Doug,
Wow.
Yes, I agree let's keep inviting, keep opening more space.
My invitation...
"what is our shared vision? what do we need to stop doing to make
space for what we want to start doing? how do we honor what we will
stop doing? and, how do we walk forward and create our future
together?"
(See my posting on 7/15 for more details)
is very much in line with keeping the conversation going. First, on a
personal, individual level, (what am I willing to take responsibility
for in my entire life, including past responsibilities and newly found
responsibilities?); Next, how do these passions and responsibilities
come together in a common future?
As I said before, I think this invitation around creating a space for
passion and responsibility to be chosen and to flourish in each
approaching moment has been implicit in OST. I am asking,
Is there a need as facilitators of Open Space, (within the "formally
bounded" OST and in keeping the space open as participants leave the
event) to provide an explicit invitation to an emerging, opening space
where each participant can examine their whole lives in conjunction with
the Open Space which they just experienced? And is there a
responsibility as facilitators to hold that space open for reflection as
part of an OST event?
Doug wrote:
It is becoming clearer to me that we are on a path of evolution, and that
the next steps are to consciously evolve the species called humankind, and
in my view, toward what is good, life-enhancing, beauty. To go one step
further, evolution is leading us to do this together. Conversation is the
main tool I see to make this happen. Meg Wheatley says Conversation is how
we humans think together. I would add, evolve together. This is why it seems
clear to me that Harrison is seeing OST as a halfway technology: it is on the
way to conscious evolution. Perhaps more on that later.
I really don't know how humankind will evolve or what we will evolve
into. I support opening and holding space for having the conversations
people want to have, but I have no intention beyond offering the
opportunity for each person to be authentic in each moment.
For me Open Space is not about what is right, or good, or best for
humankind. And I have no way of really knowing whether evolution is
good, to me evolution can be described as becoming more complex and even
that is a stretch for what I know.
Harrison wrote:
I knew I was going to get in trouble when I wrote this one. But there was
some sort of purpose. For fairly obvious reason, I would be the last person
to deny the power and utility of OS -- and I really cannot quibble with its
completeness. Surely it has a beginning, middle and end. What pushed me,
however, was some concern about our objectives. Why do an OS? Obviously
there are multiple answers, all valid in their own domain. Such things as a)
Having a better meeting. b) Energizing an organization. c) Building a
strategic plan. d) Designing a new product. e)etc, etc. All useful and good,
I am sure. But why do we REALLY do it? My answer to this one would be -- to
enable folks to see themselves as they really are, and fully appreciate
their wholeness. When, if, or as that happens -- there is no need for Open
Space, and it becomes quite clear that OST was just a step along the way. In
a word -- a halfway technology.
It was in this context that I found my self wondering whether there were
some things that we did (or did not do) that stood in the way of what (for
me) was the ultimate objective.
ho May 18, 2004
So I don't see that the ultimate objective for Harrison is conscious
evolution, but Harrison would be best to speak to that point. Maybe
Harrison has said something I have missed. I see my invitation above is
another step towards or maybe starting to go past the half-way point.
What does anyone else think?
Doug wrote:
"So what I see in society is a process of breathing. One person comes up
with a wonderful new idea. He or She takes it to the group (1 or more other
people, with or without the benefit of OST), and it either dies or grows
there. If it lives, then several people take it back home and noodle on it.
Then they come back to the group, and maybe it is the same group and maybe
it is many groups. If it is something which adds to life, life evolves."
I love your breathing description of society and I honor your vision of
evolution.
Doug wrote:
If we could but get intentional about it.... <sigh>
That's what our conversation is about, isn't it--getting intentional about
evolving humankind?
For me, opening space is about inviting authenticity and spirit into the
room and noticing what comes out.
Doug wrote:
I am beginning to see that the passion and responsibility of the individual
is indeed limited, but that of the group, being connected to the open
space, is practically, if not totally, infinite. And so if we keep people
connected to the open space, which means keep inviting the conversations,
then we have brought about one more step of conscious evolution.
Wonderful!!!
So,
"What are you going to do for the rest of your life?"
Let's open more space.
With Grace and Love,
Zelle
************
Zelle Nelson
Engaging the Soul at Work/Know Place Like Home/State of Grace Document
www.maureenandzelle.com
www.stateofgracedocument.com
[email protected]
office - 828.693.0802
mobile - 847.951.7030
Ravenswood - Isle of Skye
2021 Greenville Hwy
Flat Rock, NC 28731
Douglas D. Germann, Sr. wrote:
Zelle--
Thought-provoking, you! Thank you Zelle.
My thinking has been going in a slightly different direction recently, and
that prompts the way I replied to you previously, and now.
It is becoming clearer to me that we are on a path of evolution, and that
the next steps are to consciously evolve the species called humankind, and
in my view, toward what is good, life-enhancing, beauty. To go one step
further, evolution is leading us to do this together. Conversation is the
main tool I see to make this happen. Meg Wheatley says Conversation is how
we humans think together. I would add, evolve together. This is why it
seems clear to me that Harrison is seeing OST as a halfway technology: it
is on the way to conscious evolution. Perhaps more on that later.
So what I see in society is a process of breathing. One person comes up
with a wonderful new idea. He or She takes it to the group (1 or more other
people, with or without the benefit of OST), and it either dies or grows
there. If it lives, then several people take it back home and noodle on it.
Then they come back to the group, and maybe it is the same group and maybe
it is many groups. If it is something which adds to life, life evolves.
If we could but get intentional about it.... <sigh>
That's what our conversation is about, isn't it--getting intentional about
evolving humankind?
So long way around the barn to respond directly to what you have noticed!
When you see people getting empassioned in an OST, and then losing that
passion as they go back to the "real" world, what I see is this: They have
been in a group of engaged, responsible, passionate people. Then they go
back to the cocoon/cubicle in their corporation. That is when the despair
sets in.
And as Harrison says, that despair is what we want to see, where we want to
lead people. For once they are that far in the grief process, then they may
be open to the question, What are you going to do for the rest of your
life?
So yes, we do need death. We need to get past the stuff we need to get rid
of, to make space (open space) for the birth of our life.
I am beginning to see that the passion and responsibility of the individual
is indeed limited, but that of the group, being connected to the open
space, is practically, if not totally, infinite. And so if we keep people
connected to the open space, which means keep inviting the conversations,
then we have brought about one more step of conscious evolution.
What do you think?
:-Doug.
Seeking people making change.
*
*
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