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<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Somehow or anotherI allowed myself to become involved in
an electronic forum on Empowerment. Having followed it for several days I have
become convinced the the organizer already knows what he thinks empowerment
might be and is not terribly interested in alternate visions or versions. But
before I threw in the towel having concluded that it was all pretty much
same old, same old. . . I did post several responses concerning
self-organization and empowerment -- all of which took me to some
interesting new places, I thought. If anybody here finds it interesting that
would go a long way towards redeeming what otherwise would be wasted effort. And
of course, if there is no interest. . . </FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Oh Well :-(</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Harrison</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT
face=Arial>****************************************************************</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Bob wrote: "<FONT face="Times New Roman">Why not treat
them ((Students in schools)) (within some limits) as equals and
as<BR>responsible adults? It would be school managed jointly by
teachers<BR>and pupils, in the style of Harrison's "Open Space"."<BR></DIV>
<DIV></FONT></FONT><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>There have actually been a number of situations where Open
Space has been used in schools. (If you are unfamiliar with Open Space check <A
href="">http://www.openspaceworld.com/emergent_order.htm</A> ) And the
interesting thing is that it always seemed to produce useful results. For
one thing, so called behavioral problems virtually disappeared. Learning, even
in very specific areas, appeared to be at an all time high -- and perhaps most
remarkable, most everybody said that it was fun. Imagine that Learning (school)
was fun! I might take a small issue with Bob -- it was not that the children
were treated as "responsible adults" -- but rather that everybody was treated as
responsible (human) beings. I think it would be a mistake, however, to attribute
these "results" to "Harrison's Open Space." After a number of years'
contemplation of the conundrum that something so simple could produce such
results it has become clear to me that it really has nothing to do with the
power of Open Space Technology -- which as my friends know was the product of
two martinis. The operative power is that which underlies Open Space,
and indeed virtually everything else in the creative cosmos -- the power of
self-organization. This thought has led me to the outrageous proposition
that there is no such thing as a non-self-organizing system, albeit there are
some mildly deluded people who think they did the organizing.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>With such monstrous (although I think defensible) jumps of
logic, I find myself at a place where I think a truly profitable discussion of
Empowerment might begin. In the first place it is not about designing
"Empowerment Systems." Rather is about fully appreciating (or maybe just more
fully appreciating) the nature of the "system" of which we are all a part. I
suspect that much of the pathology we currently experience in organizations of
all sorts and sizes (families, companies, countries) derives from the "fact"
that we spend a great deal of time doing what doesn't need to be done
(organizing/designing/controlling), while neglecting the essential task, which I
might call the Care and Feeding of a Self-Organizing system. And instead of
attempting the creation of new systems, we could take a good hard look at what
we already are. From this might come an ability to "leverage" the power of
self-organization, as opposed to attempting to eliminate it -- as in Taking
Charge (control).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Open Space has become for me a marvelous natural
experiment which to date has been "run" perhaps 60,000 times in 108 countries
that we know about. In short the Beta Tests are in -- and the results have been
remarkably consistent across countries, cultures, and continents. One of these
results has been a virtually universal experience and expression of
personal empowerment -- even (or perhaps most particularly) amongst populations
that one might considered radically disempowered. Could be food for
thought.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV>**********************************************************************************</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Dee Hock, whom I know and respect, did a wonderful thing
with Visa International -- and his experience there became the basis of his book
and further work with the chaordic organization. Interestingly, however when he
and others set out to replicate the Chaordic Organization is other situations,
their success rate has been just about zero. The key, I think, is that they
attempted the "creation" of the Chaordic Organization as if it were just
another organization -- they started with Mission, Goals etc. Miles said, "<FONT
face="Times New Roman">Leadership and or some sort of facilitation is needed if
"self" organizing is to work." I think that is partially right. The fact of the
matter is that self-organizing systems (by definition) work, or don't work, all
by themselves. No help needed. However WE may need some help (leadership
and facilitation) to work effectively with a self organizing system. In the Open
Space Experiment, Leadership is required to set, or better, to intuit the
direction (purpose of the Open Space) -- and a facilitator can be helpful with
the preparations and to get things started. But once under way, the people
(participants) do it all by theselves -- no help needed. </FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT face="Times New Roman">I think this may be
significant. Understanding the essential preconditions for self organization is
very useful. Perhaps we could also call these conditions "The Essential
Preconditions of Empowerment?" But once started, the level of overt intervention
drops to basically zero. It would seem that the critical mechanisms are so
fundamental to our existence that they do not need to be explained (we already
"know" at a very deep level), nor to they have to be tampered with (no
management committee). But they (the mechanisms) do have to have sufficient
space/time in which to function. We have found that the ongoing role of the
Facilitator in Open Space is all about "Holding Space" which is much more about
Being than Doing. And when things get a little bumpy (lots of chaos, confusion
and conflict) the appropriate response is actually to open more space. To an
outsider this often appears to be counter-intuitive at best and probably
irresponsible, immoral, and wrong. After all, we have all been trained that our
"job" is to fix things up. </FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT
face="Times New Roman">Harrison </FONT></DIV></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV></FONT><FONT face=Arial>Harrison Owen<BR>7808 River Falls Dr.<BR>Potomac,
MD 20854<BR>USA<BR>301-365-2093<BR>207-763-3261 (summer)<BR>website <A
href="http://www.openspaceworld.com">www.openspaceworld.com</A></FONT></DIV></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
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