Appreciating the opportunity to "stroll down memory lane" in celebration of Harrison and of Open Space!
It was my 31st birthday in February 1989. My mentors Antonio Nunez and Howard Schechter had grown an MA program to embody the "Organization Transformation" revolution, one that was partly inaugurated by the publication of Harrison's first "Spirit: Transformation and Development in Organizations" and by John D. Adams' "Transforming Work." I was a student in the program, having transferred from the MA in Anthropology, where I had begun learning with Angeles Arrien. It was the powerful "talking circles" hosted by Antonio and Howard that drew me to switch to their program on a quest for facilitation training. The two programs shared an office suite in the CIIS campus building in San Francisco. The Symposium on Organizational Transformation had gathered in Monterey for the first use of Open Space, and was meeting yearly in different places. I missed the San Diego symposium in 1988, so it was a thrill to learn that our school in San Francisco would host a two-day event with Harrison facilitating! Not that I had any real idea what we were going to encounter! The two days of Open Space introduced an embodied freedom of Being and relating that was truly remarkable. (As we all know.) And to invite us into this magic using only a simple introduction, a circle of chairs, and a blank wall, was like an feat of mystical alchemy. I don't remember where Harrison was during the two days (the old Persian martini bar down the hill on Haight Street?) The closing circle was a festival of warm feelings, songs, and appreciations for our deep learning. We quickly began using OS for our program's student/faculty retreats, and I began to attend many OT and OSONOS gatherings, and joined the MetaNet group space. The genius of facilitating Open Space being "totally present and completely invisible" was a gift that Harrison offered freely, and one of the greatest gifts I have encountered. I don't have a martini in hand (am still with morning coffee) but I raise it, and invite us to raise what we have, to Harrison on your 88th. Boundless gratitude to you! Jeff Aitken Hilo, HI
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