such a great story!!! i am also quite new in os community with just a few os practicing occasions.
i have a firm conviction that os thrives on so (self-organization). your story is so fresh and would be a wonderful story to share with many nonprofits for them to be EVEN PROFITABLE FOR OTHERS. :-) thank you for sharing this story!!! park -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Rich Foss Sent: Sunday, May 27, 2007 11:34 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: doing self-organization Harrison, et. al., As I've been reading this thread it reminded me of an event last week. My daughter is bringing together an array of service providers and governmental units in Jacksonville, FL to create a process for meeting the needs of older adults with severe mental illness. She had never been to an open space event but when I described it to her she thought it would help her move the process along. Last week I opened space for her and 40 other folks in Jacksonville. After I opened space she posted a topic a long with numerous other folks. She was ready to move to another room to begin her conversation and yet there were a lot of people still milling around in the marketplace. A very well organized young woman, she looked around at the chaos, and said a bit nervously, "Should I do something?" "You just go ahead and start your meeting," I said. She left with a few others to meet in a nearby conference room. As I watched folks milling around I kept thinking, "Self-organization, self-organization." Sure enough, ten minutes later no one was milling around, everyone was deeply engrossed in one of the conversations. This was only the 6th time I've opened space and I was glad to be able to think to myself as I watched folks mill around: "Self-organization, self-organization." And, later, I was delighted to be able to describe to my daughter the magic of self-organization. Rich Foss Evergreen Leaders Helping nonprofits thrive. 19235 Plow Creek Tiskilwa, IL 61368, Voice & Fax: 815-646-6600 web site: http://www.squidoo.com/7paths/ 7 paths blog: http://thrivinggroups.blogspot.com/ Rich's personal blog: http://www.tagworld.com/RichFoss ----- Original Message ----- From: "Harrison Owen" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, May 26, 2007 9:20 AM Subject: Re: doing self-organization Pat wrote: "Kaufmann would say that what drives the system's evolution is the search for fitness. I am just bold or arrogant enough to disagree with him here. I think what drives a system is relationship." ******************************************************************** Stuart Kauffmann is a biologist who has written extensively on self-organization in biological systems. His work has been extraordinarily helpful to me (HO) as I have attempted to understand the fundamental process of self organization, particularly as that relates to OST. For more, see his book, "At Home in the Universe" (Oxford 1995). If you are interested in a short version of my take on all this see http://openspaceworld.com/emergent_order.htm ***************************************************************** Pat, I am not sure that Kauffmann would disagree with you regarding the centrality of relationship, and I certainly would not (disagree). But perhaps it is not an either/or (either relationship or fitness), but rather a both/and. I would put it as follows: Our search for fitness drives us into (new) relationships, and simultaneously our (new) relationships enhance our fitness. At least that may be the case -- but as you point out, some relationships can be toxic. I see this fundamental dynamic at work in every Open Space gathering. Presumably we hold an Open Space for a reason -- to solve a problem, to create something new. As we have discovered, just "doing" an Open Space is Blah, Blah, Boring -- unless there is a real issue of common concern, something we are really looking for, passionate about. In other words, we are searching for a better way to fit with ourselves and our environment (search for fitness). When the invitation is extended it should go to all those who care, or even might care, about that issue of common concern. It is quite likely that the people who come will care in multiple different ways, and this diversity of interests represents a rich resource. In fact, if everybody cared in exactly the same way, the likelihood of innovation is reduced to zero, and there would be little reason to have the meeting! But all of this is just potential. Things start to really happen when the different interests, what I have elsewhere called "Nexus of Caring," are named (issues are posted). This creates focal points for organization, the starting place for relationships. Some people who come to a group will stay (form a relationship) others will go (Law of Two Feet). If those who stay find a fitness (relatedness) in their common concerns, that relatedness will lead to robust solutions, new ideas, a "successful" group. On the other hand, if that relatedness/fitness is fragmentary or non existent, the group will disband and find better things to do. In short the search for fitness/relatedness will continue. It seems to me that the Nexus of Caring is analogous to (the same as?) the Strange Attractors of complexity theory. For human groups, organization happens when people care about the same thing (align themselves around a common Nexus of Caring). This can happen very, very fast, and nobody needs to line the folks up and issue orders! Which is why it is called: self-organization :-)! What separates an Open Space from the "Standard Meeting" is that we provide a quick way to identify Nexus of Caring, and there is no limit imposed. It is called Posting Issues. What happens in the Standard Meeting is that everything is pre-packaged, and choice is limited to what the package holds. This grossly narrows the field of opportunity in which potential new relationships can be found -- new ways of fitting. Unless the organizing committee of the Standard Meeting is incredibly prescient and/or damned lucky they will badly miss the boat. Of course the process of self-organization continues -- everything is self-organizing -- but the center of activity simply moves to the Coffee Breaks. :-) What we do as facilitators in Open Space is to establish the essential pre-conditions for self-organization, and optimize their effect. Everything else pretty well takes care of itself. There is knowledge and skill involved in all this, and I suppose you could call it "work." Or something. Harrison Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Drive Potomac, Maryland 20854 Phone 301-365-2093 Skype hhowen Open Space Training 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 -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Pat Black Sent: Friday, May 25, 2007 7:12 PM To: [email protected] Subject: doing self-organization Thank you Harrison for the challengeing discussion. Part of what I love about it is that at the end these divergent paths will deliver us to embracing the same process. We are dancing around the same spiral observing different aspects of it. And I am thank for all opportunities to find partners in the dance I think what is the primary element in play in self organizing systems is driven by relationships. In any given moment their are gizzillions of possibilities for relationships. That is particularly true when the system is simpler. As the system becomes more complex their are fewer open receptors available to relationship. Open receptors remain at the edges of the system. Kaufmann would say that what drives the sytem's evolution is for fitness. I am just bold or arrogant enough to disagree with him here. I think what drives a system is relationship. Any relationship will do. Simple physical and biological systems are not too picky. They just want to have all their dance card filled and something with the right charge and size could be enough to decide it. Now the truth is those relationship slots can be filled with something that leads to death in a biological entity while also creating a new entity that has life supported by a totally different element. Take the difference between bacteria that is sustained by oxygen and those sustained by sulphur. This is evolution and it is not a single line path. What may not be a sustainable or productive relationship in this enviromental moment can take off and become a dominant species with a slight transformation to the environment. > > > Pat -- I think what I have been learning is that while a self-organizing > system works (by definition) all by itself, and for sure we neither created > nor invented it, we still have a role to play which can be critical to the > ongoing function of the system. How you understand that role (whether it is > "work" or a privilege) is obviously a matter of personal perception. But > there is a role either in the narrow confines of an OS event, or in the > larger realm of any or all of our self-organizing systems. In a previous > note I listed what I believe to be the Eight Essentials: 1) Do your Home > work, 2) Issue an Invitation, 3) Come to the Circle, 4) Welcome Passion and > Responsibility, 5) Remember the Four Principles, 6) Observe The Law, 7) Keep > Grief Working, and 8) Formalize the System. > > If we did none of the above, it is quite likely that the system would still > perform at some level. Even if we make what I take to be an egregious error > and attempt to substitute our understanding of structure and controls for > the emergent structure and control which the system has manifested, the > probability is that the system will continue, which is a testimony to the > natural endurance of a self-organizing system. And parenthetically, I would > argue that we can thank this natural endurance for the continued existence > of our systems (organizations, companies, countries) in spite of our > malfeasance. > I think Harrison that the system will organize itself at the same level that it always has. It willlook for opportunities to build relationships where ever possible and those relationships take us down a path. That path may lead to death or a new species or even a dead end but the organizing I belief will go on with or without our intention. The closest metaphor that I can use to describe a self organizing system is a jazz ensemble. Everyone in the ensemble has an identity and in the expression of their identity a composition emerges. The composition is never the same. Like a jazz ensemble self organizing systems are improvisational. I just took my 10 month old granddaughter to a jazz performance and sat her down at the edge of the stage that the musicians were on. In no time she was singing, pounding and sounding and making sounds blowing air over her tongue that were perfectly in rhythm and mostly in pitch with what the muscians were doing. I can tell you with certainty that she was not doing any thinking about the experience and that she has a very limited sound repetoire. She was just present and added her identity to the relationship. It was such an inspiring experience the musicians brought her up for a bow. She transformed the ensemble with her presense. > Having said all of that, I still think there is much to be done, and many > skills to perfect -- most of which is not covered in the standard MBA > program :-) > I don't know anything about MBA programs or really much about corporate bodies or goverment bodies in any kind of experiential way. I don't know what their capacities for relationship forming is. I will say that as an outsider I have experienced their systems as closed. That is not to say that I think they are closed but that what ever makes relationship opprtunities possible is not obvious to me. Having said all of this I totally agree with you that there is work to be done. I work very hard but my focus is on myself. I work on being more open and having more space available by noticing when I feel closed and uncovering the relationships that associate with the closing. I do think the business of invitation is work and a journey. It is the discovery of language that orients the participants to discover possiblity along a path which is at the point of crafting invitation invisible. For me the work of remaining open and richly diverse inside myself is difficult but required because it creates more possibilities for connection. It requires a presence and mindfulness that is challenging and frankly exhausting. I have always understood the need for naps. But I also think what makes this work is not the self organizing sytem. To my mind what makes this difficult is a cognitive propensity to recognize patterns, to aggregate sensory information, to tag, to predict and to abstract. It is a kind of headyness that I find delightful and exciting and satisfying but I think it leads to judgement rather than description or plain response. The challenge for me is to be the dance in the spiral and not the recorder of the dance happening in the spiral. In my understanding of self organizing systems they operate as the dance not the dancers who make up the ensemble. So although I believe we are looking at the same soup and we see all the same elements swimming and interacting in the matrix our viewpoints are from different perspectives. pat > Take for example the business of invitation. And here I am thinking not only > of the invitation for an Open Space Event, but the larger invitations to all > those who might care to join us in the creation or renewal of a major > project or business venture. A truly inviting invitation must be clear, > focused, attractive, and with sufficient specificity to get the "guests" to > the right place, time, and state of mind -- while still remaining open > enough to encourage high levels of creativity and innovation. I suppose that > some people can do all of this just naturally, but I think we all can do it > better with thought and practice. Might I say "work?" > > And of course, an effective invitation is not simply a matter of words on a > piece of paper. The personhood of the "inviter" is also important. At some > deeper level I think we must be the invitation we seek to make. To make the > point obvious just think of what happens when the "words" say "Please come!" > but the body language says something quite different. > > Harrison > > > > > Harrison Owen > 7808 River Falls Drive > Potomac, Maryland 20854 > Phone 301-365-2093 > Skype hhowen > Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com > Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org > Personal website www.ho-image.com > OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the > archivesVisit: www.listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html > * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected]: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected]: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected]: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected]: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
