Hello Michael, Birgitt and all, I have been reading this topic with great interest. And part of what I read here stayed with me for a bit and I felt I wanted to respond. Michael, if I read this correctly, below you suggest that someone who has chosen not to join the wiki sites has made a choice to be separate. That is the part that sat with me the most.
I love this list and I feel a sense of connectedness with kindred spirits who are fellow students of organizational development, of participatory methods, of finding our own ways to support others and supporting each other. My days are full of play, fuliflling work, the thrill of partnership, magical moments, and I don't always chose to log in to several different sites to see what is going on -- this site is always easy to take part in, read, surf, and post if we chose to. That is why this dialogue was of interest to me, I think, as I feel a sense of loss if some of the most vocal on this list choose to move some of the delicious dialogue somewhere else. I also appreciate some of the virtues of the wiki sites as you have generously shared with us, as well as the work you've put into them. I don't see this as anyone being right or wrong. My view of this group is a very brave group of people sharing insights, vulnerability, dreams -- high learning and high play. I have not taken the time to post to the other sites and read them to a large degree. In so doing, I have not chosen to be separate. Exactly the opposite, I want what I think most of us here want -- to learn, to listen, to explore, to meet others, to have our thoughts challenged, to be acknowledged and valued for who we are, to expand out hearts and minds. Thanks again for this dialogue and for all the voices on this list -- vocal and silent! with kindest regards, Judi Richardson -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of Michael Herman Sent: Friday, August 01, 2003 7:26 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: wiki sites and online opening Dear Birgitt, and all... I have done my very best to answer your questions about the websites. I want very much for you and everyone to understand what we are making and inviting in there. This is why I continue to respond to you here now. Also, because this is its own kind of opening and I'm willing to dare working it out on this little stage of ours. I'm not at all sure that's helpful to everyone on this list, to me, or even to you, but here I go anyway, taking that chance. The following statements are direct. This is because you have said a number of direct and not-so-direct things that are just not true. Again, I want to be very clear about these things, so that everyone can understand that they are most welcome to join in what is happening in the websites. I am glad to have this conversation continue, but I have asked that it continue as part of the work of the http://www.openspaceworld.NET website. If it were part of that site, our writing would necessarily be shaping that site. It would be part of that record. It would be a demonstration of how to clarify givens, if that is what we are doing. As you choose to have it here, you necessarily separate yourself from that work. Not my choice, but yours, to be separate. To be separate is okay. To be vocal is okay. To be separate and vocal does nothing to support the sites, which is what I'm most interested in now. In continuing here, you have made a number of assumptions and statements that are not quite correct and might add to any confusion about the sites. What follows here, in this space you've chosen, is a direct response to and clarification of those assumptions. I want to say up front that these statements are not directed at YOU... they are directed at your assumptions. Perhaps you will not like some of these statements. Unfortunately, that does not make them less true. Overall, the thing I am not sure about is this: Are you wanting to know what IS, or are you wanting to CHANGE what is? I can help you with the first one, and will work long and hard to do so. Have already. The second one, however, is beyond me. All that said, here is the most careful, direct updating of what I know about these sites. To the extent that you are wanting to know what the givens are, this may be helpful in updating and clarifying some of your assumptions. To the extent that you really don't like what the givens are, I suppose this new reply will continue to confound. I can only hope you will choose the former. So here goes... -- 1. You have heard clearly that the wiki websites are "like an OST meeting" but you seem to assume that means that everything about the site can be managed like you would manage an OST meeting. I disagree. The websites were likened to an OST meeting, but the actual invitation was to come and work on a website. All metaphors have limits. That doesn't make them wrong. It makes them metaphors. I am sorry if this metaphor isn't as useful for you as we'd hoped it would be. The sites are like an OST meeting, like OST breakout sessions, like OST proceedings, like OST invitation, like the Open Space we live in, and they are totally different, online and ongoing and on display. 2. You say our theme is: "an Open Space for OST practitioners..." This is not true. The theme and subject of the message was "A Call for (online) Leaders" and the call was to work on a website that would then call more leaders. The invitation is to self-selected leaders to come work and play in a wiki web and in so doing make it more inviting for others. The invitation is to come unfold an unfolding. 3. You say the right community to discuss the website work IS the OSLIST. I disagree, and I'm the convener of this one, so it's my right to name the meeting place and time. The right community to discuss/make the websites IS that group that IS WILLING to show up IN the sites to do the work of growing and maintaining the sites. The discussion is not open to everyone on the list -- the discussion is open to ANYONE on the list who will visit and post (will do the work) at the site. If you will not post to the website, then by definition you are not the right people give it shape. And that is neither good or bad, right or wrong... it just is. There is much passion for OST and the sites lurking on the OSLIST... but we run on passion AND responsibility. It is simply not fair (and is totally inconsistent with our practice) to call the entire structure of the sites into question if you are not also showing up to do the work of restructuring. And the surest sign of willingness to show up, is showing up. It's the responsible thing to do with our passion. 4. You say that you do not use the word practitioner and that our use of the word in this situation is undemocratic. You imply that this decision was made by someone with power and that that person is/was not you. I disagree. You ARE an important leader in this community and it was YOU who first used the word "practitioner" to describe US... all of US... way back in 1998. YOU were the first person to EVER post the word practitioner to the OSLIST. 5. You question the decision by the OSI-US board to fund the site over the last several years. You imply that you have been left out of that decision or that others would use power in damaging ways. I disagree. The OSI board is an open group, elected through self-selection and showing up for meetings (monthly conference calls and annual meetings at OSONOS) and doing the work of the board. If you'd have shown up for that work, you would have been part of those discussions. The funding question was indeed very open, and now is quite closed. I think it's a bit tenous for the private owner of OpenSpaceTechnology.COM to start throwing undemocratic power bricks. 6. You say that you want to go back and explore some other core givens. I think this is just not possible. Or maybe I am just not interested. I know I'm not interested in doing on this LIST. What's done is done. Whatever happens is the only thing that could have. The invitation is to go forward, from what IS now. 7. You say that you respect that I do not want to continue this here. And yet I see you do just that. For whatever it's worth, I do not experience this latest round as respect or blessing. Are you willing to post a message here that wishes this work well even if it is not what you want? Are you willing to come join us in the wiki? How can we end this thread in a way that we both experience as respectful and blessing? 8. You announce (rather loudly, i think) here that you are not going to participate in the sites. You say this as if that mattered. And, with all due respect and gratitude for all of your contributing to the OST story to date, it really doesn't matter if you participate or not. Anyone can participate and nobody has to. That's what we say. That's the beauty of what we do. It really doesn't matter if any ONE of us participates. Something bigger is going on. Everyone is welcome. The space is open. The law of two feet applies. And of course, if everyone in an Open Space announced all the sessions they were NOT going to attend, the meetings would never get started. 9. You say that the greatest weakness of the site is its open structure. I think you're quite right about this, but HALF right, at best. The open structure is also its greatest strength and potential. That potential can only be realized by a community of people who show up there, check for recent changes, and keep the place tidy in the aftermath of new users who make little mistakes and of would-be vandals who change things. I visit the site EVERY DAY... i monitor EVERY CHANGE... if anyone went in and changed your words, I would see it and I would put it back. All changes are logged and can be repaired where damage occurs. There is no risk, but there is also some real work in the monitoring and maintaining such a dynamic, open site. There is a small group of us now doing that work. We have invited you and others to help us. To the extent that others do show up, the site will get bigger and stronger and more stable and secure. This is why we want you and everyone to show up and play with us as much as is easy and helpful for them. What's more, the open structure of the sites is perhaps the best possible way to SHOW the trust, openess, movement, space, spirit that we are inviting them into in the meetings we facilitate. And that is really what the .NET space is about... demonstrating and showcasing this so-called practice of peace. It's a place for leaders to lead by example, to show up and invite others to show up too. Of course, there is some confusion and chaos and even some conflicting views... all of which is reflected in the uncertainty of how the new site works and open structures will lead us. I don't claim to know the answers or the right way. I only know the location: http://www.openspaceworld.NET. Once again, I will suggest that all of this is why it is important for you and others to join us in this new space. Wiki IS like open space in the sense that we can only really understand it by jumping in. Not everyone needs to jump in. But everyone is welcome to jump in. And those who do jump in, will learn how it works. And in the jumping, they also will shape what it is and show the rest of us more of what is possible. And so I say again, to you and everyone, the .NET space is open... for questions, projects, issues, chaos, confusion, conflict, peace, website development, stories archiving, resource development and anything else that online leaders will care enough to come and post and create. It's not a replacement for the OSLIST, nor can it be replaced by conversation here. It is an opening and deepening and demonstrating of what we are already doing here AND in our individual work. A number of things already have begun at http://www.openspaceworld.net. The learning and contributing and maintaining and shaping are beginning to unfold together. Unfolding together. I think there must be a poem in that somewhere.... but I'll leave that part to the laureates among us. In the meantime, please join us at http://www.openspaceworld.net! Michael Herman -- Birgitt wrote: Dear Michael (Herman) I thank you for your repsonse to my inquiries about the wiki site at www.openspaceworld.net . I respect that you do not want to continue this conversation here, and yet it it the OS list that has been a community to me for 6 years and it is where I choose to reply to you. If I understand you correctly, you have suggested that the wiki site is like an OST meeting, you have stated the theme: an Open Space for OST practitioners and their projects and you have stated that the givens can be sorted out by participating within the wiki site the same as you would have your participants sort out the givens within an OST meeting. My inquiries on this list came to you because my first response to your invitation was great excitement, the desire to assist you and the others involved with this endeavour, the play and this part of the growth of OST. However, I believe in managing my energy so that I am in a state of joy as much as possible. And so, I sought clarification about what it is that I am being invited into. When I facilitate OST meetings, I too work with my clients to get the theme right. AND I work with them BEFORE the meeting to get the core givens "out on the table" and not in the realm of implicit assumptions. I do this so that people can make an informed decision about what they are consenting to participate in and to contribute their precious life force energy to. I think informed consent is important. And so, I was seeking the theme and the givens from you so that I could make my decision. If my decision was yes, I would work diligently from my life force energy. When I work at something I put a lot of me into it. And so, my choice is to not enter the wiki site (or OST meeting) even for this discussion because in my mind and heart, I have not yet accepted the invitation to be there. So now about the theme. Should I accept the invitation or not based on the theme? The word "practitioners" in the theme says to me that this wiki site (OST meeting) is not for me because I do not see myself as a practitioner. I do not want to be seen by my clients, as someone who is "practicing". They pay me for working with OST, they pay me for having knowledge, doing and being. And so the theme of the meeting with the word "practitioner" stops me from participating. (And in answer to your question, I do not object to this word being use within the site because each person within the site works from what they believe in--I simply struggle with it's use in the theme). When I asked about this, you replied that it is the accepted word in the OST community because it has been around since 1999 and no one has disagreed with it. For me, silence does not mean consent. Nor does it mean consent that this is now how we as facilitators of OST present ourselves to the world. I thought, it would have been more democratic if Michael and those working on these sites that represent the OST community would have listed the "givens" they intend to work with/from and given the community a chance to say, "yes" this is a "given" for us and "no", this is only an assumption made and it is not valid for us in how we want to present ourselves to the world. And then I thought, who is the OST community that would have been the right one to be in on the discussion. And in my mind, that is the community of the OST list. Would we have agreed with -the word practitioner to represent us -that the site be funded by OSI US who might now through the funding be in a position of power with the site that should be representing us all -the greatest weakness in the site which is that anyone in the world who is on the internet can go in and change words and any one of us can find ourselves mis-represented--and maybe even have our mis-represented words quoted in books and have our professional reputations harmed ? The majority on the list may have agreed with all of this, but we were not given the opportunity to express how we wanted to be represented. IF www.openspaceworld.org and .net were private sites, none of the above would be a concern to me. But they are not private sites--they are intended to represent this OST community to the world. Even yesterday, with the posting that Alan Stewart made about the Faciliator's Master Journal site, the journal is about OST and the journal directs its 8,000 readers to www.openspaceworld.org as the way to find out about OST. And so I am wondering Michael if there is still a chance to back this up a bit, get agreement on the theme and the core givens within the OST community, and have a democratic process about these very important websites that you and the others you work with have developed. Blessings to you and to all with whom you make Genuine Contact, Birgitt Birgitt Williams of Dalar International Consultancy www.dalarinternational.com View the calendar for upcoming training in the Organizational Health and Balance series of workshops featuring the Genuine ContactÔ program at http://www.openspacetechnology.com/training.html We invite you to join the Genuine Contact list serve at http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/genuinecontact Contact information for Dalar International Consultancy: Po Box 19373, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA 27619 Raleigh, North Carolina USA Phone: 919-522-7750 Fax: 919-870-6599 As mentors to leaders and organizations we assist you in going beyond what has been before. We provide inspirational and practical how to guidance for leaders who want to achieve healthy and balanced organizations to produce exciting, tangible results for the organization and for its people. Our approach is holistic, creating a better future by tapping into ancient wisdom. We believe that Spirit matters and people are precious. We know that organizations incorporating these values have exciting, tangible results including wealth, prosperity, and abundance. These organizations tend to their health and balance on a daily basis. -- 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
