When my intention is to contribute to transformation on any scale, I look at what I can do to be a contributing condition for its emergence. If transformation is a self-organizing process, it comes about through the synergy of our individual contributions: no one makes it possible. From no thing comes every thing.
thanks, Jack _______________________________________________ Jack Ricchiuto / 216.288.9431 web: http://www.designinglife.com/ <http://www.designinglife.com/> blog: http://www.gassho.blogspot.com/ <http://www.gassho.blogspot.com/> -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu]On Behalf Of Harrison Owen Sent: Saturday, March 01, 2003 9:18 AM To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Subject: Re: Request for Proposal At 09:29 PM 2/28/2003 +0100, Michael Pannwitz wrote: Transformation happens fairly independent of the will of the people or the will of an organisation. I have not experienced people or organisations "will" transformation as little as I have seen people or organisations doing grief work. What I have seen is people and organisations navigate in transformation and that grief works. So my way of putting it would be "I believe I can attempt to hold time and space for people to navigate transformation" My feelings precisely. Ever since we invented the notion of Organization Transformation, back in the early '80s -- there has been an ongoing debate. Some of my colleagues felt that Transformation was something you "did" to an organization -- as in "We will transform our organization." Lots of folks made much effort to achieve all that, but frankly I have never been convinced. For me Transformation (of whatever sort) is something that happens. Indeed it has been happening for at least 13.7 billion years -- in short for a long time before we ever put in an appearance. And truthfully, it has done quite well without our help. But there are some rough points, for sure. It seems that Transformation inevitably requires the ending of one form as a new forms appear. The word "ending" has a nice neutral tone to it -- but we experience it as death or dying. Not a nice thing. But we do have a way of dealing with all that pain and destruction, and it is called Griefwork. And we didn't invent that either. And so from where I sit, the fundamental engines of transformation (self-organization and Griefwork) operate, have operated, and continue to operate with, or without, our permission. But we can certainly help along the way. And here Michael's words, "I believe I can attempt to hold time and space for people to navigate transformation" hit the nail exactly on the head, as far as I am concerned. All of this has more than an academic ring to it for me at the moment. One more time our world is transforming. It is a given (and I really think it is a "given") that people will die, along with ways of life, businesses, and probably countries. Some of it is pathetically funny, particularly the rank arrogance of my President, who seems to think he is in charge. We may all end up on a charred piece of solar driftwood, otherwise knows as planet Earth. That would definitely be an ending -- and also a transformation. At such a time, it may be useful to remember that the demise of planet Earth has been in the cards since the moment of its creation. And if we don't do it do it to ourselves, it will happen anyhow, perhaps the unintended consequence of a close encounter of the cataclysmic sort should a wandering asteroid bump into us. But no matter the outcome, Michael's words constitute useful counsel. "I believe I can attempt to hold time and space for people to navigate transformation" I think this is what we all can do. It is certainly my mission of the moment. Harrison Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Drive Potomac, MD 20854 USA phone 301-365-2093 Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com <http://www.openspaceworld.com/> Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org <http://www.openspaceworld.org/> Personal website http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu, Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu, Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
