OW design questions

OW questions

Morning Ivan, Isabel BoG and Raff

Just a quick one - as were going through some design discussions there are a few issues/questions we'd like to ask y'all about.

Is this an accurate description of the OW process? (It includes some questions)

• · All tools/equipment purchased and stored on site (on view to inspire the participants)
• · All 153 participants, mentors and facilitators congregate ( 120 participants, 18 technical mentors, 15 Facilitators including 2 Directors)
• · Opening speech by Directors ( does this include giving them sight of a list of work contracts with deadlines for completion available to the new organisation??)
• · Directors retire to their room
• · FE observe and report back on happenings
• · Participants organise themselves and make request to the FE for access to development fund, tools and work contracts
• · A small development fund, tools and contracts are made available (Can we design a work schedule to predetermine the activities they will take on – i.e. a contract to dismantle the mezzanine by the end of week 3 – or is it entirely up to the participants to decide on the order of delivery?
• · PE begins to deliver on the contracts in an unorganised way
• · A combination of the lectures on the Theory of Organisation, the learning via 'objectivised activity' and the introduction of the tools of scientific self management enable the PE to begin to organise themselves effectively
• · The sense of 'ownpowerment' develops rapidly as progress is made
• · The PE experiences shifts in organisational shape as the workshop progresses and continues to improve the effectiveness of delivery
• · The process of 'emancipation from mental slavery' is underway!!!
• · Freedom!!!

Many thank yous

The beautiful new home for the OW enterprise takes root...

Well, things are moving forward set speed at the moment here!

When we submitted the OW project for appraisal the biggest cloud hanging over it's feasibility was the uncertainty over the future of the Marsh Farm Community Enterprise Centre (CERC). As the home for all of the OW projects this uncertainty was raised by the appraisers and urged that we think about other options - particularly as the MFCDT board, the council and "all key partners" supported its demolition and rplacement with a much smaller CERC - which would not be able to house some of the areas of enterprise our research has identified as excellent OW candidates

So our decision to align the OW with the development of the new CERC building was high risk and bold - but now looks wiser by the day as events around the CERC feasibility process continue to prove the truth. Today we recieved artists impressions of the finished article - and what an impressive looking building it will be!

People who were maybe gullible enough to believe the cost estimates, condition assessments and business case made by 'the professionals' advocating its demolition would have had serious doubts about the refurbishment option. But they have been completely amazed by the total viability of the plans for the new CERC, which has proven beyond argument that it will not only be sustainable - it will be a flagship in socio-economic, environmental and ecological terms - and all the more sustainable as a result of the long, hard struggle we have had to undergo to keep the vision alive.

So, next steps are:

• OW panel will meet within 14 days
• GO East and NDC committee (parallel appraisal) within 28 days
  
• the MFCDT board meet on June 23rd to agree the CERC refurbishment option - killing off the demolition option once and for all
• align the beginning of the OW with the beginning of works on redevelopment of the building
• head for a July start to the OW preparations
• August - OW starts - incorporating CERC based works such as taking down of the mezzanine, preparing the play area space, renovation of the front entrance (landscaping, fence removal etc) building of a dividing wall for the garage and envoronmental centre
  

So the OW aligned with taking the first small steps of the CERC redevelopment will see a community transformation like nothing weve ever seen before in the UK. At the same time it will provide the new born enterprise with sure footings, putting it in pole position to continue carrying out as much of the CERC and Central area transformation as possible

Marsh Farm Outreach - Regenerating Regeneration

A LUTA CONTINUA - A VITORIA CERTA

Glenn

Dealing with opportunism

This blog is proving to be helpful. Thank you owistas-in-residence.

Opportunists will be always sitting on the fence, looking at both sides and ready to jump to the side of the winner just before the defining battle takes place. When they see the wind pushing our sail ahead, they will pretend that their are on our side. Sometimes they may even help us here or there, always keeping their boss informed of what they are doing, so that they get a green light or "permission" to do this or that for us (whilst feeding information to the boss in the meantime: what are we doing, what our strategy is, what do we think, what do we say, what is going to be our next move...)

At each juncture the enterprise, (in this case our Facilitators Enterprise) must analise the complex of forces that are at play, for and against the project of the enterprise: in this case, what are the members of the panel, what position they are likely to assume, are they for the OW project? are they "neutral"? are they against the project. Those that are with us: are they going to stand firm throughout? are they likely to give in when the boss puts pressure against the project? what are the interests that make them to sideline with us? Those that are aginst our project: For what reason? are they likely to change sides if explained this or that? what interests make them to be against our project? can we accommodate them, without compromising our principles?

Mind you. Opportunism may also be within our ranks, and Vigilance has to be excercised for the enterprise to be able to unearth it and identify it, and once identified, criticism must play its part and proper measures must be taken to make sure that decisions are enforced. For example, not washing the tea cups, not doing the Critical Analysis, not accomplishing tasks are manifestations of opportunism. The first one, the simplest of all, if not done, creates bad blood in some of us. At the beginning this is a small, very small crack in our Unity and Discipline. Even though small, it is big enough to turn some of us into internal enemies of the enterprise, and without realising it, if these problems continue to go unchecked we should not be surprised if we find some of us co-operating with the external enemies of the enterprise against the project of the enterprise.

The essence of the Critical Analysis, therefore, should be to look into those issues and to set the strategy accordingly. When we are talking only about a set of tasks to accomplish, like the past Festival for example, it is simpler. Now it is a different game altogether. We are getting into deep waters and those that are against the OW know for sure that they have to stop us now, before it is too late.

ONE LOVE! Ivan

Pirates on the High ND SEA

You know those times when you KNOW that somebody aint being upfront about stuff but they have to pretend to be helpful? That was the way it felt today - there are a couple of people about who would rather not see the OW happen because they have their own plans for the resources set aside for it and because they are serving the agenda of other players who they think its good to 'keep in with' for their own careerist self interest.

These pirates will end up walkin their own plank though... just as they deserve to.

As ever, the weakness of their own naff position make even the PROSPECT of an OW shine like a bright star of hope. Their constant and recorded failure to mobilise communities, create work or end hopelessness despite the billions of pounds invested is a track record I wouldn't want to be defending

VIVA the OW

VIVA OWNpowerment

VIVA JAH

OW meeting today

We are meeting today with Lysle Osborne, Ishaq Kazi and Maria from Marsh Farm Trust.

After todays meeting the OW application goes forward to a local residents panel, the committee from Marsh Farm Trust board and regional government office for approval with the hope of starting work in July

Its been a long and winding road but its about that time...

The Object Teaches Us

Thanks Ivan

So there we have it - a great example of 'the object' teaching us,because it was the stresses and strains of having to mould the OW according to chops and changes which highlighted this point and gave us the insight to fully understand it

Im so glad your souls are feeling lighter now - JAH LIVE!!

Glenn

Now we are talking Brothers!

YESSSS BROTHERS, YESSSSSS, That is it! This is Objectivised Activity! It is the people deconstructing the mezzanine and learning to relate with each other in the process. Learning from the screwdriver, learning from the disassembled panels, learning to store them together and to construct something it its stead! In Africa we faced the need for a lecture room to start the TO lectures. Then, we did not do the lecture hall BEFORE the workshop. The participants did it as a workshop activity.

Ever since we came back home after our stay in the UK our souls have been heavy because we felt that even though we made big steps forward in the OW design process, we still had not achieved the design as we understood it, but we could not do more at the time. It was "the object" to play its part after we were gone. Now it all came back to you and I am in stitches as I write! YESS BROTHER! i VIVIDLY REMEMBER WHEN I TOLD YOU HOW EASY WAS TO DISMANTLE THE MEZZANINE, AND WHY THIS WAS IDEAL FOR THE ow PARTICIPANTS TO DOI IT. Then, in this process, they will travel from the naive to the critical, and from the critical to the organizational and we are done! Another thing is that with this newly acquired organizational consciousness they will keep only one bug, umbrella enterprise, or to split it into ten or twenty, and do films, or records, or a farm, or landscape designs, or printings, and ping pong off course!, all 0of these and much more in the process.

We are taking time, but bless the time we are taking, because we are really getting there! One Love, Ivan