Dear Koos, if there is such a thing as empowerment in open space its me getting empowered by that crowd I am accompanying through time and space. At least thats the only explanation I have for getting so energized while facilitating open space. Love you coming on strong michael
On Sun, 12 May 2002 22:28:09 +0200, Koos de Heer wrote: >At 11:30 12-5-2002 -0800, Kenoli Oleari wrote: > >>>Why are givens particularly important in processes like open space? >> >>Because it is about empowerment. This is a sensitive business. >>People generally are disempowered by institutions. When this is a >>daily recurrence, built in assumptions hold and expectations are low. >>When we invited people into a paradigm shift, it is important to be >>true to the new foundation we are offering. if there are to be >>limitations place on this foundation, this is critical. This is >>especially true if the assumptions in the system are changed. If the >>new assumptions are not made clear, there will be a tendency to act >>on old assumptions. > >Yes, and this is exactly why I have a problem with the concept of >empowerment when used in relation to Open Space. I will try to explain why. > >There are two things that are important about the concept of empowerment. >1. "Empowerment" is a movement from a state of non-power to a state of >power, or if you prefer from a state of little power to a state of more power. >2. "To empower" is a transitive verb, meaning it is something one person or >entity does to another person or entity. "To hear" is a transitive verb (as >in: I hear you) and "to sleep" is intransitive (as in I sleep; it is not >possible to say I sleep you). > >So what I am saying is that the concept of empowerment has to do with one >person or entity giving power to another person or entity. As in: the >management of this company empowers the employees. This sounds nice, but it >is awful. And it is not what we do when we Open Space for these people. At >least not in my system. Giving power assumes that there is something to be >given (which means it can also be withheld) and there is an entity that has >the ability to do the giving (or the withholding). I question these >assumptions. > >What we do when we Open Space is invite people into a paradigm shift. This >paradigm shift also concerns power. Open Space means the end of power and >control as we knew it. Open Space invites people to experience the power >they already have. There is no such thing as control. There are just people >who think they are in control and others who accept that thinking. This >deadly embrace of wrong thinking (which, by the way, can be very >comfortable) is what we invite people to throw out the window. > >Talking of empowerment is staying in the old power paradigm. If we want to >honor the paradigm shift we are making, we do not talk about empowerment. >We do not give the power to the people, because we know it is already there. > >OK, OK, I am sorry if I come on too strong. I would love any feedback on >this, honestly :-) > >Best wishes, >Koos Michael M Pannwitz boscop Draisweg 1 12209 Berlin, Germany FON: +49 - 30-772 8000 FAX: +49 - 30-773 92 464 www.michaelMpannwitz.de * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
