Thank goodness you found the problem...I was beginning to wonder how to live up to my billing from you!
Chris --- CHRIS CORRIGAN Bowen Island, BC, Canada (604) 947-9236 Consultation - Facilitation Open Space Technology Weblog: http://www.chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot Homepage: http://www.chriscorrigan.com [email protected] (604) 947-9236 > -----Original Message----- > From: OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Harrison > Owen > Sent: Sunday, March 14, 2004 7:01 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: Organizations as complex relational processes, narratives and > emergent action (and a story!) > > Well Chris you have been elevated again. But I think I found the > culprit. The Auto-Correct feature on my email software. Doesn't seem to > like "Chris" and adds the "t". The Spirits of Cyberspace rule! > > ho > > Harrison Owen > 7808 River Falls Drive > Potomac, Maryland 20845 > Phone 301-365-2093 > > Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com > Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org > Personal website http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm > [email protected] > To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives Visit: > http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of > Harrison Owen > Sent: Saturday, March 13, 2004 6:27 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: Organizations as complex relational processes, narratives > and emergent action (and a story!) > > Christ -- this is better than reading the NY Sunday Times. It takes a > while, but it is worth it. All the News fit to Print (except what they > made up :-)) > > So -- I'm reading and thinking. More later. > > ho > > Harrison Owen > 7808 River Falls Drive > Potomac, Maryland 20845 > Phone 301-365-2093 > > Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com > Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org > Personal website http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm > [email protected] > To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives Visit: > http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Chris > Corrigan > Sent: Saturday, March 13, 2004 3:41 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Organizations as complex relational processes, narratives and > emergent action (and a story!) > > Okay, a dose of theory here. > > I came across a paper by Frank Smits from Sydney, Australia, courtesy of > the Plexus Institute called How stories affect human action in > organisations, > (http://website.lineone.net/%7efrank.smits/Essays/Stories.htm) last > week. I've had a chance to read it and it posits a number of > interesting points. > > My reading of the paper follows the development of these key ideas: > > > 1. Organizations are not "things" but rather relational processes. > > 2. Human beings use story to represent and understand the patterns of > experience. > > 3. Stories only represent partial versions of reality and so > narrative interpretation is subject to power dynamics. > > 4. Powerful storyteller can make people "captives" in the story; this > is the process of mythmaking. > > 5. "Organisations, in fact the 'organising via relating, exist in > order to 'do something'. Hence somehow, the individuals in the > organisation need to 'act'...if our identity is clear and we are > actively interconnected in interdependent processes that when > information comes available, action can emerge. The information sharing > happens in interactive processes between individuals (either inside or > outside the 'organisation')." > > 6. "In the language of Gover (1996) 'our identities are being > constitutes and reconstituted with their physical, cultural and > historical contexts'. The roots of narratives and identity, he claims, > 'merge, inextricably embedded and nurtured in the soil of human > action'." > > 7. Narratives that resonate with an individual's experience create > meaningful and sustained emergent action. > > 8. If people in organisations don't pay attention to the Individual > Intention, the likelihood of the vortices of the narratives in those > organisation resonating with the vortex of the Individual Intention is > purely one of chance. It is due to individuals themselves to actively > spend the time to understand other people's Individual Intention. > > 9. By consciously working on understanding Individual Intention and > consciously work on fuzzifying the narrative the complex responsive > process of interaction between the people will move to the attractor at > the critical point. This can only happen in self-organised process of > interactions where meaning can start to flow. > > All of this is interesting stuff, especially the deep connection between > narrative and action. Organizations as relational processes, as arenas > for the practice of storytelling and mythmaking (with it's attendant > careful attention to compassion) and all of this as a propellant to > emergent action. It's a lucid thread. > > For my money the last point is the most interesting and an example of it > cropped up for me in an Open Space meeting I facilitated last weekend. > > I was working as part of a team developing a transportation demand > management plan for a city in British Columbia, basically coming up with > a strategy to get people out of their cars. As part of the process we > convened a 1.5 day Open Space meeting with the intention that the > participants would begin to work on citizen-based initiatives to get the > message out. > > These people didn't know each other, and so Day One was taken up with a > lot of conversation about the "typical" issues. The day was essentially > about getting to know each other, testing out ideas and theories, > exploring the stories and myths about the issue and basically sussing > out the power relationships, the allies and the opponents. There was > very little new content, but the day was a rich field of developing and > dissolving structure, process and relationships, coalescing around > stories. Because we were in Open Space and the agenda was driven by deep > personal passion and responsibility, the process of group-forming was > accelerated. By the end of the day there was one story that emerged to > invite action. Someone mentioned that in the very neighbourhood in which > we were meeting, the world's first curbside blue box program had been > initiated. Whether or not this was an observable fact, it became the > story upon which we hung the potential for citizen action in Day Two. > > Day Two was a two-hour action planning session, and I opened with that > story and my interpretation of the fact that we simply don't know when > and how small initiatives will blossom. And so the invitation for action > planning was to start something small that could change everything. > > Within two hours there were three major initiatives sketched out. One > involved closing a street down for a one-day festival promoting biking, > walking and bussing. One was a project to have coporations sponsor > evening busses into town from the suburbs on weekend nights to encourage > teenagers to stay out of their cars. The third idea was the formation of > a website and the coordination of letter writing and lobbying campaigns > to align actions on specific issues. All of these ideas had champions, > follow-up meeting dates and committees or teams of people committed to > working. > > I found the way this Open Space event evolved to be right in line with a > few of the paragraphs from Smits' paper: > > "By consciously working on understanding Individual > Intention and consciously work on fuzzifying the narrative...the complex > responsive process of interaction between the people will move to the > attractor at the critical point. This can only happen in self-organised > process of interactions where meaning can start to flow. That is the > domain of dialogue; it is the art of 'thinking together'... Or, in the > words of Bohm: > > > From time to time (the) tribe > (gathered) in a circle. They just talked and talked and talked, > apparently to no purpose. They made no decisions. There was no leader. > (.) The meeting went on until finally it seemed to stop for no reason at > all and the group dispersed. Yet, after that, everybody seemed to know > what to do (.). Then they could get together in smaller groups and do > something or decide things. > > -- David Bohm, On Dialogue (quoted > in Jaworski, 1998: 109) > > > > In this quote Bohm describes how dialogue as a way of > people interacting manages to let meaning emerge because of people > understanding each other's Individual Intentions. Effective action could > emerge. Note that the course of action was not decided by someone > outside the process or decided via a compromise! It was emergent because > the process allowed the Group Intention to move to the Edge of > Incoherence." > > > This is exactly what happened, with people saying in the closing circle > that they were very surprised at how quickly the action plans came > together. This echoes my experience of using an Open Space action > planning process we call "non-convergence," so-called because it eschews > voting, preserves the diversity and complexity of the Day One > conversations and keeps the space open for subtle pattern and > meaning-making by those motivated enough to initiate action. > > Smits' paper gives me a nice theoretical frame to understand that > process. I thought it might spark some discussion here as it suggests a > move from seeing organizations as complex adaptive systems to complex > relational processes. In Wilberian terms, that seems like a very big > shift from the right hand side to the left hand side. > > At any rate, I've also posted this to my weblog at > http://www.chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot/2004_03_01_archive.html#10791665 > 3320999533 for comment. > > --- > CHRIS CORRIGAN > Bowen Island, BC, Canada > (604) 947-9236 > > Consultation - Facilitation > Open Space Technology > > Weblog: http://www.chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot > Homepage: 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 > > * > * > ========================================================== > [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 * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
