Doug -- I don't think there is a great mystery here and each one of us who has been working with Open Space will have our own versions. More to the point, those version will only get better and more powerful to the extent that we share and probe. So that is the invitation to one and all.
For me, the first, most critical, and possibly the most difficult step is to fully recognize the "source." After all you can scarcely get there if you don't know where you are going. And the possibility really diminishes if you don't believe there is a "there" there. The "source" so far as I am concerned is the fundamental power of self-organization -- not just a little bit, not just occasionally, not just in some odd backwater situations -- but everywhere, all the time, and from the top to the bottom. My phrase: "There is no such thing as a non-self organizing system." If this is true, it would seem that there are also a number of mildly deluded people who think they did the organizing. This is a rather "flip" way of describing a quite major reversal of fields. We have been taught, and all the books confirm, that organization is something we create. If you want a picture of it (organization) we produce the Org Chart. This is known as the Formal Organization, and for many (most) people, that is all there is. Way down at the bottom, in some footnote there may be a reference to the "informal organization," but all good managers know that their job is to eliminate it, or at least marginalize and confine it to the coffee pot and the water cooler. But the "real deal" is and remains the formal system. And of course, were you to ask who created the Informal Organization? -- The answer is clearly Nobody, Everybody -- or perhaps most accurately, it happened all by itself (self-organized). I think our first step is to flip the fields -- and understand that the informal system is in fact The Organization. And the Formal Organization is actually just a figment of our imagination. We can draw any picture we want, make any complex diagram of interconnected offices and people, but at the end of the day when we seek to implement it -- this marvelous Formal Organization joins the world and becomes like all other aspects of the world; self-organizing. No matter how hard we try to control things, the system will take on a life of its own. The implications of this heretical view are considerable. If true much of what we do under the heading of organizing is pretty much a waste of time. It would also be true that much of what we have been taught about managing and the role of management will require some drastic revision. And we are left with the interesting question: How can we do something useful and intentional in a self-organizing world? After all, it is out of our control! So what do you think? Harrison Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Drive Potomac, Maryland 20854 Phone 301-365-2093 Skype hhowen Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org Personal website www.ho-image.com OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives Visit: www.listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu] On Behalf Of douglas germann Sent: Wednesday, January 02, 2008 9:20 PM To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Subject: Re: New Year's Resolutions Harrison-- Happy new year to you too! Now you have surely piqued the interest of many of us with your peek at Wave Riders. Perhaps there is a way we can get you to lift the curtain just a little and let us see what it looks like when we "eliminate the middle man and go straight to the source"? :- Doug. * * ========================================================== 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