-----Oorspronkelijk bericht----- Van: OSLIST [mailto:osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu]Namens Harrison Owen Verzonden: 12 december 2001 17:52 Aan: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Onderwerp: Re: Self-Organization???? OS just one of 18?
All of which poses an interesting question -- Does everybody have to go into The Void in order to experience/understand Open Space? I guess the answer is Yes and No -- it is all about levels. It is quite possible to just "do" Open Space. No explanation needed or wanted. Or you could dig a little deeper into the question -- Why the Hell does the damn stuff work -- when everything (well almost) in our training and experience says that it couldn't and shouldn't? And I think some sort of an answer starts to emerge when we open up the discussion to include Self-Organizing systems. But is that all there is? to which I must answer, No we are just getting started -- and it is off to The Void. Is there anything else? Probably. It might just be pure nothingness... Now try that for a sales pitch in the The Corporate Board Room! The levels, yes. This is one of the things I'm trying to get in the attention. Not as an explanation or a way for convincing, but that there is some powerful essence that can be discovered keeping in mind what a real Open Space is: to respect the Space of the others and to leave it up to their choice what level they would like to go in to. The notion of levels is useful to me (In my text I used two sides of Open Space, but "levels" feels as a better word). And important to learn that it's a good thing to keep all levels open and not to interfere with someone's choice. (Not to interfere is not that easy, as we all know) Still, like the way of the invitation before an Open Space meeting, I think that it is useful to have a notion of "levels" and that it is possible to invite also to the other level, maybe just by the way the facilitator is present. In a family or organization constellation the level of the communication canal to what is called "systemic energy" (I can't explain this word for now, it is something like the flow which deeply leads and connects us in our life) has to be opened. There is no choice here: As a participant you don't have to be experienced, but connecting to this level is needed for this work. But here explanation in words is the same as to explain what Open Space is: just experience it and you know what it is. Absolutely! Which is why it has always seemed to me that anybody with a good head and a good heart can"do" Open Space, but it probably takes a life time to get to the bottom of things. I'm writing an article on comparing Open Space and Organization Constellation but it's not ready yet. I will look forward to seeing it. Harrison This invitation will stimulate me to write it, first in Dutch and then in English, it is in my heart, and will definitely come out. I got the idea the first time when I did the training of Birgitt in Holland in may this year, but just now is the time to finish it. Beside my article I would really recommend to read or if possible: experience, something about the constellation work of Bert Hellinger. He is a German, but has done a lot of constellations in English and there are also videos available in English, however the most of them are about family constellations. Organization Constellations is still a very young field. Books in English are: "Love's hidden symmetry" (ISBN 1-891944-00-2) and "Acknowledging what is" (ISBN 1-891944-32-0) His website is: www.hellinger.com Greetings, Michaël _______________________ Michaël Molenaar Tilburg - Holland michael.molen...@wxs.nl _______________________