Harrison: The other day, I met with some leaders of a particular religious (Christian) denomination. They wanted to plan a larger gathering of Elders to have a retreat and to explore what it means to be an Elder in their tradition, at least that was the identifying issue or reason for our meeting, and they invited me to be part of this conversation of how to facilitate for such a conversation.
First I ask them about their intention for this retreat/work. After some conversation, I suggested they have the larger retreat as an Open Space. I spent some time talking about Open Space or at least how we might do it in their setting/context. As I talked, it was fascinating to watch the energy and responses of the group. Some were getting excited, positive energy was cracking, while others began getting nervous, resistant; it seemed they were quaking at the thought of loosing control. Questions and comments ranged from: I dont like this Whatever happens is the only thing that could have. . .Sounds too Calvinistic. Someone else challenged the person and said, No that is not Calvinistic. To me, this is the opposite extreme--human freedom. Someone said, How will those who need structure, the Type A personalities respond to this lack of structure and agendas? Someone else offered the alternative of having a speaker in to lead them, as they have always done in the past. I was amazed to observe them, some fearful, others excited, but all engaged. The energy surfaced and the pot was being stirred. Finally, when the hour was up, which is the amount of time I committed to them, I said, This is your choice. I am not here to persuade you, only to offer you my thoughts. Whatever you choose, let me know. As I was leaving, someone said, You are doing to us what you said the process encourages, letting people work out their own issues. I didnt comment, but simply smiled as I said good-bye and walked out the door. They called me later, and not only did they decide to go with Open Space, but they are planning on going further with it than I had first suggested or imagined. Interesting response from them. Originally they had thought about putting together a schedule or agenda, placing a worship service in the beginning and end, and maybe during the day putting some down time. When they called, they said that they are going to do the entire 3 days as Open Spaceno schedule of worship, etc. . . They said, lets explore doing a worship service as Open Space, but lets let it happen. They are going to let it all be Open Space and what happens is the only thing that can happen. Wow! The is amazing because of the high level of structure and bureaucracy that is built into this group. Now, I have to begin working on being comfortable knowing I dont know" and being okay with it. Getting ready for what ever needs to happen and getting out of the way so it can. Craig * * ========================================================== 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
