In further support of Harrison's response, I also noted Shawn's comment about an "objective of an organization." This reifies "organization" but without the people, there is no such thing as organization. Walk into a building with a logo outside and no one inside to interact with and you know you haven't found an organization. Dr. Ralph Stacey who uses complexity to go beyond system's thinking says the individual, group, organization and society are all aspects of the same thing. We are using his complex responses of relating to guide and explain the transformation we are seeing where I work.
Diane Ross _____ From: OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Harrison Owen Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2005 9:53 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Multiple Facilitator Roles in Open Space Shawn Wrote: I'm not too sure that all self-organising systems have beginnings, middles and ends because what you see depends, in part, on your observation point and scale of observation. When dealing with say, trust, which might be conceptualised as a self-organising emergent property of people interacting, it is difficult to pinpoint the start and end points. Regarding health and unhealthy self-organisation perhaps an indication of health of the system is the length of time order is sustained. I remember Charles Handy saying that the basic objective of an organisation is to exists because while it exists it can do things individuals cannot. No problem - one can certainly understand individuals and organizations as pre-existing (potentially) and lasting through all eternity - as memories, electronic wave forms, or whatever. But at a practical level it would be fair to say that I was not around in 1934. On a miraculous day, December 2, 1935, Harrison burst on the scene. I began. Since then I have been causing no small amount of trouble (in the middle of my life). And sometime, probably not too far in the future, that Troubler will cease. I die, end, take the big trip. Perhaps I will linger on as a memory. Maybe some idle thought I had will contribute to some future event. But as an active participant on this level of existence, I ain't. I don't really see any essential difference between me and organizations in general. We all come, hang about for a bit, and go. To be sure, some folks are hopeful that "their" organization (nation, Church, business) will somehow beat the odds, but to date I have not seen much evidence to support that hope. During the almost 70 years that I have been privileged to be present here on Planet Earth I have witnessed more than a few "eternal institutions" pass on by. Eastern Airlines, Pan American, The British Empire, The Third Reich (which was supposed to be good for 1000 years) - to name a few. From where I sit, Beginning, Middle, and End pretty well sums it up. Harrison Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Drive Potomac, Maryland 20845 Phone 301-365-2093 Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com <http://www.openspaceworld.com/> Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org Personal website http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Shawn Callahan Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2005 5:03 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Multiple Facilitator Roles in Open Space Hi Harrison, I'm new to the list and have been enjoying the posts. By way of introduction I live in Melbourne and work as a consultant who helps organisations grapple with intractable issues. My two main tools are narrative and complexity. You can probably see why I'm very interested in open space. This interest was amplified after meeting Brian Bainbridge a couple of weeks ago and bumping into Chris Corrigan through blog links. I'm not too sure that all self-organising systems have beginnings, middles and ends because what you see depends, in part, on your observation point and scale of observation. When dealing with say, trust, which might be conceptualised as a self-organising emergent property of people interacting, it is difficult to pinpoint the start and end points. Regarding health and unhealthy self-organisation perhaps an indication of health of the system is the length of time order is sustained. I remember Charles Handy saying that the basic objective of an organisation is to exists because while it exists it can do things individuals cannot. Regards Shawn Callahan _____ From: OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Harrison Owen Sent: Wednesday, 4 May 2005 1:22 AM To: [email protected] Subject: FW: Multiple Facilitator Roles in Open Space Michael: clue me in on what a "healthy self-organizing system" is. Seems that there might be "unhealthy self-organizing systems"? Got examples? I think - all self-organizing systems, as also all organisms -- have beginnings, middles, and ends. When it is over, its is over, and quite often at the end things become a little less than healthy. Harrison Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Drive Potomac, Maryland 20845 Phone 301-365-2093 Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com <http://www.openspaceworld.com/> Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org Personal website http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Pannwitz, Michael M Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2005 9:33 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Multiple Facilitator Roles in Open Space Dear Jack and you others, clue me in on what a "healthy self-organizing system" is. Seems that there might be "unhealthy self-organizing systems"? Got examples? Greetings from Berlin mmp --Original Message Text--- From: Jack Ricchiuto Date: Tue, 3 May 2005 07:47:04 -0400 There may be then in all dozens of "facilitators" who participate in the unfolding of space. In that sense, the power and passion and responsibility of facilitation is distributed/decentralized, as power and passion and responsibility is in any healthy self-organizing system. Jack ~~~~~~~~~~ jack ricchiuto two.one.six/three.seven.three/seven.four.seven.five www.designinglife.com / www.appreciativeleadership.org Michael M Pannwitz, boscop eg i.G. Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany ++49-30-772 8000 www.boscop.de www.michaelmpannwitz.de Check out the new Open Space World Map now with 233 Open Space Workers in 45 countries (working in a total of 112 countries worldwide) www.openspaceworldmap.org* * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected]: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected]: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected]: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected]: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected]: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
