Birgitt Bolton an I are in the midst of leading a workshop entitled Opening the Space. It is a four day event that prepares leaders or facilitators to Open the Space. We are leading this one for the new Training and Development group within a newly merged city. It has been a "wow" so far.
We have led 4 of these now, either as stand alone events or as inhouse workshops. Some of the folks who have taken our workshop has also taken Harrisons. Others go on to take Harrisons. Some of them have Opened the Space with OST in a variety of meetings. We keep the prices low with a focus on making it accessible to non-profit or local government groups. A recent event was with the staff team of an organization serving consumer/survivors of mental health services. Most of the participants were consumer survivors, some on substantial medication. They are now Opening Spaces in a variety of ways with the groups they work with in their organization. Some of those groups (like 50 others in Ontario) are developing economic ventures---like making and painting pottery for sale. Certainly, folks from that community can learn to Open Space. (We also had three consumer/survivor consultants at our last public workshop who are now Opening the Space in a variety of organizations across the provice. Their Province Wide organization AGM met in Open Space with 100 people in November. Jody Orr and I led that one and the spirit and movement building was palpable.) I agree with Metta, that I know many trained facilitators who are not at a personal point where they could Open the Space. I know some community workers and some business types with no "facilitator training" who can Open the Space. As at the "training" conversation at the last OSonOS, I don't think training is really the right word. Most people can read Harrison's book and know "how" to lead the process. I know people who have led 15 Open Space events without any "training". It is more about ability to risk with heart, ability to understand a theme or visioin, the ability to engage the trust and confidence of others and the ability to let go and learn. Many of us need help on the journey to discover those abilities. Sure, there is also some learning about the nuts and bolts of an event. That learning is deeper if the Open Space is with an intact organization and requires some contracting and context clarifying to get to the theme or to deal with a dead moose that emerges. Anyway, I don't know if this helps, but I'm sure having fun this week and thought I'd make an entry.
