Jeff: I think you are on to something. "Container" or "Givens" or things that are not intended to be on the table by the sponsor of an event are both social constructions and acknowledgement of "something" that is there. If I sit on a chair, that is gone, I will fall on my ass (or some other part of my anatomy) - I take that as given. If there is a business plan that requires board approval for change - that is usually taken as a "given". It does not mean that it cannot be changed, but it is there now - just like Human Rights Codes and others thing are likely there. Of course, in Canada, these things may be a little less open for immediate negotiation as they are in the US. I don't think George saw anything in Iraq that should be taken a given, other than his socially constructed vision for its future.
I think it also relates to levels of awareness. At one level there are no givens, every moment comes into being with the opportunity for novelty. However, most rocks don't decide to decompose in a few days -- granite takes a little longer. Some of my clients, from their perspective, have some real givens that they construct. I think naming and reducing the number of them is helpful as part of planning to open space or deciding whether or not to open space in this situation with this client. Helping them consciously reduce the number of givens is useful learning, I think. Will open space work if that is not done - yes. However, I am seeing the consequences over this two week period. One client I'm working with now on a series of 14 OS has had some real variability in how she has set the context - how clearly she has told people what this part of the government is wanting to do, to engage them in and the fact that it will not commit resources to the self-organization it wants to seed in the community. The quality and energy of the events have been worse when she was not clear or passionate (she got a cold). People were more combatitive when she was not honest with them from the beginning about the situation. The OST has worked every time to engage people and energy around the theme. The issues emerge in the convergence and next steps when the context is not clearly and honestly set by the sponsor. Larry Larry Peterson Associates in Transformation Toronto, ON, Canada 416.653.4829 la...@spiritedorg.com www.spiritedorg.com * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
