Harrison, Holger,

we don`t know the life circle of OST, I still enjoy celbrating it. I have the feeling it will become more and more an instrument of leadership.

We don´t know whether OST is already the essential of self organizing work or whether it will be integrated in normal work even in a more pure version. Be prepared to be surprized.

Ingrid

EBUS Institut für Entwicklungsberatung und Supervision
EBUS UG (haftungsbeschränkt) & Co. KG
Ingrid Ebeling • Am Alten Gehäge 6 • D - 30 657 Hannover
Tel.: +49-511-336 03 30 • Fax: +49-511-336 03 47
e-mail: i...@institut-ebus.de • http://www.institut-ebus.de



Am 15.06.2009 um 21:44 schrieb Harrison Owen:

Holger -- After Open Space? ("Regularly, I have been asking the provocative question: "OST - so, what's next?" Not that I want OST to disappear. But we can't possibly assume that it will be around for the next 1300 years.") One way of thinking about how to answer that question might be to consider how we (or at least I) got to Open Space in the first place and see if there are any clues. What were the design principles? First answer might be, Drink Two Martinis -- but I am not sure how far that would take us. But when it comes to serious design principles, there has been exactly one in all the 25 years that I have been fussing with OST. That principle is: "Think of one more
thing NOT to do." At the first Open Space, we did some small amount of
"community building" and "warm up activities," all of which were quite
pleasant, but as near as I could see, they didn't add much. So the next time, we didn't do them -- and everything seemed to work better. I could go through a pretty lengthy list of things we peeled off here and there -- but the bottom line is that Open Space as I would "do" it today happened by way of elimination. Less and less turned out to be more and more. Following this line of thought and general trend it could be that the "What next?" After Open Space is nothing at all. Actually I rather like that. If we really get it right we won't need extraneous processes to become fully what we are --
self-organizing critters. Or something.

Harrison


Harrison Owen
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-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu] On Behalf Of Holger
Nauheimer (Change Facilitation)
Sent: Monday, June 15, 2009 12:44 PM
To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu
Subject: Re: Open Space being badly defined

Chris,

you said:

"In the world of self-organizing systems and evolutionary processes what matters is variety and diversity. Things only get better when millions of experiments are underway. From those experiments come the mutations and modifications that help create the next level. It's how Open Space emerged,
and it's how it will disappear in good time too."

I draw my hat in admiration - this was the most intelligent thing I heared somebody saying about whether or not Open Space Technology must be used in
its original format (which we all love, and usually fight for) or not.
Regularly, I have been asking the provocative question: "OST - so, what's next?" Not that I want OST to disappear. But we can't possibly assume that it will be around for the next 1300 years. Maybe it will: Robert Jungk's Zukunftswerkstatt still seems to be around, and that tells something about
stickyness of methodologies :) .

It reminds me of the question, "After John Cage, can there be any other new music?" John Cage produced the famous piece 4'33" in the early nineties -
four and a half minute of pure silence:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUJagb7hL0E. But of course, there is new music, even if it will be difficult to beat the radicalism of John Cage.

OST might probably remain the purest "technology of participation", as John Cage's 4'33". I wouldn't know how to simplify self-organized meetings. But as much as we love OST, people need to experiment in order to find out which borders to cross or to stretch. We (the OST aficionados) are in a way the keepers of The Holy Grail of OST and we need to be. But then, we mustn't be to change resistant. Sometimes, OST does not solve the issues of a client,
even if more participation and collaboration is at stake.

I repeat myself: if more and more groups who have different rituals and cultures find a way to host meetings with a self-organization component, I think we (and all the other Sandras, Marvins, Juanitas, Davids, etc.) can proudly say, "we were part of a global paradigm shift in collaboration."

Some people will like OST better, and some not. I don't care. I love it as I
love John Cage.

Holger

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