Hardly a novice -- Sounds to me like you went right to the core! The stories you tell are touching, very touching. And they touch on a point that has fascinated me for years the apparent cultural neutrality of Open Space. As near as I can determine, OS works anywhere. I have looked long and hard for some indication that this apparent universality is only apparent, feeling that if we could find some genuine exception we might learn a great deal about Open Space and possibly also the cultural environment in which it failed to function. But every time I thought I had a real live one a total flop it turned out on closer questioning that the difficulty had nothing to do with Open Space. Sometimes folks were trying what they called, a little bit of Open Space, or same thing with different words, modified Open Space. Normal translation was that it really wasnt open. In other situations it turned out that Open Space worked just as advertised but some folks didnt like the results.
So thank you for your stories, and Welcome to OSLIST! -- Even if you didnt make my day with an indisputable tale of failure. Harrison Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Drive Potomac, Maryland 20854 Phone 301-365-2093 Skype hhowen Open Space Training <http://www.openspaceworld.com/> www.openspaceworld.com Open Space Institute <http://www.openspaceworld.org/> www.openspaceworld.org Personal website <http://www.ho-image.com/> www.ho-image.com OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives Visit: <http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html> www.listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of NigelSeys-Phillips Sent: Friday, June 01, 2007 9:39 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: "rules" and self-organization Dear Helen, I am a total novice at this but a brief comment .. Among my first few Open Space events were: 1) An NGO in Cambodia where children previously working on the city trash dump are being lovingly cared for and educated children from 12-18yrs old 2) A group of 200 street children in Mongolia whose most important issue (at the end of a two day OS event) was being allowed to have ID cards and which event has I believe made a huge difference to their lives as the findings have been adopted by the Government and has resulted in much closer communication between the wonderful people who work with the children children from 8-20yrs old 3) A group of young people in Singapore from 18-35yrs old These three events were part of a wider series working to identify How we create a better future 4) An international organization working on how best to communicate across geographical boundaries senior experienced executives 5) A leading hi-tech equipment manufacturer bringing their people together for a common goal managers and team leaders from across the business We had no chairs for the first three but we had a circle and nobody could have had the slightest clue about what would happen We had a room with chairs and a circle for the others and they had received a reasonably well-written invitation My conclusion (possibly naïve) it just flat out works! - despite these totally disparate levels of experience. Thats the link! And it works even if there is a lunatic foreign person walking round in circles speaking a language they have no idea about (translated ably I must say by my supporters for the events) in an environment they have absolutely no experience of at all I can only imagine what the street children were thinking!! May not help but I remain totally in awe of the power of OS to deliver results and just wish I had understood this years, and years, ago. All the best and yes, its hot here!! Nigel Nigel Seys-Phillips Fulcrum Business Management Solutions 30 Mount Elizabeth #04-34 Highpoint Singapore 228519 Tel: +65 9639 2510 E-mail: [email protected] www.fulcrum.com.sg _____ From: OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Helen Bishop Sent: Wednesday, 30 May 2007 10:15 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: "rules" and self-organization I think it would be interesting to find out if there's a link between age and range of experiences, and the way people would react to the room with chairs in a circle and a theme on the wall. I'm guessing that young adults would react differently from people in their middle years, and from people nearing the end of a career. Part of the story, I think, links to the experiences of people in the room, and how they acquired those experiences. Facilitator/storytellers also embody things in terms of gender, race/ethnicity, language(s) used, age, abilities, class, all those interesting things that relate to the worldview of the people who respond to an invitation. Previous experiences with processes like Open Space would matter, too. Helen Bishop Etowah, NC USA ************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com. * * ========================================================== [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 * * ========================================================== [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 * * ========================================================== [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
