I'm fascinated with Chris & Caitlin's homeopathy metaphor. Chris wrote that OST
> introduces very small amounts of "what ails > you" into the system and lets the system reconnect to itself, > stimulating its own healing response. I lack the concepts & language to talk about healing processes, and I wonder: If OST raises consciousness within the "parts" of a living system about the nature of the "whole"...is there a body-healing analogy for this? How is the development of an expanded view of our identity healing? Does a healthy liver cell know what a healthy brain cell is doing...? Does an unhealthy cell experience itself as all alone? It seems to me that some things have to happen before a "homeopathic moment": consciousness of freedom, consciousness of belonging and trust within and without. A major homeopathic (what ails us) moment is the dead moose, and the dead moose doesn't appear in a healing-inducing form at the very beginning - it takes a little time and a little transformation before the system (we) reveals & articulates to itself (ourselves) the crux of what ails us... and when we do, everyone sure knows that it's not time to go home yet. Seen as a natural healing process, I can see why longer OSTs are required for acute illness (the dead moose won't show up otherwise), and why integrating OST as a systemic long-term process is an essential healing path...? A dose of "what ails us" is one central event of an unfolding larger process that has its own time, rhythm, & conditions...? Chris Weaver > From: Chris Corrigan <[email protected]> > Reply-To: [email protected] > Date: Fri, 30 May 2003 10:08:10 -0700 > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [OSLIST] Open Space ,Self-Organizing Systems, and The Plexus > Institute > > Hey folks: > > My partner Caitlin and I were having a discussion about this stuff over > supper last night, and I was left with an enduring metaphor for what > Open Space does in relation to orthodox organizational development. > > We were talking about healing systems and noting that OST tends to work > like a homeopathic intervention into a system, where the cure comes from > the disease. That is, OST introduces very small amounts of "what ails > you" into the system and lets the system reconnect to itself, > stimulating its own healing response. It does this by, as Michael so > beautifully wrote providing the "opportunity to look into what is. to > deal with it directly, rather than playing cat and mouse with its > shadows." OST provides the opportunity for the system to be stimulated > into healing by exposing it to a minute dose of what is ailing it, > whatever that is. Building peaceful peace movements is a great example. > We are not saying that peace movements are violent, but we are implying > that they are not as advertised. Convening an OST around that topic > introduces the possibility that we can get better by injecting the > systems with a little shocking dose of its own reality. Like > homeopathic medicine, the smaller the dose, the more potent it is. One > less thing to do becomes one more powerful magnitude of healing. > > In allopathic medicine, where the cure is the opposite of the disease, > diagnostics leads to treatment. Allopathic medicine, the standard > western model, leaves very little room for actual healing (healing is > usually in the province of folks other than medical doctors: nurses, > counselors, family members), and focuses more on treatment of the > disease. It has its parallels in OD as large consulting firms come in > to surgically remove the problem, perhaps by cutting out a whole > corporate division. Rather than leading to healing, this solves the > problem ("the patient has stopped bleeding") but can set up conditions > for toxic leadership and emotions to flow from the bloodied stumps. Who > comes in to "heal" the organization in these cases? A very different > type of person with very different process looks after that, just like > in the allopathic medical model. > > OST is not the be all and end all of organizational healing, but it does > seem to me to take that critically divergent path. The Plexus folks are > composed of a lot of medical practitioners and they might find this > metaphor both compelling and controversial, in a good way. > > Cheers, > > Chris > > --- > CHRIS CORRIGAN > Bowen Island, BC, Canada > http://www.chriscorrigan.com > [email protected] > > (604) 947-9236 * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
