Yes, I find that interesting. And, even as a child in school, I found it
interesting that the written stuff, even if classified, had little to do
with my perception of reality... all the things that enter into words
when you hear and see them spoken. Later in my life, as a consultant, we
would ask a group (we did this with groups of up to maybe 20 people), to
listen to a particular statetement that one of us consultants would make
in relation to something that just had happend.
Here is an example: one participant (Charly) entered the room about 5
minutes after the official opening time. One of us consultants would
relate to that in saying (very calm stature, hardly any modulation in
the voice, seemingly emotionless):
"Charly came into the room at 9:05am."
We then asked the participants to write down what they had heard, take 2
minutes for that, and then read it out loud going around the circle.
Here are some typical responses:
---The consultant scolded Charly for being late
---Usually, Charly is 15 minutes late and the consultant praised him for
being only 5 mintutes late
---Charly came into the room at 9:05 am
---Charly is really a pain in the neck for disrupting the time schedule
---Here he goes again, had to finish his cigarette before he came in
---I wonder when Charly is going to get his act together
---Charly shows no respect
---Charly just does what he wants to do, a scheduled time does not mean
much to him
---I also had problems being on time when I was Charly's age
Eventually, everyone broke out laughing.
Does the actual syntax structure of what the consultant said give
meaning to what he said? Who gives meaning to the sentence? How much
control do I have over conveying what I as the speaker of the sentence
actually want to express.
Early in my career as an os-facilitator, at least one participant
regularly got all upset about the second Fact of Life "Whatever
happended is the only thing that could have", attacking me: This is
nihilistic, how can you have such an a-historic view of things, etc.
I actually tried to find a couple of sentences after stating the second
Fact of Life and, as luck had it, ran into a saying that every person is
familiar with in Germany (Wenn das Wörtchen wenn nicht wär', wär' mein
Vater Millionaire...) I find it hard to translate it in english language
facilitation but Jo helped me with a Russian version(If the dog didn't
have to take a shit he would have caught the rabbit).
After that, I never had this aggressive reaction that I described earlier.
What had happened?
More discussion in Utrecht!
Who is coming?
Cheers
mmp
---
On 26.10.2013 19:55, Daniel Mezick wrote:
Michael said:
"Well, Dan, if you feel commanded and directed, imperatively, by "Be
prepared to be surprised"...how do you feel being confronted by the Law?
I say:
I don't actually feel commanded/directed. I'm just noticing something
about the actual syntax structure of the slogan.
"Be prepared to be surprised" is in fact structured in English as: an
illocutionary speech act of type 'directive'.
And I think that's really, really interesting. Do you also think so?
On 10/26/13 9:54 AM, Michael M Pannwitz wrote:
Well, Dan, if you feel commanded and directed, imperatively, by "Be
prepared to be surprised" (In German: "Augen Auf! Mit Überraschungen
ist zu rechnen!", even more gruesome), how do you feel being
confronted by the Law?
And by a facilitator raising his/her voice by saying, as the Law (in
German: Das Gesetz) is introduced: "You know about Laws, they have to
be obeyed...!!!", followed by the translation of the Law, theatrical
pause and then, facilitator stops in his/her tracks (here I am talking
of classical facilitators like me that walk the circle): "You honor a
group with your absence when you neither learn nor contribute
something. If you learn something, stay. If you contribute something,
stay. If neither is happening you leave the group by whatever means
are available to you and look for a more productive place for you to
be in!"
Adding, "and this Law is in force right now!", pause.....
Somehow, I havent gotten the curve yet, when I introduce the
admonition (yes, this is the name for it, in German: Ermahnung) and
the Law... invariably participants smile or grin at me!!
No respect for authority, let alone age or beauty, and this just at
the very beginning of an open space event.
Have a great Sunday!!!
cheers
mmp
On 26.10.2013 15:17, Daniel Mezick wrote:
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
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistics> and the philosophy of
language <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistics> introduced by the philosopher
John L. Austin <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_L._Austin> in his
investigation of the various aspects of speech acts
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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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Examine my new book:The Culture Game
<http://newtechusa.net/about/the-culture-game-book/>: Tools for the
Agile Manager.
Explore Agile Team Training
<http://newtechusa.net/services/agile-scrum-training/> and Coaching.
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