Thanks Harrison and Harold and the others for sharing your
inspiration. It makes me smile and I can feel like the fish watching
you and being happy.
A lesson that I draw from it is that I myself tend to want to find
the perfect wave, and my challenge is that I wait too long, never
jumping because I keep expecting the next wave to be even better. For
me, it is also important to take the jump and go with whatever I get
and be happy with it.
Love,
Koos
At 09:00 27-8-2010, Harold Shinsato wrote:
An amazing piece, Harrison - thank you - it was worth several
readings. I concur with what Suzanne highlighted, and at the same
time - there were so many "i gotta quote that" moments as I read it.
I'm glad Eleder added lots of literal color with his comprehensive
quote of your writing on his blog. "Invitation" is so much what Open
Space is about - and it's really an invitation to deepen - an
invitation into our selves. I'll take that invitation - and pass it
on with this message.
Your post title, everything is moving, evokes thoughts about
Buckminster Fuller when he said "I seem to be a verb, an
evolutionary process". I wonder where this email thread will evolve.
Earlier this month I was in Orlando at Agile 2010, an annual
software conference that got started early in the aughts, the 00's,
as a purely Open Space Technology event - but which the organizers
decided "OST wouldn't scale". So the Open Space morphed into "Open
Jam" on the "sidelines" which people mostly pass on their way to
officially chosen events, and which has no facilitated opening,
circle, or closing. OST would make the event so much better, but I'm
glad there's at least some of that same spirit. It was great getting
to meet and interact with attendees at these more spontaneous
sessions - several of which were touted in the twitter world as "my
favorite session at Agile 2010".
One of those "Open Jam" sessions was an actual 90 minute Open Space
Technology event at 7:30am the morning. To make that early hour even
more challenging, it was after the conference party. Suzanne Daigle
facilitated it - and it was wonderful. Even with only about 10
people and just one session - it was such a refreshing process. It
was invigorating as opposed to so many other sessions at Agile 2010
which were really exhausting. The people who showed up at our mini
OST were just the right people, even at that early hour after only a
few hours sleep. The theme was also exciting - taking Scrum and
Agile beyond software - a foreshadowing of the event Suzanne will
facilitate in Phoenix next month.
<http://phoenix.scrumgathering.org/>http://phoenix.scrumgathering.org/
Since I was in Florida for Agile 2010, I was fortunate enough to
visit Sarasota and enjoy the Gulf of Mexico waters lapping gently on
the "west coast" of Florida (thank goodness there was nary a sign
spilled oil). The waves were small, but large enough to do a bit of
body surfing, and since my head was swimming with Open Space
Technology after hours of speaking with Suzanne Daigle - it's no
surprise that I thought - Hey... I'm a wave rider.
Here are my wave rider lessons from body surfing in Florida:
* Being in a gentle surf and fairly shallow water made it
possible to learn quite a few wave rider lessons very quickly. How
true is that too with OST when it is facilitated well - there is
safety to bring up your issues and not worry if no one shows up and
the freedom to use your 2 feet when it's time to learn something else.
* Body surfing requires finding and waiting in the place just
before the waves break, perhaps I can call it "the zone". The best
breaking waves do have a tendency to congregate in the zone. So I
was using my "two feet" to get there, but the location of the zone
kept changing. Being in "the zone" is a lot easier if you don't try
so hard to be in "the zone".
* When I caught a really good wave - it was great fun riding it
to the shore. But catching a wave totally took me out of the wave
breaking zone. It made me realize that success, catching a wave,
ends up with me laying on the sand surrounded by foam as the
shattered remnants of the wave recede behind me back into the
ocean. Once the wave is over, it means getting up and then making a
not so exciting hike/swim back to the zone. Maybe it's good to
remember that wave riding is about more than just catching the perfect wave.
* It was interesting waiting for waves. Every time I caught a
great wave, there was another one just after it that was even
better, so I had some great luck letting a good wave pass to catch
an even better one. Maybe it's like versions of software... you
don't usually want to jump on wave 1.0 - sometimes the best wave is
just after the first one. Maybe it's also like that for the
issue/theme you might want to work on. If you jump on wave 1.0,
maybe you'll be on the shore when wave 2.0 comes.
* I was so happy after just a little bit of body surfing, when I
waded out of the water I noticed these teaming schools of small
fish swarming around my legs. So much life, gleaming and darting
and glittering. I think they were there before, just beneath the
surface, but I felt oddly and serenely certain that they could
sense my happiness and they were dancing with my joy - happy
finally to share it with me. How much of the dance is happening
right now just beneath the surface of the water - no matter where
we are on the wave.
Yours in Open Space,
Harold (in Montana)
On 8/26/10 4:34 PM, Suzanne Daigle wrote:
Harrison,
I accept the blame gladly if chiding you for being quiet led to this.
Salutations to Ralph who inspired the "everything is moving" with you
then taking us all on a journey at sea on the Ethelyn Rose. Virtual
Wave Riding on this 25th anniversary year of Open Space. How fitting!
Of everything that you wrote here, what speaks to me most is this sentence:
"For me an invitation to Open Space is an opportunity to include
friends and strangers in the deepest experience of (my) life."
Thank you Harrison for inviting us all as you have all these years
which has led us to invite others and each other in this big global
community. In the spirit of invitation, how I wish I could know and
hear all those who are out there now in the simplicity of this moment
whether it's sitting at the kitchen table like me so glad that the sun
is out after 4 days of gray skies and rain. If anyone feels so
inclined, I invite you to come to the middle of this virtual circle to
write a few words on one of the big white sheets of virtual paper on
the floor.
It's an invitation to everyone out there to Open a bit of Space to
share for a brief magical moment where you are, how you feel or what's
up with you right NOW, wherever you are! Not much that I know most
days, but one thing I know for sure is that connecting with others
gives me courage and much joy!
Whimsically curious in Florida, Suzanne
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