Back to Michael's statement, as I mentioned earlier, I do think the "selves" in self-organization make a difference. It is in the relationships between the selves and the patterns that emerge in those relationships that "organization" or pattern happens. Tavistock Institute and T-Groups created intentional "self-organising" events or groups before OST was conceived. No focus or theme, no principles and law, people just gathered stared and talked and saw what happened. They stopped doing that experiment (I think) and did not find it as rewarding as we find OST. We choose to have a focus (theme) for OST events, mostly. We also suggest some ways of "being" in OST, some assumptions for people to make, that engender a certain kind of self-organizing. To me it suggests values to live by that enable the most powerful self-organizing. Are those "rules"? Only for those then need them. I understand that Complexity Theory talks a lot about the "simple rules" that create the conditions for self-organization. Certainly Kaufmann does with his experiment. I agree that the Principles and Law are more descriptive that prescriptive. However, as I see people "practice" using the law of two feet and getting more "liberated" to be full participants in self-organization, I believe stating the new (for them) assumption to live by consciously makes a difference. As I see people choosing to end a discussion in 10 minutes or keep it going the whole time, consciously stating a new (for them) behaviour assumption is liberating. Not everyone needs this "permission", particularly new Gen Tec folks, but some "selves" do if they are to engage more fully in self-organizing. Larry Larry Peterson Associates in Transformation Toronto, ON, Canada 416.653.4829 <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected] <http://www.spiritedorg.com> www.spiritedorg.com
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