Hello Chris (and Viv, Geoff, Anne and Johnnie),
As you may know, "Be prepared" is the motto of the US Girl Scouts. So
we had some fun with that at the Open Space at the 2005 Girl Scout
National Convention. I have a great photo of the large "Be
prepared...to be surprised" sign that had the GS Motto icon on it, but
I'm pretty sure that I would be playing with fire to try to attach it
here.
Love to all down under and elsewhere,
Christine
Christine Whitney Sanchez
Collaborative Wisdom & Strategy
1.480.759.0262
www.christinewhitneysanchez.com
www.promiseusa.com
Skype: christinewhitneysanchez
http://www.facebook.com/ChristineWhitneySanchez
http://www.linkedin.com/in/christinewhitneysanchez
On May 3, 2010, at 9:49 PM, Chris Corrigan wrote:
Hello from Melbourne. I've just opened space at a conference here
with Viv McWaters, Geoff Brown, Anne Pattillo and Johnnie Moore.
We've got a two day, full on participatory conference on evaluation
with 179 people. 40 topics have gone up for our day and a half OS.
It's sweet for me being here in Melbourne, which for me is the
spiritual home of Open Space in Australia (would you agree
Brendan? :-)). Of course for me that impression largely comes from
the fact that this was Father Brian Banibridge's home, and I regret
that I never made it here while he was alive, only able to meet him
over the years at various OSonOS gatherings or when he stopped by
our place on retreat or en route to elsewhere.
Brian of course was such a stalwart member of our community...he and
Viv have hosted trainings in Australia for years and of course they
took the mantle of hosting OSonOS X in 2002 after Laurel Doersam and
I co-hosted it in Vancouver. It's such a pleasure to be here working
with Viv and our team in this place, with Brian's presence very much
in our mind.
And so as way of honouring Brian in our own little way today we took
the unprecedented step of officially adding a fifth principle to the
Open Space canon. Of course the four principles are very important
and probably all we need, but Brian always posted a fifth one up
when he worked: Be Prepared to be Surprised. For years I have also
made a poster with that one on it and put it up in the room, but
today in my opening I elevated that most excellent phrase by making
it the third principle of five. It comes right after Whoever
comes... and Whatever happens... Be Prepared to be Surprised. And
then When it starts... and when it's over...lovely.
It seems a perfectly natural place to put it, and, being here in
Melbourne, it seemed a perfectly natural act to just say out loud
"Open Space has 5 principles and one law..." Viv and I both got a
little shiver up our spine, our own little testimonial to a great
friend of our community of practice whose presence we miss dearly.
So from now on it'll be five principles for me, and in reciting them
I always see in my own mind Harrison's call to simplicity, Anne
Stadler's call to take simplicity seriously (which helped Harrison
get the principles right - that IS the story, right?) and Brian's
mischievous imperative to be open to surprise.
So as we prepare to gather here in Melbourne on May 11 for a little
OSonOS with 40 or so local OS-workers, and our community of friends
and colleagues gathers internationally in Berlin, Viv and I invite
you to officially adopt Brian's fifth principle not for sentimental
reasons, but just because it makes sense, and it lightens the
invitation in just the right way.
It's all good.
Chris
----
Chris Corrigan
ch...@chriscorrigan.com
http://www.chriscorrigan.com
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