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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=red face=Arial FAMILY=SANSSERIF><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:red'>Hi Paul – Welcome back
from the Black Hole. I guess I should come clean. The “Young Manager”
is in fact a figment of my imagination, although he seems to have taken on
flesh and blood here on </span></font><font color=red face=Arial><span
style='font-family:Arial;color:red'>OSLIST</span></font><font color=red
face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial;color:red'>. Which all goes to prove
that </span></font><font color=red face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial;
color:red'>OSLIST</span></font><font color=red face=Arial><span
style='font-family:Arial;color:red'> is even more remarkable that I thought.
But if the manager was mythical, I would argue that he is mythical in the
deepest sense of the word. Well beyond truth or non-truth, fact or fiction, he
is every bright young manager – and I would bet we all know such a
person, maybe several. In a word, the story may be a “hypothetical”
but the situation is quite real. More to the point, I believe we have something
to contribute to his situation well beyond Open Space. Far be it for me to say
a nasty word about Open Space, and I personally think it is quite true that his
first step with the new project might actually be to Open Space and invite all
who care to come – but there is more. And it is towards that “more”
that I am driving. </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=red face=Arial><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:red'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=red face=Arial><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:red'>During the 20 year experiment with Open
Space in which we have all played a part, a number of things have been learned,
among them – How you can consciously and effectively operate in a
Self-Organizing system. For many people who have not had this experience, our
practice and achievements (what actually happens in OS, even if we didn’t
“do” it.) are viewed either as crazy or magic. Both words have been
used in my presence, and I suspect that most of you could say the same. People
who only hear about Open Space perceive it as “crazy” because it
flies in the face of all (or most) that they know to be true. And when a group
of folks (us) become very excited about something that any sane person knows
could not happen – that is crazy. Other people, who basically hold the
same sorts of views as the first group (OS can not happen according to all
standard rules and procedures) and suddenly find themselves in an Open Space
where the “impossible” happens with regularity, will call it “magic.”
I suppose we could just retire and enjoy our status as crazy magicians. Or
maybe we should be crazy like a fox? Foxy, as it were.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=red face=Arial><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:red'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=red face=Arial><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:red'>For those of you who have never met a fox,
up close and personal, it is probably useful to know that these beautiful
animals engage in a lot of playful, weird behavior which seemingly has nothing
to do with the primary business at hand – which is usually catching
dinner. More than a few bunny rabbits have been fooled.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=red face=Arial><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:red'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=red face=Arial><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:red'>Anyhow – Crazy like a Fox? Just
suppose that my wild idea that there is no such thing as a non-self-organizing
system was correct. Add in the fact that for “most people” this
idea is crazy at worst and magic at best – but unfortunately the idea
just happened to be true. This would mean that “most people” were
playing the organizational game with rules that looked very nice on paper, but
had little to do with reality. The fact that such people sometimes succeeded in
their game would have nothing to do with their skill or perception (after all
they were playing by the wrong rules), but rather the happy coincidence that
the system they were seeking to manage and control in a certain way was already
going in that direction – all by itself. In all other situations where no
matter how hard they tried to exercise their management skills and things turned
out very differently, there would be no mystery – they just had played by
the wrong rules!</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=red face=Arial><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:red'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=red face=Arial><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:red'>Enter the Fox! She plays by the real rules (which
others don’t see or understand), achieves extraordinary things in the
most mystifying way – and everybody just thinks she is crazy. Crazy like
a fox. Talk about competitive advantage! </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=red face=Arial><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:red'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=red face=Arial><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:red'>So Paul – I didn’t forget you. When
you said, “</span></font><font size=2 color=black face=Geneva><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Geneva;color:black'>But, about the
self-organizing to<i><span style='font-style:italic'> write a new software
program</span></i>, that seems really iffy. Software requires strategy,
discipline and right code, not something that very easily emerges from no
structure. Even Chaos, with it's structure of bounded instability, can't
predict what the outcome will be or when it will emerge. Only that
something will.” </span></font><font color=red face=Geneva><span
style='font-family:Geneva;color:red'>I certainly agree. And in fact, so would
most people.</span></font><font size=2 color=black face=Geneva><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Geneva;color:black'> </span></font><font
color=red face=Geneva><span style='font-family:Geneva;color:red'>And if it should
ever happen that good software were to emerge from a self-organizing (Open
Space) environment we would definitely have an anomaly, even a crazy anomaly. Even
worse, if all this should happen in record time, the race to the bottom line
would be won hands down, and the competition would never understand how it
happened. Crazy like a fox. </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=red face=Geneva><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:Geneva;color:red'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=red face=Geneva><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:Geneva;color:red'>Now in fact I have seen just such things
occur (complex systems developed with excellence in fractions of the
expected/normal time). And a number of the participants called it Magic! But I
didn’t think it was magic at all. It is simply what Complex Adaptive
Systems do when treated in the right way. And on your point of “no
structure,” what I witnessed was just the opposite. There was a level of
structure and controls operative that just blew the mind. The difference was
that the structures and control were all emergent and appropriate, appropriate
to the people involved, the task they were performing, and the environment in
which they worked. And when any of those three variables changed, the structure
and controls changed virtually instantaneously. In a word, the structures and
controls actually supported the operation instead of being an arbitrary “Lay-on”
– which more often than not stands in the way of truly productive work. </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=red face=Geneva><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:Geneva;color:red'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=red face=Geneva><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:Geneva;color:red'>So how do we teach (enable/encourage) our
mythical young manager, and all his “real” brothers and sisters to
be crazy like foxes?</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=red face=Geneva><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:Geneva;color:red'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=red face=Geneva><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:Geneva;color:red'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=red face=Geneva><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:Geneva;color:red'>Harrison</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=red face=Arial><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:red'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=red face=Arial><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:red'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=red face=Arial><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:red'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=red face=Arial><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:red'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=red face=Arial><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:red'> </span></font></p>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=2
color=red face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:red'>Harrison Owen</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=2
color=red face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:red'>7808 River Falls Drive</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=2
color=red face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:red'>Potomac, Maryland 20845</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=2
color=red face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:red'>Phone 301-365-2093</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'></X-SIGSEP><font
size=3 color=red face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
color:red'><!--StartFragment --><X-SIGSEP>Open Space Training <a
href="http://www.openspaceworld.com/" eudora=autourl>www.openspaceworld.com</a>
</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=3
color=red face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:red'>Open
Space Institute <a href="http://www.openspaceworld.org" eudora=autourl>www.openspaceworld.org</a></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=3
color=red face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:red'>Personal
website <a href="http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm"
eudora=autourl>http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm</a></span></font><font
color=blue><span style='color:blue'><br>
<a href="mailto:OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU">OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU</a></span></font><font
color=red><span style='color:red'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:center'><font
size=3 color=red face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
color:red'>To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>-----Original Message-----<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>From:</span></b> </span></font><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>OSLIST</span></font><font
size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'> [mailto:</span></font><font
size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>OSLIST</span></font><font
size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU]
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>On Behalf Of </span></b></span></font><font
size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>EVERETT813@aol.com</span></font><font
size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'><br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Sent:</span></b> Monday, February 21, 2005
9:37 PM<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>To:</span></b> </span></font><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>OSLIST</span></font><font
size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Subject:</span></b> Help for my manager,
resend</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 color=black
face=Geneva><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Geneva;color:black'>Well,
it seems that my reply is going into a black hole somewhere. Anyway,
Harrison kindly alerted me that such was the case. Below is my original
post, and an addendum that I thought of later.<br>
<br>
Paul Everett<br>
<br>
Harrison wrote:<br>
<br>
<br>
</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 color=black
face=Geneva FAMILY=SANSSERIF><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Geneva;
color:black'>He knows all about playing by the old rules which require a
project plan,<br>
budget, staffing levels, milestones, evaluation and testing procedure, and<br>
all the rest. But, what about all this "self-organizing" stuff? How
do you<br>
play by the new rules? What are they? And last but not least - how do you<br>
rationalize what you have done under the new rules so that it looks like the<br>
"old rules" have been observed? This last part may seem sneaky and<br>
dishonest, but my young manager friend really likes his job.<br>
<br>
</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 color=black
face=Geneva FAMILY=SANSSERIF><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Geneva;
color:black'><br>
Harrison,<br>
<br>
Well, I'm not sure this is probable (it may be slightly possible). As
Kuhn writes, the user of a new paradigm hasn't got the proof that it is the way
to go. Everything says otherwise. The risk takers are going on
'faith' in their instincts. Your young manager has more than that, he has
deep world experience with OS to draw on. Maybe he can use it to get an
"aha" about the programming process itself.<br>
<br>
But, about the self-organizing to<i><span style='font-style:italic'> write a
new software program</span></i>, that seems really iffy. Software
requires strategy, discipline and right code, not something that very easily
emerges from no structure. Even Chaos, with it's structure of bounded
instability, can't predict what the outcome will be or when it will
emerge. Only that something will. Rather like the instructions for
building an ant's nest.<br>
<br>
1. When an ant, carrying a stick, comes to another stick, the ant puts
its stick down.<br>
<br>
2. When an ant, not carrying a stick, comes to a stick, it picks the
stick up.<br>
<br>
Those two instructions will build an ant hill (mathematically, I'm told) but
you can't tell where or when it will emerge, just that it will. I doubt
this will be sufficient for the client. <br>
<br>
Maybe the two process should be separated. The 'chaos' of OS for
breakthroughs, the discipline of code writing for getting something needed to
emerge in a timely, semi-predictable manner to meet the needs of the client
customer. <br>
<br>
Paul Everett<br>
<br>
Addendum: As I read the other comments, I realized I had said much the
same thing---except maybe not so elegantly. That is, separate the code
writing from the issue of how and what to write, which one writer
suggested. I think the real task is to get into a solidly creative state,
meaning one in which there is an absence of rejection of any known kind.
OS certainly does help that, but doesn't assure it, in my mind. The only
way I'm aware of ensuring it is to make that state of mind explicit and keep it
in front of people's consciousness. Suspension of judgment is another
part of that state of mind. All that judgment stuff comes later, when
decisions must be made (convergence). <br>
<br>
<br>
</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial'>* *
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