At 07:52 AM 8/17/00 -0400, Birgitt wrote: Jeff, going back to Harrison's training manual as one source, pg 29 "In the Beginning was Nothing...An Open Space for the Dance of Chaos and Order Dance of Shiva The flow of the Tao The affirmation and negation of the Buddha"
and then he goes on with "A Modern Version...Complex Adaptive System with a picture of Chaos and Order and the quote of "Order for Free" **************************************** Birgitt had me here for a moment -- "Training Manual??? -- a book I was going to write???? Then I got it figured. She had to be talking about the overheads I used in the training program -- which were printed up for all participants. Anyhow, the points she raises are very valid -- in my view. Open Space Technology is very simply a window through which we and others can see/experience what is already there. Nothing is added. Nothing is created -- it already is. On this point, I have always been uncomfortable when folks say that I "created" OST. Stumbled upon is more accurate, if contemplating some way out of yet another meeting in the bottom of several martinis -- qualifies as stumbling. But the core of my work, and I guess I would think, the core of all of our work -- is the journey of transformation which takes place in the Open Space of our universe. OST was just a funny/wonderful thing that happened along the way. Starting in the early '60s with a dissertation carrying the sub-title "Chaos, Order and the Creative Process, " through the "invention" of Organization Transformation and the convening of the The First International Symposium on Organization Transformation (1983), and the publication of my first book, "Spirit: Transformation and Development in Organizations" (1985 -- but written in 1981) -- I have been pretty thoroughly hooked. Not that my addiction need become everybodys' , but there has never been any question in my mind as to which was the horse and which was the cart. And to bring it all to the present moment, my new effort, "The Power of Spirit: How Organizations Transform," makes explicit whatever may have been implicit to this point. OST is vehicle and a natural laboratory in which we can experience and experiment with our on-going journey of Transformation. But the main event is Transformation, and my words for the venue have been Open Space -- a designation which showed up well before OST appeared in the Beefeaters. So that is where I sit, which certainly doesn't make it right... Harrison Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Drive Potomac, MD 20854 USA phone 301-469-9269 fax 301-983-9314 Summer Phone 207-763-3261 Summer Address 189 Beaucaire Ave. Camden, ME 04843 website www.mindspring.com/~owenhh Open Space Institute website www.openspaceworld.org
