At 10:41 PM 3/13/00 -0500, Birgitt Williams wrote: Now, this has me thinking that on this list, we may not differentiate between this Open Space of life, and Open Space Technology. I feel that the differentiation is critical. Harrison Owen created Open Space Technology. Seems to me that God invented Open Space. And, in the Open Space that God created, it is fine to be hugely different in our practices, our fun (nerf balls), our personal growth and the right to meet our individual personal growth needs (whether we be facilitators or not) and to play and grow and evolve. And then there is this creation of Harrison Owen's (as outlined in Open Space Technology : a user's guide) which some of us like to work with and use as much as possible in this world of ours.
***************************** Well said Birgitt!! A little history might be useful in support of your point. As I have mentioned before, Open Space Technology was literally a Two Martini Idea. It grew out of frustration and laziness on my part. Frustration with the way I had organized a conference, and laziness in that I resolved never to work that hard again. I was surprised that OS worked, and hadn't a clue about why, or its possible applications. Open Space, on the other hand been with me for some time as a core concept and a central experience in my life. For me, Open Space was simply my way of talking about that moment in our common experience when something appeared out of nothing. I suppose you could think of the moment before the Big Bang as the primal Open Space, and if you want to bring God into the action, that certainly works for me. But regardless of what happened (or didn't happen) when the big firecracker went off, it appeared to me that subsequent experience had a lot of Open Space. Or more exactly Open Space kept showing up when the chaos of our lives cleared the ground so that something new could emerge -- and that emergence has apparently been an ongoing phenomenon. My first book, which was called "Spirit: Transformation and Development in Organizations" (now out of print) tells this story in some detail. The book was written in the very early 80's, well before Open Space Technology showed up in the bottom of my Martini glass. I have tried to tell that story again with some (hopefully) new and useful details in my forthcoming book bearing the title, "The Power of Spirit: How Organizations Transform" (Berrett-Koehler July 2000) The connection between my ruminations on Open Space and Open Space Technology was largely happenstantial. It just dawned on me that much, if not all, of what I had experienced in other environments under the heading of Transformation in Organizations appeared to be happening right before my eyes every time space was opened. Weird, but powerful. Anyhow, if you have been wondering why Open Space seems to work as it does, and where the technology fits in to the larger and much more important enterprise that is our life experience, my current version of the tale will hit the streets in July. Your local book store or any of the several .coms should get you together. This book will complete what I have thought of as The Open Space Quartet. Expanding Our Now introduces Open Space, Open Space Technology: A User's Guide provides the practical details. The Spirit of Leadership explores what to me is the fascinating and critical question of leadership in the open space of our lives where command and control has gotten a little tired. The last volume attempts to put it all together ending up with the very practical business of what I have called "Open Space organization" Just suppose that what we experience in an Open Space event could become a 365 day reality. I think it can, and in fact I rather suspect that we are well on our way. But that, after all, is just my story. (All of the above are published by Berrett-Koehler and are pretty much available worldwide.) Harrison Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Drive Potomac, MD 20854 USA phone 301-469-9269 fax 301-983-9314 website www.mindspring.com/~owenhh Open Space Institute websites www.openspaceworld.org
