Kaliya wrote: "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."
Kaliya, I could not agree more that "intentional and catalytic" activity on our part is very useful, and at the present moment, essential. It is also possible to adopt a fatalistic response to the fundamental self-organizing nature of our world - "newagers" may believe that we will somehow "magically awake," and those on the other end of the spectrum may believe that we are all, inevitably, going to hell in a wheel barrow. I would agree that both responses are possible, but by no means foreordained. I certainly would not see them (the responses) as the inevitable consequence of a self-organizing world. My own thought and experience has taken me to a place where I see self-organization as a fundamental mechanism in our world (cosmos) - very much in the way that gravity comes with the territory. In short, it is not a matter of choice - it is just the way things are. Nor does self-organization inevitably lead to the appearance of "love and light," although I think there may be a tendency in that direction - which we might explore. But at the end of the day, at least my day - all systems are self-organizing including a number of systems we might rather not confront, such as Terrorist Cells and the HIV virus, to mention a few. I see self-organization as the context or environment in which we move. Thus, even when we make careful and detailed plans and designs - once they hit the real world they inevitably become part of the self-organizing stew. Being fully aware of this fact is critical, I think, in terms of raising the level of probability that we may experience "successful" outcomes. When we ignore or disregard the self-organizing environment, or worse yet, think we can override it - we get into serious trouble. Thus when plans and designs go astray, a typical response has been to re-organize and re-organize coupled with redoubled efforts at control (our control). While we may experience limited short term gains, the final result of our effort is often no change (it doesn't do any good) - or we actually make the situation worse. A good example is the whole business of what we call Flood Control as practiced in the United States by the Army Corps of Engineers. It is a fact that rivers flood. It is also a fact that floods tend to be deleterious to the function of human systems located near by. The obvious response, so we thought, is to control the river with a mixture of dams and levees. The short term result seems positive - our feet are dry. But longer term, things turn out a little differently. It seems that the naturally occurring self-organizing system called the Mississippi, Danube, or whatever, had evolved system wisdom with some structural elements we simply didn't understand. Case in point is a Flood Plain. Flood plains seemed to be a marvelous place to grow crops and build cities. True! And they also have an essential function in the life of the ecosystem of that river, which is not to be tampered with. When floods come, as they will, the Flood Plain provides an escape valve in which the additional waters can spread out with minimal turbulence. When the waters go, they will go peacefully, leaving a fresh deposit of soil and seeds. A more intelligent response on our part would be, I think, to cooperate with the river, and align our self-organizing systems (villages and cities) with that fundamental system. If we choose to build near by, find the high ground. And in the absence of high ground try some stilts. But no matter what - don't mess with Mother Nature, because the day will surely come when Mother Nature and Old Man River conspire to put us in our place. So what does all this have to do with OST? I think what we have been learning every time we Open Space is how to optimize system function, honor the natural self-organizing rhythm and flow, and thereby achieve what sometimes appear to be "magical" results. This is a conscious act, a catalytic act and, it should be noted, the net result has a lot to do with our intentions. Given different intentions the result could be quite different. To make the point, and only to make the point, I would say that were it my intention to create a Terrorist Network, I can't think of a better possible approach than to begin with an Open Space. Indeed it might be argued that this is precisely what Osama and friends have done. I doubt they have read "The User's Guide," but as I think we are all aware, Open Space (by whatever name) has been around long before I wrote that guide. Harrison Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Drive Potomac, Maryland 20854 Phone 301-365-2093 Skype hhowen Open Space Training <http://www.openspaceworld.com/> www.openspaceworld.com Open Space Institute <http://www.openspaceworld.org/> www.openspaceworld.org Personal website <http://www.ho-image.com/> www.ho-image.com OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives Visit: <http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html> www.listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Kaliya Hamlin Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 8:58 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: "rules" and self-organization 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 * * ========================================================== [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
