Hi, Dan,
"Be prepared to be surprised" along with the OST "principles" is descriptive of
what participants might notice in Open Space. You could think of it as a
"heads up" or a reminder that nobody knows specifically what is going to go up
on the wall (nor what specific outcomes and next steps will emerge). General
outcomes, yes, like emergent visions, creative collaboration, genuine
community, serious learning and play, etc. but not specific ones, hence the
element of surprise.
In twenty years of facilitating Open Space I have never seen any one interpret
it as a directive, just a reminder which not only applies to OST but also to
life itself.
All the best,
Linda
List-Post: oslist@lists.openspacetech.org
Date: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 09:17:38 -0400
From: d...@newtechusa.net
To: oslist@lists.openspacetech.org
Subject: [OSList] : Speech acts
When responding to Jenifer's thoughts earlier, I realized:
The slogan "Be Prepared to Be Surprised" is a most interesting one
in OST.
It is actually an illocutionary speech act.... of type "Directive".
So, located here in OST, baked into it, we have a specific slogan
that is attempting to cause the hearer to take a
particular action, e.g. a request, commands and
advice. A directive!
I wonder if the undeniably directive structure of "Be Prepared to Be
Surprised" really aligned with the intention/spirit/philosophy of
OST.
Dan
Background links:
What is a speech act?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_acts
A speech act in linguistics and the philosophy of language is an
utterance that has performative function in language and
communication.
What is an illocutionary act?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illocutionary_act
Illocutionary act is a term in linguistics introduced by the philosopher
John L. Austin in his
investigation of the various aspects of speech acts.
What is a Directive illocutionary act?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illocutionary_act#Classes_of_illocutionary_acts
directives = speech acts that are to cause the hearer to
take a particular action, e.g. requests, commands and advice
More than you asked for:
What is a Commissive speech act?
commissives = speech acts that commit a speaker to some
future action, e.g. promises and oaths
On 10/24/13 1:29 PM, Jenifer Toksvig
wrote:
Re: [OSList] The OST Game
Dan wrote:
>> Consider the man who loves a certain woman, and waits
for the current trend of her interest in him to change. He is
goal seeking without controlling. Likewise, trend-following
market traders do not attempt to create, control or make
trends. They simply identify & ride them, while seeking
wealth. <<
Waiting and seeking are still forms of controlling. Your
loving man has chosen to wait for his goal rather than (to
coin a phrase) being prepared to be surprised by another
woman. He may not be trying to control her, but he’s still
trying to control the situation in a way that he thinks will
allow him to achieve his goal.
Those who seek wealth do likewise: they don’t randomly ride
the trends, they identify them and make choices about how to
ride them, in order to obtain wealth. That is control.
I don’t think it’s possible to be goal-oriented and try to
exert some kind of control over the process, unless your goal
is… to have no goal. Actually, even being prepared to be
surprised is a goal. A sort of wonderfully ridiculous one.
Jen x
Jenifer Toksvig
www.acompletelossforwords.com
The Copenhagen Interpretation
www.thecopenhageninterpretation.co.uk
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