The use of graphics -- indeed all non-verbal forms -- is a wonderful way to enrich and deepen the experience. But I find it important to remember that Open Space is all about "doing with" and not "doing to." A number of years ago, an old friend from San Francisco created what he called Group Graphics, and I rather suspect his work lies behind a lot of the approaches that folks have been talking about here. His name is David Sibbett, and he along with another old crony, Jim Shannon, concocted some marvelous images. I loved them all, but I found myself commenting to David -- if this is really "Group Graphics" why doesn't the group do it? Having put my foot in my mouth, I felt compelled to come up with something. And so at the First International Symposium on Organization Transformation (Open Space was "born" at the third symposium) where we had some 250 participants exploring an area that had barely been named, we created a huge bulletin board that totally surrounded the folks -- who of course were sitting in a circle. Around the room we had baskets of magic markers and crayons -- and an invitation to draw what you couldn't say, or draw what you could say, but make it clearer with a picture. For about an hour folks did their thing. At the start it was largely individual efforts, but soon small groups formed with group projects. When the initial wave of creation was over, we had this wonderful walk about the hall. Totally without instruction, folks naturally moved from their own work to their neighbors -- and of course conversation followed, as did enhancements and improvements to the drawings. At the end we had this marvelous mural created by everybody. I would call THAT Group Graphics.
Harrison Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Drive Potomac, MD 20854 USA phone 301-365-2093 Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org Personal website www.mindspring.com\~owenhh [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected] Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
