Hi all! Following is pretty much a transcription from our May 28th skype covering a range of issues:
nature of self-organization; role of facilitator in OS, spirit and ego in circle, applications in Waldorf schools, communicating these things to others, next generation demands for open space leadership and organizations.... I will try to summarize next time instead, but the stories and comments are just so good! *5/28/13 OS skype chat* * * *Participants: *Skye Hirst, Linda Stevenson, Paul Levy, Tricia Chirumbole Linda: You don’t need prescriptions – just bring people together around a topic and let them go – HO was more forward at the opening night to WOSonOS than ever before about how much the world needs OS - The world needs it, things aren’t working. Skye: Yes, how can we do this? Get the word out there about OS to more people…tells a story of people gathered in a circle in the kitchen in her new home during a party and how they did not go anywhere else. I believe talking about the magic or power of the circle Paul asks: When we say ‘Get the word out there’ – Are we talking just about OST or other stuff too? What do we mean by that? What are we getting out there? Linda: Being sensitive to places – allowing a community or organization to get together and breathe and see what happens; she is against trying to fix the world, offering space in a non-prescriptive way is her belief. Someone said at WOSonOS: Closing circle could have been shorter. They have ways in the art of hosting to achieve such things. It is not a bad thing to do, but then it’s not open space; it is imposing a prescription. If you are passing a stick, you don’t know how long it will take to go around. You are holding space for the stick to circle. If you don’t want to do a talking stick, then only ask for a few comments. Our tendency to fix or control, out of the best intentions, can complicate in a way that is not necessary. I know some communities in Minnesota that are gathering regarding taking their health back. A woman in FL who is a physician recently trained in OS [not sure if she was participating in the MN community meetings on health?] ….great way of slipping into a community, give them the experience of opening space, around taking their health back – how juicy those conversations could be – could take off. Not a model for other communities necessarily. Linda doing an OS for a NGO in MN with people from many sectors, who knows what will come from it? Old interventions are not really doing it. I think we have an opportunity; not sure what it’s going to look like. Having conversations like….keeping the intention and holding that space, can be done more effectively and efficiently and humanity deserves voices to be invited and heard and when space is open conflict gets transformed and dialogues happen. Upon question, Linda replies that she has done OS facilitation training - 0.5 day to full 4 days in the past with HO. Anyone can read book and do it. Would recommend having an experienced person with you if you were doing with many people. Paul: does facilitation pollute the circle? Linda: she does not see it as facilitation; it is invitation, setting the context, pre-work to get a broad, creative theme. You work with leadership so they understand they are one, equal persons – starts with the invitation – one thing you are doing is communicating trust that this will work. You exude trust in the process, have conversations with client so they develop trust with you, when you open you are reminding them of what they already know what they know how to do, then hold space so everyone’s voice is equally heard and not controlled by anyone. Linda conveys a book recommendation from Suzanne: *Igniting the Tribe; *Millenials are saying they don’t want to work for organizations that “suck”; millenials are saying they want leadership in the moment, shared, appropriate teams and structures that are self-organized. HO never been wedded to OST, put together a way of deliberately inviting that worked. Linda mentions Ken Blanchard [forget who he is]– young OD folks are more responsive, people are backing into this [OST], millenials will not settle for anything less– won’t even know about “OST”….will be able to honor both the formal and informal – we will be out of the job as OS facilitators – they will know when to do it – we need to bring leadership together young and old – I would like to do that in the twin cities, there is your leverage to loosen up some of those organizations – unleashing the potential of humanity, not to promote OS, giving them the joy of experiencing OS. Skye: mentions research she read on why whistleblowers become whistleblowers, in environments where whistleblowing is embraced by the peers – environmental conditions? Why is it if all this self-organization is so wonderful, why doesn’t that ever change?,…[think I missed something here]…What is it about Village Care going into a community that is effective? So what are we talking about? Paul: Tells a story about a school governor in UK of a Waldorf kindergarten school system – there was conflict among teachers. Coming back to the theory of Waldorf, when you have a kindergarten of 3-4 year olds, called differing things: little munchkins, angels, devils, toddlers, children in this group – they do a lot of circle work with those children – ring time, play various games, most kids at that age are not strongly in their ego. There was an argument among teachers about the interpretation of their role as facilitators in the room. One said: “Our role is to hold the ego of the group, because these munchkins don’t have their ego yet.” They do clapping songs, make things together, free play, when play is outside of control, the holder of the ego brings it back and reforms the circle. Another said, “No, we are not holding the ego, because there isn’t one. We are *being*the ego of the group. A reply to this, “But it’s not your ego.” What is the self in self organization? I think role of teacher is to be the ego of the group and the ego of the circle is a genius, selfless act to enter into the space, to allow it to express itself in physical reality. Then once that has started that person steps back; In Waldorf that could happen in any amount of time. Then they allow the ego to self-organize. The role of the facilitator is to be the ego – we recapitulate the whole evolution of humanity, at the beginning, then evolve quickly, think what happens in government the person confuses the sacred role of being the ego and confuse it with their own ego and then they can’t let go. Linda mentions that in Zen philosophy they speak of 3 poisons: greed, anger, and self-delusion – entrenched in political party and money…..missed something Linda: The Self in self organization is the aggregate; You need to open a space big enough for that to show up – big enough for everyone to voice what they care about, if an individual ego steps in, interrupts, the aggregate has a chance to be in that circle. We don’t give an organization and community and school room. Self-organization is a terrible term; it’s the aggregate – everyone who cares about particular theme, so much to contribute to successful adaptation. Paul: Interestingly in the kindergarten in Steiner approach, when there’s a circle, the circle is pure itself, the metaphorical way, the self of an angel – enter the self of the circle, what HO seems to suggest, hold it as short as possible, withdraw as soon as self-org starts to often, facilitator often holds it too long, ego become confused with the self of the group – it is a selfless act, but from circle’s point of view it is a selfish act, because Paul – has been doing YouTube research. 45-60 minutes is average opening space time; Linda says it should be no more than 10-15 at the beginning. Paul queries, what if leaders were rewarded for holding space for as little as possible?? (Tricia likes this idea! And thinks it could/should apply to companies, institutions and governments as whole entities beyond the “leaders” within them) Linda mentions that there was some opening of space in congress, I think in Clinton era, old cultures are right there still. Action learning groups – more survive when fully facilitated than when self-managed; gamers – more got done when self-managed If we did have evidence….look at open source stuff, look what gets done – bring their best, paid nothing Generation Y, demonstrating that self-management delivers on the bottom line – proof in that part of the economy Skye – quote about freedom is the ability to express one/to be oneself. To me that is what is happening in open space, anything where you start to allow the individual to be in their personal agency – doesn’t matter form or body, environment allows that to happen, Paul - 60 year data set that shows if you limit freedom you increase productivity in a lot of sectors, how do you undo that? Skye - Data collection still based on the interpreter, and the initial forming question not even being thought about and the data is not what we can depend on. Paul – 20k open spaces in Africa, allowing people w/ no resources, dig wells, safety, education programs, more effective with less resources than when well-intentioned paternalistic NGOs – no-brainer? Start collecting the OS data? Skye: more to it than what we’re saying – somebody needs to dig in. all kinds of things that contribute to the making of the self-organization Paul – majority of communications – still linear, email chains, discussion thread – chains, apart from those developed in OS still not imagining dialogue could be more effective in a circle. Skye would like to know what is going on in Sweden from Pernilla. Somebody proposed: “Let’s talk about what self-organization is.” Paul mentions he would like to get the rest of the story of David’s work. Is he headed off to Africa? -- Tricia Chirumbole US: +1-571-232-0942 Skype: tricia.chirumbole
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