" SIZE="2" POINTSIZE="10" DEFAULT="ALL">
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Michael M Pannwitz<br>
boscop<br>
Draisweg 1<br>
12209 Berlin, Germany<br>
FON +49 - 30-772 8000 FAX +49 - 30-773 92 464<br>
www.michaelmpannwitz.de<br>
<br>
An der E-Gruppe "openspacedeutsch" für deutschsprechende open space-PraktikerInnen interessiert? Enfach eine mail an mich.</HTML>