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CHAPTER
14
Brainstorming for the Masses
People’s problems are forcing them to work together, and they
are recognizing that. The problems they have result from a whole
set of interdependencies that force them to work together.
—Peter Senge, MITThe first process for unleashing an organization’s creativity is so
simple and so powerful that you would think every major organi-
zation would use it monthly. Some do, but most don’t. Go figure.
The door is wide open for you and your investment group to take
full advantage of this process, thereby crushing the competition
like insects under your bootheels and... well, you get the idea.
The process is called Open Space and it was introduced by
Harrison Owen, a clergyman turned consultant. Based on the theo-
ries of self-organizing systems, proposed by Meg Wheatley, Peter
Senge, and others, Open Space is the right-brained (NFP) response
to a left-brained (STJ) world. The American population is domi-
nated by sensing (S), thinking (T), and judging (J) personalities,
not only in terms of sheer numbers—there are more of them—but
culturally as well. Most organizations, including schools, businesses,
investment shops (as discussed earlier), hospitals, and so on, are
run by STJ rules. What does that mean? William Bridges, author
of The Character of Organizations (Davies-Black 1992), writes of
STJ organizations that:14-25 ware 121 1/19/01, 1:13 PM