Christine and Claudia's story reminds me of a large event I did which was incredibly challenging for me. I have always wanted to write it up to share with you, and their story was an inspiration to do so. I wonder - do any of you, dear colleagues, have stories to share of your most difficult Open Spaces ever? Here is mine. ___________________________ My Most Difficult Open Space Ever I want to recount the story of my most difficult Open Space ever -- to share with you how it always works, in spite of even many things going on at once. It is a practice in keeping the faith - trusting the process, and trusting the people. This was a large international youth event, held in the USA a few years ago. The event brought together over 850 young people from ages 14-19 for a week of experiencing teamwork and leadership. The young people were recommended by their school teachers, counselors and administrators, for their excellence in scholastic achievement, extra-curricular activities (such as sports or art) and for their dedication to community service. Their week together included several days learning skills from teachers and coaches in their chosen area (such as soccer, poetry, culinary arts or voice), a day serving the local community, listening to inspirational speakers each morning, plus two evenings in Open Space. The Open Space focused on the theme of leadership - hence the actual theme was "Be the change you want to see in the world", inspired by Mahatma Gandhi's quote. Under that quote were the questions: "What is my power to create and nourish positive change?" "How can I be the change I want to see in the world?" "How can I make a difference?" "How can I as one person change things?" and "What are my passions and how can I use my passions to shape positive change?" The first evening was for agenda co-creation. Picture 850 young people sitting on the floor of a vast gymnasium. Picture a wide-open center circle, with 4 volunteer space-holders kneeling at 4 points around the circle, each holding a cordless microphone and also a large drawing of the earth. Picture me opening space, sharing the guidelines, inviting the posting of topics. Now picture young people lining up at those 4 points, waiting for their turn at the microphones to announce their topic. One at a time, the volunteer space-holders would hold up a globe (so the huge audience would know who was speaking in such a cavernous room) and hold a microphone for that topic-announcer. Then the next volunteer at the next point in the circle held up their globe and microphone for another young topic announcer, and so it went clockwise around the circle. Now imagine this: In just 20 minutes, 225 topics were announced. Amazing, and exciting. Time for a good overnight sleep. The next evening: 5 hours for the Open Space. Yes, I had tried to get more time and I tried to get continuous time but there were so many activities scheduled for these young people that the best I could get was a 2-part OS (agenda-setting and then the next evening for 4 sessions). When we reconvened, I reviewed the principles and law, indicated the huge gymnasium Agenda Wall filled with topics, and invited them to enjoy their sessions and to gather again in full circle in 4 hours. I had about 20 volunteer space-holders, whom I had briefed in a short orientation the day before. We made signs and prepared materials for 2 days, creating 52 discussion areas (with materials boxes and notes-taker forms) all over the gymnasium floor and into the highest levels of the bleachers. Off those young people went. The region was experiencing a heat wave, and guess what? The air conditioning system broke. So the gym was swelteringly hot. The noise was deafening - 850 young people talking all at once in a gymnasium. They were supposed to get food, and they had all had a long day of doing their sport or activity, and they were incredibly tired. And the food never came. No water, no food. And still, they had a marvelous and productive time. They held sessions all over the gym, on topics such as: * Child Soldiers * Guns in Homes * Overcrowded High Schools * Child Abuse * Should Weapons of Mass Destruction be Destroyed? * Abstinence Versus Teen Pregnancy * America's Fall from a Belief in God * US versus Europe Drinking Age * Choosing the Right College * Cultural Unawareness * Death Penalty -- Right or Wrong? * Genocide * What's Important to Teenagers * Prejudice Against Minorities and Multi-Racial Dating * Abortion * Did We Actually Land on the Moon? * How Modern Language Can Lead to Dispute * Why do Girls in Lacrosse and Hockey Have to Wear Skirts? * Teen Drinking * Sexual Orientation * Can Soccer Survive in the US? * Random Teenage Thoughts * How Kids Don't Eat Healthy * Skin Cancer and Teens * Free-Style Poetry Session, Singing * Gender Equity in High School Athletics * Letter to President Bush * Premarital Sex * Who Will Pay for AIDS? * Why Are Some Addictive, Habit Forming Drugs like Nicotine or Caffeine Legal, But Other Addictive, Habit Forming Drugs Like Cocaine or Marijuana Illegal? * School Violence * Eating Disorders * US Intervention in Foreign Countries * Stem Cell Research * Solving Other Peoples' Problems * US Immigration * Race and Culture * Can An Artist Change the World? .and more. You could look across the room to see some engaged deep in discussion, others teaching their peers how to play chess, inner-city kids teaching little white suburban kids how to dance the "Chicago Hustle", two shy boys looking over the whole crowd to ask each other, "In this whole room, how many kids do you think feel really good about themselves and how many struggle with peer pressure?", and an amazing seething throbbing shifting session about race and culture taking place in the center of the room. To my eye, it looked incredibly successful and productive. But to my client's supervisor, the head of the week-long event, it looked like chaos - utter chaos. And he is a man of control. So after the first 20 minutes, he came up to me and told me to stop the process. I'm looking at 225 amazing sessions posted and conversations popping out all over the room, with young people being truly engaged and learning as leaders from one another, and he is saying stop the process. And I breathed, and I breathed, and I was sorting my words to him when the sound guy (who it turns out was also a space holder and truly appreciated what the kids were doing), said "Gee, we are having problems with the microphone - I cannot give you sound right now, so sorry". And he hid the microphone, bless him. And the volunteer space-holders went around the room reminding the kids know to write up their sessions, even the dance sessions (so that the client's supervisor could eventually see the measure of all those great discussions). And everyone held space and held space, in spite of the heat, the unsettled supervisor, the lack of water and food.and the kids kept going. The young people were not allowed to leave the building. If they *did* try to leave, they were met outside the front door by a phalanx of golf carts driven by chaperones, all pointed towards the front doors with their headlights on (it was night time). Chaperones would say 'go back into the building!' even when a young person wanted to use the Law of Two feet and go back to their dormitory to rest after such a full day. The 5 hours was allotted and darn it, they were supposed to stay in the building for 5 hours. Tired and hungry, the young participants who tried to 'escape' came back into the gym. And still the kids stayed engaged, and kept on going. I breathed, and breathed, and breathed through it all, seeing each 'space invading' challenge is a fact but not as a threat to a rich open space. I trusted the process, and the people, and I really have to say I enjoyed that so many were holding space with me to ensure its success (and that the client's supervisor had to do a little breathing of his own), and let it happen. And at one point I walked up to a volunteer space-holder and said "Walk with me out of the room.now." And we walked outside the building into the night air.and I started crying. I let her know that I wasn't crying because anything was wrong - I just had to cry because one little body cannot hold all that space with all those challenges and not feel full - and that I just needed an airing. We walked, I cried, she held space for me.and then she went to find water and Kleenex so I could get rehydrated and pat my face down and walk back into the room with that serene space-holding look. And that was exactly what I needed. And so the evening continued, with amazing things happening in the room. That one group on race and culture started with a black South African young woman asking her African American urban peers, "You call yourselves African American. You do not know my country, my culture, my food, my people.and yet you call yourselves *African* American.and respectfully I say..aren't you proud to be American?" At which the other black kids got upset, engaged and thoughtful, all at the same time -- and the conversation continued to ebb and thrive with passion and expression as kids sorted out, bumped into and struggled forward in a rich conversation about race, identity and culture. And the really marvelous thing was that surrounding a circle of passionate black kids were people of all races, including those people who would *never* be privy to this sort of dialogue. If they had heard it in another setting they would have either shied away because of being scared around these issues of race and rage and passion -- or they would respectfully step away because the topic was not about people of their ethnicity. And here, in Open Space, all were welcome to witness this rich dialogue and struggle about race and identity. This one discussion continued on through all 4 session times. This Open Space was an adults-may-not-participate-unless-invited zone, and I saw a few discussions where the young people invited an adult to share their experiences, such as one group interviewing an adult who had been a Conscientious Objector during the Gulf War. At another point, these two really skinny short brainy-type young men ran up to me accompanied by these two really gorgeous, 'popular girl'-type young women. And the young women shared excitedly, "They are teaching us about the passion.of chess!" "Carry on," I said, smiling, and channeling Harrison. And so it continued. Closing Circle consisted of those 850 young people reassembled on the gym floor, sharing rich comments and insightful observations. The next day my 20 volunteer space-holders transcribed hundreds of pages of notes for the Book of Proceedings, which was made ready for all participants by the last day of the conference (in this design, the young people were so tightly scheduled in other things that we took this step so they could still have a Book of Proceedings). We filtered through handwriting and - knowing this client's supervisor - we sadly (for me) replaced any swear words we found with symbols like "%*(&$*!#@!!" to indicate those words. (Sadly because I appreciate full free speech and wish to keep participants' words and forms of expressions intact). We created 1500 CD's (for every young person and adult participating in this event) and readied them for closing ceremonies. Okay so the client's supervisor found 1 swear word we missed. So he did not allow distribution of the Book of Proceedings to the young people. And okay I was notably not asked back when they had this event again.
But I must say, I feel part of one of the most amazing Open Spaces ever, even if it was the most difficult one I have ever done. What an honor and a pleasure it was to work with such fabulous co-space-holders and to serve those incredible young leaders. I would do it again in a heartbeat. Lisa ___________________________ L i s a H e f t Consultant, Facilitator, Educator O p e n i n g S p a c e 2325 Oregon Berkeley, California 94705-1106 USA +01 510 548-8449 <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected] <http://www.openingspace.net> www.openingspace.net * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected]: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
