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<FONT FACE="Times New Roman" DEFAULT="FACE"><FONT SIZE="3" POINTSIZE="12" DEFAULT="SIZE">Greetings from Berlin, just a week away from Nr. 11,<BR>
to me, its appropriate to be <BR>
witness <BR>
to the selforganizing nature of systems, organisations and such<BR>
with a good dose of humbleness<BR>
and a good dose of careful attention to preconditions<BR>
mmp<BR>
(am in the midst of putting down some of my observations re the preconditions from real practice with, I hope, tons of theory-building implications for those of us who are into that end of our experiment in remembering)<BR>
<BR>
--Original Message Text---<BR>
<B>From:</B> Harrison Owen<BR>
<B>Date:</B> Fri, 15 Aug 2003 09:13:28 -0400<BR>
<BR>
At 08:59 PM 8/13/2003 +0200, Jan Hein wrote:<BR>
SO, maybe OST is the proces and maybe Chaordic is the structure that in<BR>
combination holds the whole of divergence and convergence - if we are<BR>
to find a way to organize ourselves more authenticly ???<BR>
<BR>
I think it may even be simpler than you suggest...although simplicity, more often than not, seems to make approaches unacceptable. After 20 years with Open Space, I have come to the conclusion that creating an Open Space organization is in fact a waste of time, for all organizations already are Open Space organizations but they don't know it. Stated this way, the notion appears as the height of hubris. Somehow "we" know the truth and all the world is deluded. But with slightly different words, the idea may become somewhat less outrageous. My mantra has become -- Open Space works because self-organization works. And prior to that -- all organizations are self-organizing, it is just that some folks seem to think they did the organizing. When Dee Hock discovered the Chaordic Organization -- it was in fact a <I>discovery</I>, not a creation, I think. Quite happenstantially, and contrary to all expectations, Dee found himself in the middle of a self-organizing system called Visa. His brilliance was that he intuited the essential nature of things, and treated the organization appropriately. Surprise -- It worked. I think we do the same thing every time we open space. So it is not about creation (as in creating the Chaordic Organization or the Open Space Organization), but rather acknowledgement and appropriate treatment. Still less is it about "structuring" either the Chaordic Organization or the Open Space Organization. One thing we know for sure is that given the essential preconditions, structure (organization) happens. Once this structure has emerged/manifest then there are some things we can do to clean it up a bit, but creating structure is not something we need to do. It happens all by itself. <BR>
<BR>
I believe there is enormous synergy possible between Chaordniks and Spaceniks. First, we can share our growing, practical, on-the-ground understanding of the nature of self organizing systems at the level of human systems. This is not a theoretical endeavor, although theory is always helpful as we seek an understanding of what we are looking at. Secondly, I think there is much to share about how to best treat such systems <I>appropriately.</I> One of the major learnings from Open Space is that the imposition of arbitrary Control is not only a no/no -- it is in fact the only way to insure that the Open Space will not work, or work at less than optimal levels. In a word, appropriate behavior starts with massive amounts of letting go of pre-determined outcomes. When we do this, things work better. But this does not mean that we should become totally uninvolved in the process. A workable stance seems to have a lot to do with being totally present and absolutely invisible. And of course, there is much more . . .<BR>
<BR>
Harrison <BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
Harrison Owen<BR>
7808 River Falls Drive<BR>
Potomac, MD 20854 USA<BR>
phone 301-365-2093<BR>
Open Space Training <FONT COLOR=0000ff><U>www.openspaceworld.com<FONT COLOR=000000 DEFAULT="COLOR"></U> <BR>
Open Space Institute <FONT COLOR=0000ff><U>www.openspaceworld.org<FONT COLOR=000000 DEFAULT="COLOR"></U><BR>
Personal website <FONT COLOR=0000ff><U>http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm</U><BR>
<BR>
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<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>
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