Rosa said – “Of course we work too hard, Harrison. Yet we have a lot of fun doing it! :-)” Rosa, God forbid that I become a Kill-Joy! Fun is fun and I am all or it. It is also true that what’s fun for some is perceived differently by others. Golf, for example is the funnest thing in the world for millions. Personally, I have never been able to generate much enthusiasm for whacking a small white ball, but there you go.
But I think the conversation here may need to go to some other levels – starting with the question, “Why do we do what we do?” Certainly I would hope that we enjoy what we are doing. I certainly do. But my personal enjoyment (fun) would not be my primary reason for my efforts. I would hope, as I am sure you do too, that my efforts would yield some good. At the very least that they would do no harm. And further that these efforts might accomplish their task in the safest and most effective manner. Some years ago I found myself in deep conversation with a precocious 10 year old. We were solving most of the problems of the world, as only a 10 year old can – when she paused, looked me in the eye, and asked, “What do you do?” I tried to explain to the best of my ability how I endeavored to help organizations, and the people who constituted them to be more healthy, productive, and useful. She listened patiently... and then said, “Oh I see. You are a doctor for organizations.” Truthfully, I’d never quite thought of it that way, but if it worked for her, it worked for me. Putting aside whatever difficulties I may have with the so called “medical model of consulting,” which are several ... in this case I think the analogue may be apt. The job of the physician is to enable people to “get their life back.” In pursuit of this goal, they use (or should use) the safest, simplest, most effective means, and once the objective has been achieved, they leave. To use methods of treatment that are known to be less effective than alternatives, is at the very least sloppy medicine, and at worst fraud. Applying the same template to our situation can be instructive, I think. Speaking just for myself, I will say that if I knew of any other approach to the enhancement of organizational life (getting their life back) other that Open Space, I would be the first to use it. Frankly, I don’t know of any, and I have looked hard, but nothing can approach the ease of use, economy of effort, or effective result to be found in Open Space. That is a pretty blank statement, and it may well be true that there is “something” out there – which would just wonderful. But I have yet to see it. Over the years I have worked with groups large and small who have been treated to the very best practices of the times. They have been Quality Circled, Process Engineered, Sig Sevened, and still life as they wanted it remained beyond their grasp. Then, perhaps by desperation, they found themselves in Open Space – and as one AT&T executive mumbled – Magic! I don’t think it was magic at all. It is simply what happens when people accept the invitation to be fully what they are. Seems to work every time. Did it last? In most cases, No. And the reason, as I see it is quite simple. Having experienced a burst of life, they made the choice (actively or passively) to return to the same conditions that got them in trouble in the first place. They simply forgot the old dictum that if you do more and more of what you’ve always done – you will definitely get more of the same. Yes it is true that some of these organization thought to “capture the Open Space experience.” This usually meant creating the Open Space Model of Organization, replete with all the appropriate rules, positions, policies, and procedures. And guess what, after a time, short or long, they found themselves right back where they started. Maybe even worse because they were now burned twice. Organizing a self organizing system is not only an oxymoron it simply doesn’t work. But more importantly, there is no reason to try. The emergent system is already there, operating at a level of complex interaction that totally boggles the human mind, even very bright, well trained minds. Under the circumstances, rational analysis is always interesting, and may even be fun (I always thought so), but I think a better place to start is with some deeply appreciate non-knowing. With that as a starting point I do believe that the way will emerge. It always has. Harrison Winter Address 7808 River Falls Drive Potomac, MD 20854 301-365-2093 Summer Address 189 Beaucaire Ave. Camden, ME 04843 207-763-3261 Websites www.openspaceworld.com www.ho-image.com OSLIST To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of OSLIST Go to: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org> http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org From: OSList [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Rosa Zubizarreta Sent: Saturday, August 02, 2014 4:34 PM To: World wide Open Space Technology email list Subject: Re: [OSList] Management and Organization Bhav, you wrote "...I think OST doesn't work for the way Dave Snowden wants to approach complexity, however that is different to the question of whether it is a method that does work in complex space." I agree that in many complex situations, OST can be a great way to draw out and make room for people's natural creativity and motivation. and that little else may be needed. In other complex situations, I've seen OST work well with other methods that are also well-suited for complexity. For example, at the Surfing Democracy conference in Batschuns, Austria, our hosting team offered the option of having Dynamic Facilitation for those OS sessions that wanted to make use of that method. It worked quite well -- the only difference being that participants who offered DF OS sessions usually booked a double time slot, to allow for the greater in-depth exploration that we do in DF. (Of course we work too hard, Harrison. Yet we have a lot of fun doing it! :-) with all best wishes, Rosa Rosa Zubizarreta Diapraxis: Facilitating Creative Collaboration http://www.diapraxis.com <http://www.diapraxis.com/> Celebrating my new book, <http://www.amazon.com/Conflict-Creative-Collaboration-Dynamic-Facilitation/dp/1626526117/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1394491921&sr=1-1&keywords=from+conflict+to+creative+collaboration> "From Conflict to Creative Collaboration: A user's guide to Dynamic Facilitation" On Sat, Aug 2, 2014 at 12:04 PM, Chris Corrigan <[email protected]> wrote: What a fantastic post. It has summed up much if my own thinking about Dave's dismissal of Open Space. My take on this is that I have used Open Space to address complexity within the constraints if the cynefin framework and it works well. I have seen OST help with conflict and create innovation. I have never seen a silver bullet that says that "if we do this everything will be perfect". So we have to be sensitive to things like power and resources and such. I don't know what evidence dave makes his assumptions upon but it's entirely possible he has been around poor facilitation for a lot of his career. And then what else is valuable about his analysis is that it causes me to look at my own practice and see where I have been guilty of some of the things he says. It's useful to have a critical view. I've known about Dave's dismissal of these ways of working for a long time and he's known about my championing of these ways of working. It hasn't stopped us having conversations online about our work and it hasn't prevented me from using his tools. Chris -- CHRIS CORRIGAN Harvest Moon Consultants Facilitation, Open Space Technology and process design Check www.chriscorrigan.com for upcoming workshops, blog posts and free resources. On Aug 1, 2014, at 11:02 PM, Harold Shinsato <[email protected]> wrote: Chris - thank you again for the mention of the Cynefin framework. I very much enjoyed your youtube presentation about the framework to the Art of Hosting Community at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRn3BM56W74. It was well worth the 55 minutes. I especially enjoyed your questions and answers section. After I listened, YouTube presented a related video of a keynote by David Snowden to a Lean, Agile & Scrum conference in Europe. His talk is titled "Making Sense of Complexity". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6RfqmTZejU I found his talk brilliant. I enjoyed the insights, but also the challenges. David called himself a "Constructive Irritant" or a curmudgeon. I'm not sure I'd recommend the talk to everyone in this group - but there is one piece that was particularly confrontational and important. I carefully transcribed it for you here. David Snowden makes these remarks while showing a slide of a dragon towering over two Knights, and one Knight says "Oh No! A big, evil, DRAGON!". The other says "Quick! Somebody hold a meeting". Here is what David says (it is at 49:05 in the talk): "This sort of hold a meeting mentality, or worse still, I mean if there was an Agile version of this, it would be 'Quick let's hold an Open Space', because we can all have a nice time and nobody will be challenged. Just to make a controversial statement: Open Space is the enemy of innovation because it enforces consensus. There are actually larger group techniques certainly which we and others have developed which actually increase conflict because if you don't increase conflict you don't get diversity and you don't get proper testing. So the Law of Two Feet is the enemy of innovation because it allows people to avoid confrontation where they need to do confrontation. Right, it doesn't mean it doesn't have value, but it's a contextual method." This statement from David actually interfered with my sleep. I made me question for a couple hours my deep emotional investment in OST. As mentioned earlier, I saw and still see Cynefin as a way to help promote the use of OST. Earlier in David's talk, when he described how to work in the complex space, his recommendations sounded a lot like an OST event. But quote I offer from him was clearly hostile to OST. My first reaction to his "irritant" statement was that OST does *not* enforce consensus. But other parts of his statement raise interesting questions. Is there value in setting up large group processes that don't allow people to avoid confrontation? Can OST prevent needed conflict? My take on Open Space as a method is that it has been traversing the chasm on the innovation cycle between Early Adopter phase, and Early Majority. I had expected Agile to help push Open Space over to Early Majority. It sounds like OST may already be in the Early Majority phase in the Agile community based on David Snowden's missive against it. I've also predicted that OST will start facing open and active hostility as it starts to break into Early Majority. David Snowden may be some evidence this is happening. I'm quite curious how others receive this statement against OST from David Snowden. Harrison, I quite enjoy what you've written, and I think there's something in OST that most consultants and organizational development experts are going to miss simply because the fundamental assumptions of their traditions go 180 degrees in the opposite direction of Open Space, wave riding, and the ancient mystery we might now call our self-organizing universe. For me, I don't think there is any end to the digging, because there is no way a "theory of everything" will ever be able to capture it all. And still, there are some of us that have not yet tired of digging. But my aim in the digging into game theory, Agile, Cynefin, brain science, Tavistock and group relations, sociology, psychology, etc. etc. is not "how to deal with massive complexity ... by ... making models, and gathering data." The joy in the digging is not to try to get to the bottom of it. There is no bottom. There will never be a theory of everything. But making maps, as long as we understand their fundamental limits, is a wonderful thing. As long as we don't confuse them with the territory. Harold On 7/31/14 12:59 PM, Harrison Owen wrote: Good thinking Peggy, and having spent no small amount of time, paper, and ink exploring the world of emergence or self organization – I can definitely appreciate the effort. Helping people to develop an awareness of the flow of the enterprise is definite plus. Having said that, I find myself needing to issue a caveat. Producing a model, even a very good model, of the flow of self organization as it relates to complexity, is not to suggest that we can fully understand the process, even less that we could predict or control it. My experience has been that the more I know, in the sense of actual experience and perception, the less I understand. Perhaps it is the advance of senility, but I find my rational capacity totally overwhelmed and over-awed by the magnificent mystery of our evolving cosmos. This is not simply the majesty of infinite space/time – but equally the fantastic complexity, diversity and connectedness of the smallest creatures. The Hummingbirds, for example who feed at my window. The Paramecium (single celled protozoa that swim in my lake). A single snow flake. Some might take my statement as the despairing cry of an old man. The “old man” part is dead on... but there is no despair. Just the opposite, in fact. It feels just wonderful! I am reminded of conversations over the years with various “Systems Thinking” friends. Bright people all, with enthusiasm unbounded. They were certain that if they thought hard enough, collected data long enough – for sure they could design the perfect system, or at least understand the one of which they were a part (their business, etc.). They sensed victory just over the hill, and I surely wished them well. For myself, inspired by their effort, I tried to do the same. But for me, the harder I tried, the worse it got. In fact it became an infinite regression into ultimate complexity. One could call it an exercise in despair. But that is not how it felt... Liberation was more to the point with the realization that you just couldn’t get there from here...Wonderful! But how to deal with massive complexity in real life situations if not by thinking about it, making models, and gathering data? It is not that thought, models and data were somehow evil or useless, but in terms of my quest, they only led down a rabbit hole out of which I could not come. And the harder I tried, the deeper I sunk... It felt just wonderful to just stop digging! But the complexity of life remained. Somewhere along the line an odd curiosity captured my attention. As our marvelous natural experiment in self organization (AKA OST) proceeded, it dawned on me that contrary to all of my preconceived notions, multiple groups of people of all sorts and conditions from every part of the world seemingly engaged their complex, self organizing world in an effective and productive fashion without benefit of prior instruction, models of whatever sort, intense facilitation (handholding)... In a word it appeared to be a natural act. Even more counter intuitive (counter to my intuition and expectations) was the fact that in those (relatively few) situations in which either I or some colleague had endeavored to “prepare” the participants with conceptual models, exercises of various sorts, or explanation of the process (other than the normal OS invitation to sit in circle) there was no visible sign of improved performance, so far as I could see, and in fact there was some indication of a decline. Now, almost 30 years into the experiment I also have to say that my most difficult groups, without exception, were those composed of The Professionals. Those people who made it their business to THINK about all the details (facilitators, systems theorists, etc.). Eventually even these folks “got with the program” and everything happened just as it usually does in Open Space. But the shift occurred, as I saw it, only when they stopped thinking about it. I think there may be a lesson here. Engaging complexity is not primarily a rational act. Even though complexity is a basic existential concern for all of us, right up there with Death – the resolution to our dilemma will not be found through rational enterprise (thinking about it). A major frustration for us all! But the good news is that we do not have to travel that route. Indeed we really don’t have to travel at all. We’re already there! Proof is a slippery word, but I think it fair to say that the 30 year Natural Experiment of Open Space has rendered a verdict almost as good. Highly Probable. Given our experience of 1000’s of groups effectively dealing with complex, conflicted, inflammable issues prepared only by a 10-15 minute invitation/introduction...It is highly probable that the essential skills and mechanisms were already present within the group prior to their arrival at the circle. In short they were “already there.” No need to think about it. Just Do it! Once done, it is then time for rational reflection. In truth our innate capacity for dealing with complexity, once awakened, flows so seamlessly that most people hardly notice. At the end of every Open Space in my experience the people evidenced some real sense of joy, satisfaction, completion... and little appreciation of how it all happened. It just was. That is all they know, and all they care to know. That status may be more than sufficient in the moment, but it is also true that rational reflection in all its forms (model building, data collection, etc) can enhance the appreciation, and deepen the experience. As one who has spent a lifetime doing all that “rational activity” from model building to data collection (well, story collection J), I can truly appreciate and applaud the effort. Useful undertaking, I think. BUT none of that can hold a candle to the profound sense of wonder and awe that I experience in the silence of my not-knowing. That is truly wonderful. Harrison Winter Address 7808 River Falls Drive Potomac, MD 20854 301-365-2093 Summer Address 189 Beaucaire Ave. Camden, ME 04843 207-763-3261 Websites <http://%20www.openspaceworld.com> www.openspaceworld.com <http://www.ho-image.com> www.ho-image.com OSLIST To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of OSLIST Go to: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org> http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org _______________________________________________ OSList mailing list To post send emails to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org _______________________________________________ OSList mailing list To post send emails to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org
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