What we do and what we think about what we do are (or at least should be) in constant conversation. It is in this dialogue that our capacity for effective action and our consciousness of the meaning of our actions are both enhanced. It is all too easy to get hung up on one side of the conversation or the other - but clearly both are essential, and when theory and practice are separated, or one takes priority over the other, the loss on all sides is substantial. To me one of the enduring strengths of this electronic community is that the dialogue has been maintained, some times in a most fractious way, but maintained none the less.
Writing a full history of this ongoing dialogue is a subject requiring more than a brief note - but how about a dissertation?? -- You PhD students out there??? We began with a funny way of holding meetings which was lots of fun, very effective, and made no sense at all, at least no sense in terms of the way such things are normally understood. This lack of sense led, for example, to an exploration of the primal mechanisms of human community, the work of the shaman - which doubtless sent some of our more traditional organizational types around the bend, or at least out of The Open Space Community. The word was out - something is weird, these folks are strange. They even talk about Spirit. Voodoo can't be far behind. But the questions were posed, and I think we have learned a lot about the role that we play in opening and holding space. Practice improved. Somewhere along the line we entertained thoughts of creating The Open Space Organization. I even wrote a book about it with the odd title, "The Millennium Organization." The thought was a simple one, if Open Space felt so good, and worked so well, why not do it 365 day a year? Why Not?? But then a funny thought happened on the way to the future. All about self-organizing systems, which seemed to have lot to say about what transpired in every Open Space. Seen as a self-organizing system, the Open Space event (experience) suddenly made a lot more sense, at least to some of us. But there was an unintended consequence, a spanner in the works so to speak, at least in terms of our plans for The Open Space Organization, especially if that was something we were going to create. Should it turn out that self-organization not only underlies the function of Open Space, but also the entire cosmos, as some would suggest - then the notion of creating an Open Space Organization is rather a waste of time. All organizations, by definition, are already Open Space Organizations (self-organizing), it is just that some don't do it very well. Interesting new starting point. Forget about introducing Open Space - it is already there. The job now becomes helping people to understand more fully what they already are. A Buddhist thought might be helpful here - something about finding our Original Face! And is all of this "right" and "true"? Who knows, but collectively we have certainly traveled many miles. And I think we are just getting to the good parts, and not a moment too soon. I don't know how you personally read the state of the planet, or more especially the state of the planet's passengers, but it seems to me that we are at a most interesting moment. Anybody who ever thought they were In Charge, should by now be disabused of that spurious notion. And all those who were hopeful that at least "somebody" was in charge (but certainly not me!) may just be getting the picture that The Big Man will somehow save us with the ultimate design just won't make it. Doubtless some folks will see the present moment as an occasion for a monstrous state of depression. I can understand that, particularly if we are limited to doing what we have always done and thinking as we have always thought. But there are some wonderful alternatives, and I think we may be finding a few of them here in our conversations. Harrison Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Drive Potomac, Maryland 20854 Phone 301-365-2093 Skype hhowen Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com <http://www.openspaceworld.com/> Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org Personal website www.ho-image.com OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives Visit: www.listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html <http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html> * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
