Michael, the article you wrote in your notebook at http://www.globalchicago.net. regarding Christopher Alexander 's work and complexity and our understanding of it in OST is exceptionally good. Well done and thank you!
in the earlier days of the list, some of us participated in a discussion of Christopher Alexander's work and the relationship that we saw with what happened in OST. There may be something in the archives of interest to you. I too was very much influenced by his work (thanks to landscape architect Virginia Burt) and my thinking about OST. There is important foundational material for me in his book of Pattern Language and his book The Timeless Way of Building. Both are in our bibliography for the Genuine Contact program. Pg 101 from the Timeless Way, in his chapter on Patterns which are alive "The specific patterns out of which a building or town is made may be alive or dead. To the extent that they are alive, they let our inner forces loose, and set us free; but when they are dead they keep us locked in inner conflict." And now an excerpt from a piece I have been writing about the Conscious Open Space Organization: "What is a Conscious Open Space Organization? A Conscious Open Space Organization is alive, knows that it is alive, and chooses to nurture and strengthen its life for optimal performance. It is able to make the most of its resources including its great potential, infinite possibilities, wisdom from intellectual and intuitive knowledge, self managed work and work/project teams, inspiration, creativity, solutions, innovations, imagination, inspiration, insights, resolution, commitment, and focused action. It creates focal points and the space needed for Spirit to do its work and the people to develop mastery with their work. It uses a blending of simple methods and frameworks to assist in creating the focal points and space for optimal performance. These simple methods and frameworks are easy to learn and are duplicable throughout the organization. Every Conscious Open Space Organization is different and has different amounts of evident open space for potential and possibilities to be worked with. In some, such as a necessarily hierarchical organization such as the police or military, the Conscious Open Space Organization has minimal evidence of where the space for inspiration is open. In others, there are very few “givens” or constraints, and the evident amount of space open for inspiration, innovation and so on is large." And Reinhard, congratulations on your birthday of Visuelle Protokolle Blessings to you and to all with whom you make Genuine Contact, Birgitt Birgitt Williams of Dalar International Consultancy http://www.dalarinternational.com <http://www.dalarinternational.com/> Mentoring for Organizational Effectiveness view the calendar for upcoming training at http://www.openspacetechnology.com/training.html <http://www.openspacetechnology.com/training.html> We invite you to join the list serve at http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/genuinecontact Mailing address: Po Box 19373, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA 27619 Raleigh, North Carolina USA Phone: 919-522-7750 Fax: 919-870-6599 "I believe that Spirit matters and people are precious. I know that organizations incorporating these values have exciting, tangible results including wealth, prosperity, and abundance. Daily, these organizations attend to their health and balance. Participating in the Genuine Contact program takes you on a learning journey of HOW to achieve the healthy and balanced organization (the conscious Open Space Organization).” Birgitt Williams, Dalar International Consultancy -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of Visuelle Protokolle Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2003 6:10 AM To: [email protected] Subject: AW: Pattern Languages hi Michael and all, what a surprise, and a double one! Not only was Christopher Alexanders' work one of the most important influences for my previous work as an architect and facility programmer (and I translated big parts of 'A Pattern Language' into German) - and I used his patterns for my work, especially for my second home in Tuscany Italy very successfully - but also - and that is nearer to my presence and to my heart - the theme of patterns is directly connected with our present work as Visual Facilitators. Two weeks ago we celebrated our fifth anniversary as VISUELLE PROTOKOLLE with a little meeting for facilitators, customers and friends here in Munich. We were happy that among other beautiful people David Sibbet, president of the 'Grove Consultants International' in San Francisco, the oldest and biggest company doing visual facilitation, came to visit us. David stayed for another day of friendly talks and showing Munich. And then he said: What you do with your drawings in a meeting is something different than what others do, and you should think of a new name for it! You draw, what people say, and also what they do not say, but feel, and touch something insides them, what makes things clear in a second, brings people to a common understanding, and makes them smile, because you touched them in their center. He went on speaking about the brain and where we store words and pictures and experiences, and then he took a pencil and wrote: A B C and said: that means ART and BUSINESS and CULTURAL REPATTERNING ! That is what you do, he said. And he gave us something to chew on, I tell you. I looked up the unknown word REPATTERNING in the web, and found it is used for therapies, mainly 'Holographic Repatterning', a holistic approach, with many links to Meditation, Bach Flowers, Yoga etc., and an International Association. And of course I thought of C. Alexanders Patterns immediately, and found out that David knew about it. Michael, in the texts you provide - what a gift for us, to prepare so many links and ideas and treasures!!!! you cited Alexander with the word 'Reconfigure'. I wonder wether that's the same ... I will dive into your treasures a lot more, I promise, and follow this exiting thread with love and curiosity! Reinhard VISUELLE PROTOKOLLE Kuchenmueller & Dr.Stifel Munich Germany Tel: +49-89-202 447 48 http://www.visuelle-protokolle.de hi all... anybody here on the list done any thinking about how ost syncs up with the work on pattern languages and the nature of order by chris alexander and the agile/xp software development crowd? seems to directly parallel complexity and ost work we usually talk about here. i've written a paper on this today that is in the Notebook at http://www.globalchicago.net. the paper that gave rise to this paper of mine is just fascinating, talking about using software, and the "wholeness and life in it" as the basis for moving human attention in the direction of creating a more Living World. talk of Centers seems to parallel what you have called Myth, Harrison. design and development process is labelled as self-preserving and self-enhancing transformation. wondering if there aren't more bridges to be found here. might be of interest in the Plexus conversations. michael herman -- Michael Herman Michael Herman Associates 300 West North Avenue #1105 Chicago IL 60610 USA (312) 280-7838 http://www.michaelherman.com - consulting & publications http://www.globalchicago.net - laboratory & playground http://www.openspaceworld.org - worldwide open space ...inviting organization into movement * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html --- Incoming mail is certified Virus Free. 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