That's well written Harrison. The fundamental shifts that you speak about are a
natural phenomena. As human experiences go from one to the other the need to
fill what is missing leads to new ways of being. And we have seen these shifts.
Pre-industrial age created the need to move away form the agrarian community
based living to far more automated way of working. That created a greater sense
of individualism.
As this age of individualism has progressed, man has perhaps felt the loss of
connectedness. The industrial age has lead to an alienation with "nature" -
people and environment. Hence the new wave of leveraging the collective as a
whole. In this context, technologies such as open space are bound to flourish
far more than they ever have since they invoke the fundamental nature of
collective - people, economy & environment. It is something whose time has come.
So, one is not surprised at the discoveries that I keep reading on this mail
exchange. Recently, have been reading Cowan's book on Spiral Dynamics that
captures the shift in "memes". Resonates with what you are talking about.
Regards
Pankaj
Harrison Owen <hho...@verizon.net> wrote:
st1\:*{behavior:url(#default#ieooui) } In the early 80s
a number of books appeared announcing the dawning of a new age. Marilyn
Ferguson brought us the Aquarian Conspiracy, John Nesbit contributed
Megatrends, and in a slightly different mode, Peters and Waterman offered,
In Search of Excellence. In what seemed like an incredibly short time, new
age had been capitalized, and we had the phenomenon of New Age music, life
styles, organizations and the like. It was in this same period that I and some
friends connected the words organization and transformation to produce
Organization Transformation which contrasted with Organization Development. The
later to be understood as the linear, orderly, manageable, and controllable
progression of organizational life towards some better way to be productive,
efficient and profitable. Organization Transformation was a very different
critter which saw the process to be one of radical leaps, jumps and
state changes. Some of our group thought you could actually induce the process
and effectively transform organizations. My self, I wasnt too sure. In fact it
seemed to me that transformation happened pretty much all by itself in a quite
unpredictable and uncontrollable fashion. The best one could do was to learn to
ride the waves of change and possibly come out to some whole and healthy
conclusion which remained until the next set of waves rolled through. Not
incidentally, Open Space Technology emerged from the bottom of two martinis in
the same time frame.
Now almost 30 years later is has become apparent that something of remarkable
power and importance has emerged from the depths of human consciousness. Bob
Dylan had it quite right The times, they are a-changing! But I think it
fair to say that what has emerged coincides only in part with the euphoric
expectations of the New Agers. It is quite true that the global awareness of
the connectedness of all of life, including human life, has radically
increased, but the vision of flower children holding hands across a peaceful
planet didnt quite come about. There are those who contemplate what has
transpired with a cynical, even anguished eye quite sure that everything is
going to disappear in a destructive maelstrom. That could happen, of course.
However I find myself in a rather different place.
What has happened, or more accurately, what is happening I think could be
called Paradigm Shift or in terms I would prefer, a fundamental shift in human
consciousness. By whatever name, the net result is a fundamental change in the
way people understand themselves. Not very long ago, the basic understanding
(at least in the West) was that we were rational beings capable of shaping our
world in accord with the individual desires and plans. Not everybody could do
this, of course, but those who could were called The Leaders, and the
presumption was that They (capital T) ran the world. Everybody else just had to
get in line, and join the program. The shift, I think, is that it is becoming
clear that we are all closely (even inseparably) interconnected not only with
each other but with the planet and indeed the whole cosmos. Further that web
of connection is so complex, fast changing, to say nothing of chaotic that
rational plans which look fine on paper turn out rather
differently. Of course there is more, and if you are seriously interested in
what I think that more might look like you might take a look at my B-K book,
The Power of Spirit or for an earlier version, take a look at Spirit:
Transformation and Development in Organizations.
At some level all of this looks rather like the New Age vision. We are all
globally connected and all of us have the potential and opportunity to lead.
But what the New Agers missed, or chose not to look at, is what I might call
the Darkside of Paradigm Shift. Thomas Kuhn, who originated the notion of
shifting paradigms was very clear that at the point of shifting there is
inevitably a mass of chaos, confusion and conflict. Just comes with the
territory. I think it fair to say that we have all of that in abundance. And
in the presence of the Triple Cs people understandably become disoriented and
fearful which will often lead to retrogression and extreme fundamentalism.
When the ground shifts you hold onto whatever you can grab! Sound familiar?
So now what? Those who think they can find a fix using the same tools and
approaches that got us into the fix are going to be disappointed. The idea that
we can rationally plan and control our way to safe ground is absurd. But that
is not the end of the story. There is a deep wisdom in crowds, and if we who
have been wandering about in Open Space for 20 years have learned anything it
is that that wisdom can be accessed, given the time/space to do so.
So what to do now? Could be Open Space anywhere, anyhow, about anything
with anybody. Substantive goals may be achieved, but at a deeper level we may
just provide the grease to smooth the way of a shifting paradigm. Or something.
Idle thoughts on a gorgeous chilly morning in Maine.
Harrison
* * ==========================================================
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
Regards
Pankaj
*
*
==========================================================
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
