Larry sniffled through a cold: ---
"As for Ongoing Open Space always working. The relationship of an Open Space Technology event to an ongoing organizational form is the learning journey I am on with others. Large, complex, hierarchical organizations will not become OS organizations because of an event or a series of events. It can enable such an organization to experience "flow" to function at another level. But it does not eliminate the hierarchy or the need for it in that organization. It can "transcend and include". But include means the best of what has worked in the past (whatever happened) to get that organization where it is. It takes a shift to another level of consciousness, culture, behaviour and system interaction -- all levels and all quadrants for an existing complex organization to become an OSO. They are not there yet, most of us are not either -- whatever happens is the only thing that could've." --- I want to pry around this include and transcend thing a little. I really believe that this true, that as an organization evolves, it includes and transcends previous levels of its life, all quadrants, all levels. Ken Wilber's notion of evolution also involves "differentiation" which is the point at which a system frees it self from its current level and ascends to a new level. Once there, it integrates itself with its new environment, by including the previous levels and incorporating the differentiation in a transcendent move. What I am wondering about is whether or not this is a value neutral process. In other words, does the evolutionary process that drives "include and transcend" have to be "good?" Or is it "good" BECAUSE it drives the process? What leads me to this thinking is your comment that evolution includes "the best of what has worked in the past." It has been my experience that the stuff that hasn't worked is included too. Evolution in fact, could be thought of as an imperative to go beyond what isn't working, because by definition, what isn't working is causing the organization to be out of synch with its environment. Evolve or die is the choice that confronts creatures in evolutionary processes. What is "now" is everything (what works, what's dysfunctional and what is the seed of transcendence) and that suitcase comes along on every journey. If we invite attention to "now" we invite attention to all of it. In the swirl of chaos that is "now", the good the bad and the ugly, the promise of evolution is always there. Depth and span collude to bring the entire topography of the present to awareness. That's what I am thinking at the moment. Hope you cold is better, 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
