Hi Raffi -- Curious! Birgit is a nice lady for sure, and surely entitled to think what she thinks. There is no doubt that Spirit has always been a most important presence in my thought and in all of my experiences with Open Space. I can scarcely hide from that especially when my first book carried the (at the time outrageous) title of "Spirit: Transformation and Development in Organizations." (1987) But the reality of self organization was right in there from the beginning. It is doubtless true that over time I have gained some clarity about the function of self organizing systems, as indeed we all have. But making the connection between our systems (human and other sorts) and self organization was by no means a late arrival. I guess I first spelled it out in some detail in my book, "Riding the Tiger" which was published in 1991 -- which not incidentally has the first (abbreviated) version of The User's Guide as an appendix. To tell the truth I guess I have always been fascinated with the interplay of chaos and order in the evolving process of our cosmos. Way back in 1960 the subtitle of my dissertation could have been "Chaos, Order and the Creative Process." So for better or for worse self organization has always been part of the mix, so far as I was concerned. And what Birgit thinks happened in 1996, I really don't know. Of course that doesn't make me right -- who knows it may all be the rancid effect of ripe Roquefort cheese! Two martinis?
And it still all goes together so far as I can see. One might say -- Spirit manifest in a self organizing world every time time/space is open. Of course, when we close it all up, batten down the hatches, set arbitrary limits, and seize control -- Spirit tends to go on holiday. Harrison Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Dr. Potomac, MD 20854 USA Phone 301-365-2093 www.openspaceworld.com www.ho-image.com (Personal Website) To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu] On Behalf Of Raffi Aftandelian Sent: Thursday, November 11, 2010 1:27 PM To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Subject: self-organization and "conscious" Open Space organizations [was OST and PD (Positive Deviance)] Queridos todos, I'm cross-posting a message that Birgitt Williams wrote to the Genuine Contact list today in response to a request for examples of Conscious Open Space Organizations. I thought with the topic of self-organizing systems popping up again, I'd share this here. Perhaps, with us re-re-re-re-re-visiting the topic of self-organizing systems and Conscious Open Space Organizations (Interactive Organizations?), the conversation may take a new turn? Who knows, stranger things have happened on OSlist... abrazos, raffi Dear Alexander, Warm greetings! I will get into this discussion a bit. >From my perspective, there are a few things to consider. I don't give out the contact info of organizations that we are working with, as there are many people who are doing research now on such methods. We had one client some time ago who stopped using us as consultants because of too many inquiries. Another consideration is that when we developed the Conscious Open Space Organization, we never postulated that it was a self organizing system. Open Space Technology, when I learned it, did not include the concept of the self organizing system and at the time the emphasis was on spirit. The concept of the self organizing system attached to OST came much later...maybe around 1996. And finally, at the request of our clients, we stopped calling this type of organization a COSO. The concept of the COSO was that members of the organization would be Conscious of where the space was open in an organization and where it was not open, thus not wasting time to change what was not open but using their consciousness of where it was open to be innovative in that arena. Unfortunately, according to ourclients, the staffs chose to emphasize everything as open, causing a lot of mayhem. And so, sometime last year I sent a proposal to the Genuine Contact Co-owners for a vote to change the name...and so it is now changed to the Genuine Contact Organization. Birgitt * * ========================================================== 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 * * ========================================================== 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
