Harrison Owen created or maybe he just channelled the Open Space process many years ago. He says he did so in two martinis and 20 minutes – pretty productive for a process that’s been used hundreds of thousands of times around the world.
Here’s Harrison talking about the paradox of leadership in a self-organising world. It’s fabulous stuff. He serves his metaphorical liquor 100% proof and with great charm. I certainly feel challenged to up my game in future when talking about this stuff.
Harrison Owen – Talk I – Leadership in a Self-Organizing World from Harold Shinsato on Vimeo.
A few notes I made along the way – the meaning I made and not a transcript so your mileage may vary:
There is no such thing as a closed system
Management science is an attempt to manage systems as if they are closed
Management professors have tenure, business authors have books and managers have status which gives them a big investment in the notion of the closed system
There’s no such thing as a non-self-organising system, only people deluded that they are organising it.
We do not get to decide whether to be in a self-organising system, that decision was made 13 billion years ago.
We’re all surfers in a self-organising world. Some of us prefer the beach, and some of us think we’re in charge of the wave. The challenge is to be in the flow of the wave.
Hat tip: Dave Pollard
