I continue to have a disagreement with you on this point, Harrison.
I agree that "all systems are self organizing -- it is the
preexisting condition here on planet earth"
But I do not conclude that they are all open !
Let's think of physical phenomena first - it is self organization
that creates diamonds (see, for instance http://www.allaboutgemstones.com/diamond_chemistry_formation.html)
.
But after they are created, they are not open anymore - they are
quit closed, especially if we compare them with other forms of
carbon (like graphite - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon),
not to talk when carbon is combined with oxygen, to form a gas,
like in CO2.
The same is true, IMHO, about organizations. Some are more open,
but many are really closed, like Government burocraties or large
companies. And some are more closed than others (let's take as an
example IBM or Microsoft when compared with Google or Dell).
This has other consequences, namely in what concerns the
organizations' capacity to learn and adapt to the changing
environment.
I don't believe that we can continue to say that we (or the
sponsor) "opens the space", if it was always already open !
Indeed, what we do in OST is, IMO, to create a pattern that has
been previously designed - what, many moons ago, I have called the
"foundations of OST" are indeed a pattern - that is different from
the patterns of the World Cafe and, even more different, from the
pattern of "Future Search".
I thing that your remarks that we can't "design for self
organization" applies to the "conventional engineering way of
thinking about design": first we design and then we implement and
control.
But if we think about Chris Alexander's "Patterns" to create a
"Timeless Way of Building", from regions, to cities, to
neighborhoods, to buildings (see for instance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Alexander)
we may create an analogue for organizations and try to imagine
what are the patterns that allow for an organization or community
to become more "open" and then more able to learn.
This is, I believe, what many of us are doing in many different
domains and situations.
Regards
Artur
From: Harrison Owen <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]; 'World wide Open Space Technology
email list' <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, September 16, 2011 1:44 PM
Subject: Re: [OSList] Designing an OS way
Doug -- You may be working too hard. If you start with the idea (I
would say
fact) that the folks are already "in" open space, they are just not
doing it
as well or intentionally as they might. After all, all systems are
self
organizing -- it is the preexisting condition here on planet
earth :-) Also,
you have a group of consenting adults (the so called "students.") who
probably have some idea of how they might like to spend time
together in a
useful and supportive fashion. If it were me, I would convene a 1
day Open
Space for anybody who cared (presumably students and faculty) with
the
theme, "Issues and opportunities for supporting each other as we
build our
businesses." It might turn out, for example, that they would rather
have a
weekend together once a quarter. Or something totally different.
At the very least you would avoid the awful oxymoron of "organizing
a self
organizing system." As for "The Principles, etc" no need to
organize a
thing. You would already "be there." And best of all you would be
treating
the "students" like adult human beings which I would consider to be
a real
plus.
Harrison
Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Dr.
Potomac, MD 20854
USA
189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer)
Camden, Maine 20854
Phone 301-365-2093
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-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of
douglas germann
Sent: Thursday, September 15, 2011 8:19 PM
To: oslist
Subject: [OSList] Designing an OS way
Friends--
An opportunity has been dropped in my lap, and I need your help to
noodle it through, please:
A local college created a program for beginning entrepreneurs. They
now
have a dozen graduates of this continuing education program, and they
are doing follow-on sessions: once a month, from 9 to 10 am, local
experts present and consult with them. For those who pay the fee for
this continuing portion, this session is mandatory.
Now they want to do something at these monthly meetings which will
encourage them to consult and conspire with one another on the
challenges they are facing as they start their businesses. This is
voluntary.
The sessions would run from 10:30 am to 1:00 pm. Many people may
have to
get back to work by 1:00 so may leave early.
They had a 3-hour OS session half way through their program before
they
graduated, so most of them have had some experience with OS.
My sense of what they need is to be sounding boards for each other,
to
engage one another in deep and meaningful conversation, to have some
bonding or cohesiveness time.
I would like to design some way that uses OS principles that becomes
their way of being together. They would like me to help some of them
learn how to do OST, and that might be part of it.
How would you design an OS way of life for these women for their
once a
month meeting?
Thanks!
:- Doug.
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