Michael mused: > in the training and practice workshops we're doing around the world now, > the > focus is on practicing open space *as* organization...and i envision a > time > when we create practice groups not just in communities but in companies, > so > managers end up holding space for each other as co-practitioners... no > need for > outside OD people in OS cases... just a peer to come witness and hold > space for > what is happening. i think that managers and others who are doing the > operations of the org learning to hold space for each other is one > equivalent > to having hold organizations 'wake up.'
My experience working with managers when we are working with this approach is that when they "get it" they see their roles changing radically. They turn away from monitors and towards space holders, holding space for their teams in the greater context of the organization, cleaving open more space in the wider organizational world and inviting their teams to identify and do the work that can be done. One manager I am working with at the moment has become "fierce" (as in proud, not aggressive") in her defense of her team, facing the world with a defiant stare with all this bubbling Open Space behind her, and she is now turning her attention to the larger organization and inviting others to do what they are doing. As a whole, this rippling effect, the effect of spirited doing, contributes to an awareness of work life that asks some serious questions. And those are questions that, once planted in one's mind, can never go away. Questions like "Is this really working?" or "Are we really making a difference?" Having those conversations swirl about within an organization, and having those awarenesses evolve naturally is the purest form of organizational development (read "evolution") that I know of. Chris * * ========================================================== 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