TO: Larry Peterson, Peg Holman, Marcelle Bastianello, and Harrison Owen
FROM: Marlene Daniel
SUBJECT: My attempt to make my voice present at the Open Space Research
gathering later this week, a subject for which I have great passion and
personal responsibility
Please make this available as you see/feel/smell would be most useful.
I have summarized my Ph.D. dissertation research on Open Space in 3 pages below.
The first paragraphs may be useful, with modifications as you collectively see
fit, for the Open Space Home Page Research blurb. What do you think?
Conversation
about this is invited. Please send me what gets generated at the gathering. I
will
miss seeing everyone. I am very excited about my work with clients that
teaches me
daily.
Why Research on Open Space is Important in Learning to Be Organized Now
The technological advances that pull organizations to continuously
change
also remove walls and boundaries, connecting us globally. In the Information
Age of
the world wide web, what it means to be organized must fundamentally alter.
Research
exploring Open Space as a culture is useful to redefine what constitutes being
organized in a world characterized by interconnectedness and interdependency.
In the
old understanding of hierarchies, organizations were perceived as fairly rigid
structures of domination and control, where the sum of the parts was understood
to
equal the whole. Research approaches consistent with this mechanistic world
view also
dissected components into parts to understand wholes. The first research on
Open Space
(Daniel, 1994) showed that Open Space could not be understood by dissecting
parts.
Instead, Open Space must be understood in terms of the whole context of
multi-leveled
natural order, as connectedness and interrelationships, as interdependence.
This
matches the view of life discussed by Capra (1996) as "the web of life",
understanding
living systems as interconnected networks. Therefore, my premise is that
researching
Open Space is useful to contribute to the growing body of knowledge that
explores
organizations as self-organizing living systems.
Open Space also capitalizes on emerging trends today. Open Space
introduces organizations to a simpler, more effective way of organizing that
engages
the fullest intelligence of all its people. Open Space employs people's desire
to
contribute, learn, and find meaning. In Open Space events people experience
their
organization as a place that can foster wellness, return people to the
experience of
wholeness, and help people experience themselves through their interconnected
networks
of concern. Over ten years of field experiences described by facilitators and
client
leaders demonstrate consistent outcomes from investing in Open Space events.
Yet
research on Open Space is important beyond "proving" that Open Space events
exceed
expectations for team building, creative problem solving, introducing cross
functional
teams, and strategic planning. This we already know. [And those that don't
know this
won't be convinced by anything that a biased group of Open Space facilitators
construct.]
Instead, research on Open Space is important to learn more about fostering
continuous
change in organizations. Ethics, passion, and compassion blend in Open Space.
What
organization today wouldn't benefit from being more open, resilient, and
flexible?
In the Information Age, success depends on an organization's
ability to
capitalize on emerging opportunities through learning new ways of working
together.
Greater flexibility and responsiveness in our organizations is critical to
organizing
for continuous change. Yet current models employed by organizations are
organized for
stability. It is counterintuitive to respond to the complex pressures on
organizations
today by letting go of control and opening space. By opening space, the
creative
leadership and inspiration critical to sustain high performance emerges.
Research on
Open Space could help us learn about patterns of networks, about organizations
in far-from-
equilibrium states, and about the interconnectedness of the system's components
which
results in feedback loops. The questions worthy of research dollars are the
ones no one
knows answers to yet, explored in a spirit of collaborative inquiry.
Recommendation for Further Research: Replicating Marlene Daniel's 1994 Study
I recommend that the following definition of Capra's for
self-organization
be used as the theory base to research the impact of opening space in
organizations.
Capra defines self-organization as "the spontaneous emergence of new structures
and new
forms of behavior in open systems far-from-equilibrium, characterized by
internal
feedback loops
. . ." (Capra, 1996, p.85). The theory of self-organization claims that a
constant
flow of energy is necessary through the system for self-organization to take
place.
This theory could be applied to understanding Open Space events as an
introduction
into a novel culture, where ethnographic interviews would be conducted before,
during,
immediately following, and then 6 months after an event exploring broad
questions such
as: "What is happening here?" In studying organizations over time, researchers
might
learn to explain why in some organizations, the original open space event is a
catalyst that transforms the organization while for other organizations the
event
is productive and a landmark, yet the organization goes back a few months later
to
a state of equilibrium. What is necessary to keep an organization in far-from-
equilibrium states long enough to evolve fundamentally?
An interesting research question that would indicate if the Open
Space
produced self-organization for the system might be: During and after the Open
Space
event as described by participants, does the organization create novel
structures and
new modes of behavior in the process of developing, learning, and evolving? If
not,
was the organization in a state of equilibrium before the event? Can Open
Space be a
way to shift an organization into a far-from-equilibrium state? Whatever is
learned
about Open Space applying the theory of self-organization will help
organizations that
have invested in change efforts such as Continuous Process Improvement (CPI)
and Total
Quality (TQM). Perhaps the reason so many of the expensive and long TQ
implementation
methods failed was that the cultural shift was attempted while maintaining
equilibrium.
The research project conducted by Marlene Daniel (1994) showed that
participants of an Open Space event made new connections, shared information
across
previous impenetrable boundaries, and created innovative solutions to issues
through
exploring interdependencies and the inherent strength of wholeness.
Effectiveness
came from letting go of control, not seeking it, from sharing information, not
hoarding
and protecting it. Fear did not shape actions; passion and personal
responsibility did.
Since organizational change originates when people within the organization
change their
awareness of who they are, Open Space provides the necessary freedom and
openness to
enable people to learn and reflect. In interviews conducted before, during and
after an
Open Space event, participants described their Open Space experience as:
being energizing, free, and open
taking risks, acting with courage (not limited by fear)
acting from personal responsibility
respecting others; appreciating diversity as an asset
sharing information across previous boundaries
experiencing connectedness as one whole community
expressing optimism about the future; that we are the ones to make
the difference
and we are all in this together
Research Methodology
Replicating Marlene's 1994 Rockport study, viewing Open Space as an
initiation into a
culture, would be useful in other sites with different facilitators. [Harrison
was the
facilitator for the Rockport study before doing any evaluation study using
questionnaires.]
From replicating the ethnographic study, the reliability and validity of
a questionnaire would
evolve grounded in the perspective of participants. Otherwise the research
community may find
questionnaires shaped by facilitators of Open Space as invalid. The questions
asked determine
what can be found. Average responses are not as interesting as outliers.
Additional
descriptive studies using ethnographic methods would allow participants to tell
their stories
in their own words, with less researcher bias. Benefit would be derived from
the researcher
consciously clarifying his/her stakes through the process of gathering data.
Having more than
one researcher present on site to observe and interview would add to the
richness of the study.
Multiple researchers could then triangulate, code, and label data following
procedures in Miles
and Huberman(1984) for data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing.
Grounded theory
would be built from the thickly descriptive, contextualized accounts of life
within Open Space.
The broad question for the 1994 study on Open Space was: "What is happening in
this Open Space
meeting?" Additional questions framing the investigation were:
1. What actions and interactions occur?
2. What do these actions and interactions mean to the
participants involved?
3. What patterns and themes emerge in these actions and
interactions?
4. How does what occurs in this context compare to what
participants found in
their organization's culture before the event?
Three months after? Six
months after?
5. How does what occurs in this context compare to what is
found in the
literature on self-organization and on learning
organizations?
Summary
I assert that organizations will need to finance research that
helps them learn to
be more self-organizing. The external demand for continuous change requires
organizations to
become more self-organizing, flexible, resilient Ðalways evolving towards
greater authenticity,
inventiveness, and effectiveness. By opening space, the creative leadership
and inspiration
critical to sustaining high performance emerges. Research on Open Space will
make a unique
contribution.
I will make my research methods and data completely available to
anyone seeking to
replicate the original Open Space research study. Count me on the team to
build a research base
for our continued work with organizations.
From [email protected] Tue Mar 10 12:20:06 1998
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Message-Id: <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 12:20:06 -0500
Reply-To: OSLIST <[email protected]>
To: OSLIST <[email protected]>
From: John Dicus <[email protected]>
Subject: Life Cycle & Sustainability - An Invitation
X-To: [email protected]
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I'd like to invite you to join a continuing in-person exploration into the
concepts of stewardship -- how it might benefit both ourselves and our
organizations. It's one thing to talk about stewardship, yet another to
actually practice it and try to make the necessary shifts.
This time around we'll focus on life-cycle and sustainability -- what it
means -- how to achieve it. Some might think sustainability means
continuing forever without change. More likely it means being flexible and
continuing to adapt to make room for new life. Letting go is not easy.
What needs to be carried forward? What do we need to leave behind?
Twice per year we host an experiential gathering called "Experiences in
Stewardship." It gives us the opportunity to learn while immersed in the
complexity of the human experience. The learning has always surpassed what
we could imagine going in, and these gatherings give us a chance to more
fully understand what it means to work in the organizations we say we want
to "create."
We'll meet April 26-29 at Jiminy Peak in Hancock, MA. If you think you'd
like to join us and help learn more about these important concepts, let me
know. I'd be glad to talk more about this with you or send you some more
information and a personal invitation. You can also read more at
http://www.ourfuture.com.
By Mary Oliver:
To live in this world
You must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends upon it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.
Thanks -- John Dicus
--
John Dicus | Cornerstone Consulting Associates
Providing Experiences In... Teamwork - Systems - Stewardship
[email protected] | http://www.ourfuture.com
800-773-8017 (in US) | 330-725-2728 (voice/fax)
2761 Stiegler Rd, Valley City OH 44280
**Join an Online Dialogue -- [email protected]**
