My friend Birgitt Williams appears to have some difficulty with the notion that organization, forming in Open Space, is in fact self-organization at work. Or in her words, "For me, the conscious Open Space Organization, as I understand it is not a self organizing system." And in answer to the question -- If not self-organization, then what -- she says, "Rather, a matrix or nutrient field is provided that is clearly bounded and ready to nurture whatever is created. The matrix then gets filled in by choices that are life nurturing or life depleting. The conscious Open Space Organizations is life nurturing rather than life depleting." All of which seems to me to be a rather nice description of self-organization at work. Be that as it may, it occurs to me that it might be useful to chat a bit about why I find the theory of self-organization so attractive, particularly in reference to the Open Space experience, either as event, or a continuing phenomenon.
First off, please note that it is the theory of self-organization. And theory is never to be confused with The Truth or The Facts. It's only theory. But mere theory is a not nothing -- rather it is a way of looking at things (that's what the word in Greek means --"To See"). Or more broadly, a theory is a way of looking at things, enabling comprehension and prediction. In short, with a good theory we find it possible to understand what is going on, and also to make some reasonable predictions about future occurrences. The formulation of Self-organization theory which I find to be most attractive is that proposed by Stuart Kauffman of the Santa Fe Institute, which he describes in his book, At Home in the Universe (Oxford). Simply stated, Kauffman argues that given certain quite simple pre-conditions "order happens." These pre-conditions include the following: 1) A relatively safe and protected, nutrient environment, 2) High levels of diversity in terms of the elements present in that environment. 3) High levels of complexity in terms of potential inter-connections. 4) A drive for improvement, or in more standard evolutionary terminology, a search for fitness. 5) Sparse prior connections in terms of the available elements (everything is not previous "hardwired." 5) The whole thing is on the edge of chaos. Kauffman might be described as a theoretical biologist, although I am not quite sure what he calls himself. His intent is to account for the origin of order, particularly in living creatures, at the molecular level. In a word, he addresses the interesting question as to how we got from primal ooze to us. I am sure the jury of his peers is still out, but quite clearly his colleagues take him seriously, if not with the details, then certainly with the major thrust of his argument. Needless to say, I am not competent to judge his science, but upon reading his work, I was immediately struck with the similarity between his pre-conditions and what for years I have described as the presenting circumstances for the use of Open Space. Which are: 1) A real business issue of great concern. 2) High levels of complexity in terms of the elements of the issue. 3) High Levels of diversity in terms of those involved. 4) The presence of actual or potential conflict. 5) A decision time of yesterday -- ie an urgent need for improvement. Even without going through a detailed comparison, I would hope that you can see the relationship. And if you do want the details, you might check my book, The Power of Spirit: How Organizations Transform (Berrett-Koehler, 2000). So what good is all this in practical terms? First off, it provides an interesting way of looking at, and possibly answering, the nagging question (for me) of why Open Space works anyhow. I was trained to know that organization at the human level only occurred as the product of prodigious effort and great skill. It required brilliant design, execution and endless maintenance. What we experience in Open Space simply cannot happen. But of course it does. It appears that quite inadvertently I stumbled upon the essential pre-conditions of self-organization. A related question for me has been why does Open Space work just about anywhere it has been tried, regardless of the education, ethnicity, economics, national origin, etc of the group? The answer would appear to be that the groups are "already there." There is nothing new to learn or do, although there may be much to unlearn and stop doing. It would appear, perhaps, that from the moment of the Big Bang, we and all the rest of the cosmos have been operating under what might be called The Laws of Self-Organization, even as we operate under the Laws of Thermodynamics, Gravity, and the like. Seen from this perspective, the "workability" of Open Space is precisely what one would expect, given the essential "Laws" of our environment. One consequence of all this is that the notion of creating an Open Space Organization is a little absurd. It already is -- no creation necessary. Life for us humanoids, however, seems to be a tad more complex and multi-faceted than life at the level of atoms and molecules. Sorry, there seems to be some hierarchical order. Thus while it is true that we and all rocks are bound by the Law of Gravity, it is obvious that we can to some extent circumvent that Law -- or better -- learn to use it to our advantage. Which is precisely what we do when we fly in an airplane. But it is noteworthy-- the airplane would not work if you eliminated gravity. It is only because we are pulled "down" that we can go "up" -- surfing on a wave of air. I suspect the same thing is true with the laws of self-organization and their local manifestation every time we open space. We can't repeal those laws, but we can learn to work with them to our advantage. And that for me is the great adventure of the moment. So if you don't like the notion of Self-Organization relative to Open Space, not to worry, it is just a theory. However, to the extent that the theory is explanatory of some previously non-understood phenomenon (Open Space works!???) and is predictive of future conditions, it could be useful. At least I think so. Harrison Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Drive Potomac, MD 20854 USA phone 301-469-9269 Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org Personal website www.mindspring.com/~owenhh osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html