Chris, Harrison, Lenore, everyone,
Thank you so much for contributing to this great discussion! Lenore -
great to see you here!
Chris - I think you have found something:
Open Space disappears after a while. I think Harrison, you might
have had this experience in Japan recently if I'm not mistaken.
"Come and be with us," people say. And it is because you are who you
are that people want you to be with them and work with them. You
might not even do an Open Space. But when you do an Open Space, it
isn't anything special, it is just what you do.
For me, it has been interesting over the past 10 years of so watching
how Open Space has shaped who I am and how it has led me into
thinking about and seeing the world in different ways. And these
ways of thinking and seeing, rooted as they are in an Open Space
worldview are pretty unusual still in the world at large. So when I
show up in different settings asking questions that we ask if we come
out of an Open Space worldview, then it often seems as if a breath of
fresh air has come into the room. Whether we end up doing an OST
even or not, it's that presence that seems to matter.
What I have learned is that presence is no mere accident. It is the
result of years and years of practice, informed and supported by
folks like the ones on this list who fill my inbox with scads of
things to work on, to continue to refine my view of things.
My view does not always land with complete acceptance in others, and
probably most of us here have had the experience of people think we
were completely nuts. That's fine with me. I just don't work with
people who think I'm crazy. I find though that the ones that do get
what I'm saying seem to have a hunger for this type of "being" in the
world and our working relationships become very deep.
For me trying to figure out who I am has the effect of wanting to
place a boundary around myself if only to make it easier to define
what is within. The practice perspective does the opposite in my
experience...it allows me to continue growing more and more open and
even in doing so, find my core more and more reinforced. It's when
the boundaries start slipping away, between work and practice,
between process and product, between Open Space technology and open
space, that things really get interesting.
And it feels like you're describing my life too! As you walk into the
front door of our home in North Carolina, the first thing you see is
several framed posters giving the foundations for the life of my
wife, myself, and everyong who is invited to our home (and by the way
everyone and anyone is welcome anyday, anytime to share our home - it
is an open invitation - our door is always unlocked and open even if
my wife and I are not avaialble to chat or even in the country).
One of the 4 posters invites you to live in Open Space - and that's
what we do in our home and our lives - so there are the principles
and the law for everyone to see as you walk in the door.
(The other 3 speek to the other levels on our journey into
authenticity, a moment to moment practice).
Harrison - I'd say you have definitely found something in Open Space
Technology.
with grace and love,
Zelle
Zelle Nelson
Engaging the Soul at Work/State of Grace Document/Know Place Like Home
www.stateofgracedocument.com
ze...@knowplacelikehome.com
work/home: 828.693.0802
mobile: 847.951.7030
Isle of Skye
2021 Greenville Hwy
Flat Rock, NC 28731
USA
On May 26, 2006, at 2:13 PM, Lenore Mewton wrote:
I am compelled to chime in here, although this is my first time
doing so. Ever since being introduced to this list by Chris
Corrigan and Wendy Farmer - O'Neil, in Vancouver in October- I have
watched and listened, tried to take it all in.
As a (former) psychotherapist, now 'coach', facilitator- none of
the names really matter to me now. What is most important is
bringing my true self to the table or circle, if you will. I am so
pleased to hear you say, Harrison, that it does not take a ton of
training to 'do' Open Space well- as I"ve had some wonderful
windows to learn the process, in training settings, but have been
'fearful' of going out on my own to 'do' it as I put too much
pressure on myself to know how to do things 'well'- (whose
measurement is that??).
What always works in the end, with any client, person, or group- is
to be willing to 'be'- and I think the other piece that in the end
matters in terms of 'competencies' to do this work- is knowing how
to invite and 'hold' space for others in a gentle, loving way that
invites them to be as authentic as you strive to be.
this may all have been said before-- I have trouble keeping up with
all these great emails! But, I wanted to chime in.
Thank you all for your generous sharings.
Lenore Mewton
----- Original Message ----- From: "Harrison Owen"
<hho...@verizon.net>
To: <osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu>
Sent: Friday, May 26, 2006 12:13 PM
Subject: Authenticity and self-discovery in Open Space
Thinking about the manifestation of masculine and feminine in each
one of us
took me to another place, and I suppose it is all related. But I
may have to
go several times around the barn in order to find the door!?? In other
words, I will probably wander a bit, but I think there is a point.
It is
all about authenticity and self-discovery.
From the very beginning of this Open Space adventure it has been
very clear
to me that anybody with a good head and a good heart can "do it."
It is not
that training and experience count for nothing, but they are
clearly not
prerequisite for doing an Open Space. If you can sit in a circle,
create a
bulletin board, open a market place, you will get on with the
business. At
some significant level, the capacity to open space doesn't have a
thing to
do with training and experience; it seems almost like a natural
act. This
was certainly true with my first Open Space. It seems like a long
time ago
(21 years), and at the same time it is only yesterday. But long or
short, it
is very clear to me that I didn't have a clue what I was doing. No
theory,
no training, no nothing - but it surely felt good.
And as things went along, I watched other people having the same
experience.
Without a book to read, training program to participate in, or
colleagues
for support - they just jumped in. And everything just worked out
perfect.
Of course, once you have done something and it seems to work, there
is a
natural tendency to attempt some improvements. And so some of my
friends
began to think of other things they could do, ways of integrating
(combining) Open Space with whatever sorts of approaches they had been
using, or had recently learned about. Interestingly enough, as I
watched
their efforts, it seemed to me that they more they fiddled (added,
changed,
sequenced etc) the more cumbersome and less functional the
experience in
Open Space became. My personal approach went just the other
direction, and I
found myself thinking about one more thing to leave out - not do!
It was not unlike peeling an onion. Layer after layer disappeared,
and of
course, if you keep on going eventually you get to a point where
there is
nothing there! I pretty much reached that point and simultaneously
found
myself with a marvelous conundrum - the less I did, the better
things got,
and if I ever were to reach a point where I did nothing at all,
that should
be the best of all! Fair enough - but then what did I bring to the
party?
What was it about me that was significant?
I suppose this could sound like longing to be loved (Somebody,
please NEEEED
ME!). Guilty as charged, I am sure. And I think the question is a
real one.
Who am I and what difference does that make? I guess the simple
answer is:
I am me, complicated by the fact that "me" changes over time. The only
"thing" I will ever bring to the party is me, nothing more, nothing
less -
just me. And the only thing that seems to matter much is that the
"me" that
shows up is really me. Not some abstract me. Not some new and
improved me.
Not somebody else's version of me. Just me. Just the way I am. I
think that
is called "authenticity."
At this point the waters get a little muddy, if only because the
"me" I am
changes day to day. Or what may be the same thing; my awareness of
this
little old me changes. So just who is this "me" that shows up? The
traditional approach to such an interesting question would be to
engage in
some form of self-analysis prior to showing up. But that never
worked for
me. The harder I tried to figure out who I was, the more confused I
became -
and I suspect that confusion was also draped in a mantel of
inauthenticity.
More often than not, I came out looking like something I thought I
should
be, or that somebody else wanted me to be - all under the heading of
self-improvement.
So I just showed up, any way I could, and did what I was able to
do. No
apologies. Sounds kind of in-your-face, but it definitely worked in
a most
unexpected fashion. Somehow or another, the Open Space environment
(whether
I was the facilitator or participant) striped away all of the
should-have-beens, might-have-beens, could-have-beens. And in
retrospect I
discovered elements of me I never expected.
So where does this tour around the barn leave us? Speaking
personally, I
have found that the experience in Open Space to be an incredible
dialogue
between the me that showed up authentically and the emergent self
that that
greeted me at the end of the day. If nothing else it sure beats
psychoanalysis and is a lot cheaper.
And for whatever it is worth, one of the things I discovered about
me is
that I am bi-polar for sure - Masculine and Feminine.
Harrison
Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, Maryland 20854
Phone 301-365-2093
Skype hhowen
Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com <http://
www.openspaceworld.com/>
Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
Personal website www.ho-image.com
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