*…and what I notice about our OS community*. *Monday, January 18, 2010* – En route to Florida after 2 days in San Francisco at Open Space on Open Space. Time for the next chapter and my next big challenge articulated as: “I will earn a living in OS, doing what I am passionate about.” As I make this statement for all to hear, I know I speak for many out there in this generous community – people who love Open Space as much as I do. By saying these words loud and clear, with confidence and conviction, it is my way of “paying it forward” hopefully giving courage to all who harbor this same dream.
Now back to my original statement: *“What I know for sure*… is that these times *need* Open Space – times filled with grief (Haiti for example), filled with pain, with worry, with stress and all the system breakdowns in so many places – at work, in our communities, in our world. All the elements that invite us (not to say compel us) to consider Open Space and opening of space …everywhere. For example, different excerpts from the Sunday New York Times – January 17 th, 2009 · “The answer is to allow employees to develop a name for themselves that is irrespective of their organization ranking. Recognition from their peers is an extremely strong motivating factor, and something that is broadly unused in modern management” Cristobal Conde, President and CEO of SunGard · When Stress Flirts with Burnout – You are a professional who is accustomed to stress, but all the uncertainty and anxiety in the workplace these days is putting you under more pressure than usual. You feel burned out. “As anxiety grows in the workplace, so does the need to tune it out with daily breaks.” · Bank chieftains on Capitol Hill explaining their roles in global financial crisis. “The former Citigroup chief executive Charles O. Prince III once confessed that he knew his aggressive deal-making would most likely end in trouble once the easy money stopped flowing. Still, he said he felt powerless to pull back. ‘As long as the music is playing, you’ve got to get up and dance,’ he told The Financial Times in summer 2007, even as credit markets began to shudder. ‘We’re still dancing.’" · Our Basic Human Pleasures: Food, Sex and Giving. “Helping others may be as primal a human pleasure as food or sex.” To me this equates to code word: OPEN SPACE. Plenty of places and situations that need Open Space! Now to my next comment: *“What I notice about our OS community…” *Yes, first and foremost, I notice the caring and very capable (erudite) people in this OS community that I am now a part of: so much integrity, no phony baloneys, just real people who are filled with passion and a desire to make a difference. Yet what I also noticed first in Seattle, then in Taiwan, in Toronto afterwards, and now in San Francisco was the strong pattern of “questioning ourselves” about OS, if it’s enough, if others will accept our invitation, if there’s something more we should do, add or change. And yet for me with my beginner’s mind (first introduced to OS in April 2009; have since facilitated 8 and attended 6) and with fresh eyes, I see so much there already with Open Space just the way it is, so much more than what I’ve ever seen before. So I wonder if we, in this wonderful community of ours, would benefit if we let go a little bit and let ourselves be guided by our heart knowing, seeing and sensing the huge need that is out there for what we do, and then perhaps by letting go, our head will convince us that we know enough and are good enough to “just do it”, “do more of it” and “be paid a fair buck for it”. Perhaps the time has come for more of us to heed Harrison’s words, to “never work harder than we have to” and by working (and fixing or improving) less, we will *be* more so we can help *heal *the world. Thank you San Francisco…organizers, old and new friends. As you can see, I was and am inspired by the theme “to take Open Space to the next level”! *Suzanne* -- Suzanne Daigle NuFocus Strategic Group 7159 Victoria Circle University Park, FL 34201 FL 941-359-8877; CT 203-722-2009 www.nufocusgroup.com [email protected] * * ========================================================== [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
