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Open Space Books

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Wave Rider - Leadership for High Performance in a Self-Organizing World
Harrison Owen - Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. 2008

The Practice of Peace
The following book review was written by OSIC Member, Audrey Coward and published by the Human Systems Dynamic Institute.  Audrey had agreed to write this book review during our last members' teleconference.  A PDF version of this review is attached for your convenience.

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The Practice of Peace – A Book Review
©2004. Audrey Briffett Coward. All rights reserved.

The Practice of Peace

by Harrison Owen

Published by Human Systems Dynamics Institute, 2004

Book review by Audrey Briffett Coward, BA (Ed.) CHRP MS (OD)

Harrison defines Peace as "…the dynamic interrelationship of complex forces (including chaos, conflict and confusion) productive of wholeness, health and harmony." He goes on to state that the "practice of peace" is the intentional creation of the requisite conditions under which peace may occur.

According to Harrison, the core mechanism in "The Practice of Peace" is self-organization—a core practice of what we now call Open Space Technology (OST). Self-organization drives toward peace, and, when freely operative, self-organization generates the dynamic interrelationship of complex forces that produce peace—wholeness, health and harmony.

Harrison's gift as a story teller, his use of informal words like "critters," "snake belly low," and metaphors like "a skunk at a garden party" surprise and delight the reader. The book is filled with easy-to-understand applications of the works of Thomas Kuhn, Ken Wilbur, James Gleick, Stuart Kauffman, and Ira Prigogine, among others.

Harrison and others have used OST more than 40,000 times in 83 countries with groups from 5-2000. The book describes the technology in terms that beginners, as well as experienced practitioners, can understand and apply. Harrison provides an easily understood explanation for learning practitioners along with a more in-depth analysis for experienced practitioners. He explores how the power of self-organizing can support the search for peace both in organizations and in our world.

According to Harrison, anyone and everyone can set the conditions for peace to self organize—governments, NGO'S, multi-national organizations, local communities, teachers, farmers and you.

How does this work contribute to human systems dynamics, as a field of work?

• Both ask us to continue thinking, talking and being together differently, in ways that understand and encourage self-organization.
• OST changes our ways of looking at people, systems and processes, and it questions our beliefs about how systems and people grow, change and transform. Indeed, it changes our way of being in the world and the way we do our work.
• We have an opportunity to open dialogue so practitioners and theorists can pose more questions, look for points of intersection, and share their discoveries.
  
  The Practice of Peace – A Book Review
  ©2004. Audrey Briffett Coward. All rights reserved.
  Harrison Owen, (Open Space Institutes, 2003), spiral bound, 182 pages.