what i'm hearing now is that the 'self' in the self-organizing matters. the self is bigger than the individual. it needs a purpose, a reason to gather. then it has to notice itself.
sometimes groups notice themselves, mostly defined by some shared purpose, i suppose. when they articulate the shared purpose, they are on their way. but that's not necessarily going to get them into open space. might just get them tangled in a lot of committees. but the committees will all point up to a chief. if the chief takes this all in and tells people what to do, things might work for awhile. even a long while. but when the chief starts asking questions, and sharing answers with everybody, then the self, starts to notice itself in more detail. first, in the inviting and the opening briefing, the apparent leaders are inviting the self to notice itself. the in the discussions, the noticing deepens. a group where the convener doesn't show or doesn't speak seems likely to miss out on the modelling process of noticing "the other" in the group and individuals. this noticing, harrison has called it 'witnessing', i think, does matter. it's the beginning of the expanding awareness that can ultimately permeate the group in ways many of us have seen and relished. and it leads us back to noticing how it is that we practice noticing, everything and everyone. as we said some long time ago in one osonos session... open space starts when you pick up the phone. m On 5/30/07, Kaliya Hamlin <[email protected]> wrote:
It is nice you all want to be so 'free form' about things and 'believe' that humans just 'self-organize'. My experience has taught me that leaning to far in this direction actually creates a lot of dissonance for people and leads to spaces with negative energy. Having a person or better a group of people taking responsiblity for holding the space creating a nest if you will... within which people feel safe to 'open up' and explore with each other possibilities.... out of this space this nest is born new action and activity. At this time on our planet we need to be as intentional and catalytic as possible in creating space for new possibilities of our civilization to emerge....being passive and hoping that people conditioned the way they are in our current culture will some how 'magically' 'awake' and 'self-organize' is to me hopelessly naive. Diffusing the simple tools and 'rules' or principles and practices is one of the things that could make the most difference at this time on our planet. My experience is that professional communities (that is people coming together to use this methodology in peer-to-peer professional network (outside 'AN' organization) settings) seeking to take action together learn the way OST works and take to it....it becomes the new norm -the shared way of doing things together that they work on. It lets all the passion talent and energy come forward and the people who are interested find each other because there is enough structure ... just enough that it is functional and effective for them to spend their time in the space together. THIS IS important. I somethings think people undervalue peoples time and energy by all this 'it just happens' talk....well if you help it happen and you follow some simple steps it is like 10x better. THAT MATTERS for the state of the world and to respect peoples time and energy for showing up. On May 30, 2007, at 4:19 PM, openspacekorea wrote: great! i agree with your point 100%. thank u... Love and Peace, park ________________________________ From: OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ralph Copleman Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 10:12 PM To: [email protected] Subject: "rules" and self-organization One way to test what is essential (what Artur termed "micro") and what is not would be to open some space without mentioning either the four principles or the law of two feet. Or anything else. If self-organization occurs in os, would not the "space" still "open" without things we have come to believe are essential? I'm betting it would, or at least could. Perhaps all we need is a room and a theme and a wall. Maybe some tea and coffee. How free are we? Picture it. You're invited, so you show up because the theme interests you or you know the inviter. You get there, see the theme statement on the wall, and nothing but a circle of chairs. Nothing. Not even a facilitator. Others arrive. The only things you share at this point are your presence and your presumed interest in the theme. If self-organization is real, is not the space already open? It may take longer, but might relevant, useful conversations begin? I think the facilitator meets our need for an authority figure (a perfectly natural, good thing, most of the time), and the ideas about feet, insects, etc. a minimal unifying structure (think of it perhaps as curbs to a boulevard?) that steer us into an opening, a place we have agreed, by showing up, we want to be. OS in action resembles self-organization, but it isn't the pure thing. (Not that it really matters. I love it simply because it's the best way I know to show people what evolution on Earth is really like. And it produces great results for my clients.) One more rumpled notion occurs this morning... What about the storytelling role, the thing we do as facilitators to connect people entering an open space to a greater whole? I know this is important, but is not the facilitator simply reminding people of a story they already know, deep down? If self-organization/evolution is real, it's been working far longer than humans have even been around. Might we not trust this process? How far can we go? Ralph Copleman * * ========================================================== [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 Kaliya - Identity Woman AIM:[email protected] skype:identitywoman Y!:earthwaters http://www.identitywoman.net http://www.unconference.net 510 472-9069 (bay area) 415 425-1136 (on the road) * * ========================================================== [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
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