[Music] Hello friends my name is Harrison Owen that's an identity check and I'm delighted to be here um I should also tell you I'm a Storyteller and any of you who know anything about storytellers will know that we have a very light regard for the truth um which is another way of saying please do not believe a single thing I'm going to tell you until or unless the truth sort of pops out which is what happens if you tell a good story so I a Storyteller and my story is Dancing with Shiva or if you
don't happen to know that particular lady or gentleman it's a little androgynous try Sandy or Katrina um this story is about dealing effectively with not only the chaos in our lives but the way in which chaos becomes the opening door for emerg in order it's a suggestion that rather than just being the flatsome and Jetsam in this world we can and in fact the active and contributory and effective participants in this dance but we have to understand we do not design the dance we don't control the dance but we surely can do the dance let
me put it in terms that I'm sure that everybody here in the uh Jersey shores will understand Sandy was a major pain in every sense of that word but it is equally true that you could not have a nice day at the beach were not for the sandies and her Kindred over the centuries because the simple truth of the matter is those gorgeous beaches are in fact the product of the ultimate chaos and pounding which shatters prior structures and create something new that we all enjoy this story is in fact a very very old one
it is back in the days of Indian history 5,000 years ago the story of dancing Shiva the Creator and the Destroyer a slightly different version with a different Nuance shows up in China between the yin and the Yang it's not chaos or order it's the dance in between and of course we have a new modern one we call it Chaos Theory complexity Theory emergence you name it but the bottom line is basically the same thing systems all sorts of systems that's you and me our businesses our countries our towns exist in a steady state until
such time as the environment throws them out of their orbit past equilibrium into chaos at which point one of two things happen they go poof dissipate or they renew and reorganize or actually self-organized at new and higher levels of complexity this is an emerging story for sure but there we go one of the side facts that most of I think have found interesting as that story has been told is that chaos is no longer simply the enemy of whatever is chaos in fact ends up being the precursor the necessary precondition for New Order no chaos
no order no chaos no life it is in the dance between Chaos and Order that new things emerge at least that's the story that's being told I think it's fair to say that there's an emerging scientific convergence at this point and people are saying that birds do it beasts do it galaxies do it in fact you might be driven or I find myself driven to two possible conclusions after 77 years on the planet I think this is the only thing I've actually learned number one all systems that includes little teeny ones like ant colonies to
great big ones like the cosmos itself with us somewhere at the smaller end are open we are all in an environment which is constantly pushing and shoving us in new possible directions now if that happens to be true there's an interesting correlation or excuse me consequence for our perceived or hoped for desire to be in charge or in control we aren't we can't think at that low second conclusion I found is all systems are self-organized which is the natural response for being in this turbulent chaotic environment and that has an interesting message for our management
people which includes basically all of us because what managers seem to be doing is organizing stuff but if it turns out that it's all self-organizing maybe we're working a little too hard so here's the question can we learn to ride the waves the creative ways of chaos and destruction so that we can expand and enhance our own efforts I didn't say control but could we ride those waves to some purposeful future I want to suggest that a possible answer proof still out there might have come through this 28y year natural experiment we've been conducting around
the world called open space technology for those of you who don't know open space technology is just a very simple way to help people deal with highly complex conflicted issues process you won't believe it sit in a circle create a bulletin board is identifying the issues that you want to talk about open a Marketplace to figure out the time and place when you're going to get together go to work that's it that's all there is and the amazing part is people do it all by themselves self organiz organizing well that sounds pretty abstract let me
tell you a story maybe bring it down from some people that I suspect you've all heard about AT&T this is 1995 the Olympic Pavilion is about to come to life AT&T along with other corporations is building a pavilion they have an expert crew of 20 odd folks work 10 months come up with an Exquisite design turn it into the Olympic Committee the committee loves it and says hey would you like to move your Pavilion from the edge of the global village to dead center AT&T since it's going to spend $200 million for one reason exposure
says yes only problem is it's December Olympics start in June they knew it took 10 months and anybody would know that you can't take a bill building that was built for the edge where they might have 5,000 visitors and move it to the center where they're going to have 75,000 and still have a building that's going to work so they're back to square one count 10 months from December the Olympics are over and you haven't even built the building guess what 23 people sit in a circle create a bulletin board open the marketplace and go
to work two days later at precisely 5:00 everything stopped not because it was 5:00 but because it was done what they had done was a completely new building designed down to the level of working architectural drawings I grant you it wasn't pretty but it was there and it was working number two they were further ahead with that building than they were with the previous design because while they were doing it they were on their cell phones stuff was hitting the ground in Atlanta number three everybody agreed that it was aesthetically much better than what came
before and number four which I noticed they didn't think about they all loved each other any of you have worked in a really high pressure situation with a team you can drive them to the wall you may get the job done and they all hate each other these folks were hugging and kissing but just notice they managed to do in two days what they knew perfectly well was going to take them 10 months if you figure that out it's a 15,000 per increase in productivity so what happened that's what happened what didn't happen is almost
as interesting I think number one there was no Advanced agenda they walked in cold footed flat two nobody was in charge number three there was no prior training and oh yes they did have a facilitator that was me who was largely known for taking long walks and naps and never intervened all right I had a client one time said Harrison you've invented the timate scheme you know the client does all the work and you just take naps if you think about this this violates absolutely every principle and practice of meeting management or management itself I
don't know of any that it doesn't so reasonable question what on Earth is going on could have been something in the water could have been massive good luck it could have been a whole mess of things except that we haven't counted accurately but we that's thousands of us all around the world have done exactly the same thing somewhere between 250 and 300,000 times in 146 countries over 28 years with groups ranging in size from five to 3500 and the results in every case have been comparable I'm not about to say we always hit 15,000 per
but it's been the same so here's the big secret I think remember I'm a Storyteller don't believe a word all systems including all human systems are fundamentally self-organizing if that's true just remember that organizing a self-organizing system is not only an oxymoron it's stupid particularly if the system could do a better job than you can and the 15,000 per Factor well I take it as good news and bad news the good news is for all those folks you say we don't have the energy the time the spirit the willingness the human bodies to get the
jobs on this plan it done I say guys take a break we're 15,000 under utilization we got a long way to go before we run out of steam or you can take the same number and I think make a useful critique what we're doing is squandering 15,000 per. rough figure of our available energy and talent so our daing with sha is an act of nature it's a natural act it's one we can do so the waves are ours to ride we have only to leave the beach let go of this silly idea of being in
control and remember what any good Surfer would tell you if you think you're in charge of the wave you're in deep trouble thank you [Music]
