Dear Anne, So much joy to have your voice popping in here at just this moment and in the fun that I am poking at Harrison. The list has been a little too dull lately and so it is fun to play a bit.
I close my eyes and remember with a full heart all of the exceptional gatherings in your living room where all who gathered collectively opened space with so much love. So much was birthed there and of course we all had the freedom to take from it what inspired us personally and run with it or not. I think that kind of freedom is a reflection of the quality of the space, the fact that we didn't have an organization getting in our way, our curiosity, wonder and play. And of course there was the Expanding our Now...an experience of five days in open space so beautifully held by you and Harrison. My world changed as I believe the world for others did. Blessings and love to you dear friend, Birgitt On Thu, Feb 16, 2017 at 6:27 PM anne stadler via OSList < [email protected]> wrote: Planning and OS Lovely to see you two rocking on your front porch sharing stories! Like the old days... (only then it was more like butting heads at times!). My 2 cents: you can open space to do anything. Just have to focus on the question you need to ask (that has heart and meaning for you), AND realize (actually live) the four principles. Love love dear old pals! Anne Your Self Occupy 100% A world that works for ALL is a world of love made visible Address: 18464--47th Place NE Lake Forest Park, WA 98155, USA Phone: 206-459-0227 <(206)%20459-0227> Skype: anne.m.stadler www.InClaritas.com Www.CallofCompassion.org www.SourcingtheWay.com On Feb 16, 2017, at 1:10 PM, via OSList <[email protected]> wrote: Send OSList mailing list submissions to [email protected] To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to [email protected] You can reach the person managing the list at [email protected] When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of OSList digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Planning and Open Space ???? (Harrison Owen via OSList) 2. Re: Planning and Open Space ???? (Birgitt Williams via OSList) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2017 11:26:12 -0500 From: Harrison Owen via OSList <[email protected]> To: "'World wide Open Space Technology email list'" <[email protected]> Subject: [OSList] Planning and Open Space ???? Message-ID: <001e01d28871$63654970$2a2fdc50$@net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Occasionally somebody ponders the possibility of Open Space and Planning - as in, could you do Planning, Strategic and otherwise, in Open Space? My immediate response has always been, Yes. As a matter of fact I have done just that on a number of occasions. There is no question that when we "opened space for our future" (which always seemed to be the essence of the theme), a marvelous time was had by all. Something that looked very much like a "plan" emerged with attendant work groups - all committed and in place, and of course the time taken for the exercise was minuscule compared to standard practice. End of story. Or is it? Planning, at least in common usage, has some association with controlling, or even creating, the future. Indeed, many would argue that control of the future is the whole point of planning. Open Space, on the other hand, is all about self organization - which implies that control as we usually understand it is impossible. So Planning in Open Space would seem to be an oxymoron. You simply can't get there from here. Upon reflection it does seem that Planning and Open Space go together rather like oil and water. It is also true that on those occasions where I was privileged to be with a group Planning in Open Space - it was marvelous. Good stuff seriously happened, and best of all people really had fun - even if there were times when it seemed like we were all hanging on by our finger nails because things were moving so fast! Of course the "proof of the pudding" in this business is not, "Did you make a plan?" but most importantly - Did it work? And it is precisely here that things really get confusing. The plans not only "worked" as (self) reported by the participants - But they worked faster and better than ever. Almost to the point that it seemed the distinction between "planning" and "doing" had dissolved. Wow! I can see another heresy just coming into view. Everybody "knows" that Planning comes first. Neat, orderly, rational, deliberate - considered over and over again. THEN... Action. But what would it mean if it happened all at once? ... That there really was no meaningful distinction between planning and doing? Not as an ideal, but as an experienced reality? Some might say that this is a clear indication of mental aberration - Mad in a word. On the other hand... were the experience real (as in repeatable, non-drug induced, whatever) we might just have to take another look at what we mean by "Planning." Harrison Winter Address 7808 River Falls Dr. Potomac, MD 20854 301-365-2093 <(301)%20365-2093> Summer Address 189 Beaucauire Ave Camden, ME 04843 207 763-3261 <(207)%20763-3261> Websites www.openspaceworld.com www.ho-image.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: < http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20170216/ed280e46/attachment.html > ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2017 17:38:44 +0000 From: Birgitt Williams via OSList <[email protected]> To: World wide Open Space Technology email list <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [OSList] Planning and Open Space ???? Message-ID: <CAKF340grv7qFwe_zJY7okqxxCYXZhD=bp6gWDNP9Yz=oftr...@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Harrison....LOL! I haven't received an email in my inbox that pushed so many buttons in one email in a long time. I won't address all of them in this mail. Thank you for the smiles this morning. You are I must be long overdue to have lunch together. I remember the seven times that you were in Ontario with your Open Space Technology training and in my sponsor role I participated actively. I believe that one component of our work together that the participants loved was your sweeping comments followed by my perspective, often differing considerably from yours. I think we had a lot of fun with those differing perspectives at the time. And by 1993 at what was then called OSONOS I remember posting something that I did annually for a while....the topic 'Harrisy', a play on your name of course with the implication of 'what do we actually do that is different from what Harrison does/says he does'. On the subject of planning and Open Space Technology, for more than two decades every group I have assisted with their planning have had one or multiple OST meetings as a VITAL part of the process. I cannot imagine planning without including OST. I started calling 'planning' a 'Preferred Future', similar to making intentions. It is not about control. It is about dreaming....together. It is about how we are all novices at co-creating our future....something we are figuring out on planet earth....that we have some significant impact on 'reality' as it unfolds.And just in case it is true that everything is spirit, that everything is conscious energy, we can affect that energy from an ocean of possibilities to a smaller sea of likely probabilities. To what extent can we do that? Don't know. Making intentions, creating vision boards, co-creating a picture of a desired future, giving ourselves permission to do so in whatever ways feels right and exciting....all are parts of us playing in this earth plane as adolescent creator gods and goddesses....playing, learning. So, some of us might do what you did in earlier days as captured by Billie Alban and Barbara Bunker in Large Group Interventions....we tack something on after the OST to help people formulate their co-created dreaming and help them put some traction with it beyond the enthusiastic traction created within the OST. Blessings, Birgitt On Thu, Feb 16, 2017 at 11:26 AM Harrison Owen via OSList < [email protected]> wrote: Occasionally somebody ponders the possibility of Open Space and Planning ? as in, could you do Planning, Strategic and otherwise, in Open Space? My immediate response has always been, Yes. As a matter of fact I have done just that on a number of occasions. There is no question that when we ?opened space for our future? (which always seemed to be the essence of the theme), a marvelous time was had by all. Something that looked very much like a ?plan? emerged with attendant work groups ? all committed and in place, and of course the time taken for the exercise was minuscule compared to standard practice. End of story. Or is it? Planning, at least in common usage, has some association with controlling, or even *creating*, the future. Indeed, many would argue that control of the future is the whole point of planning. Open Space, on the other hand, is all about self organization ? which implies that control as we usually understand it is impossible. So Planning in Open Space would seem to be an oxymoron. You simply can?t get there from here. Upon reflection it does seem that Planning and Open Space go together rather like oil and water. It is also true that on those occasions where I was privileged to be with a group Planning in Open Space ? it was marvelous. Good stuff seriously happened, and best of all people really had fun ? even if there were times when it seemed like we were all hanging on by our finger nails because things were moving so fast! Of course the ?proof of the pudding? in this business is not, ?Did you make a plan?? but most importantly ? Did it work? And it is precisely here that things really get confusing. The plans not only ?worked? as (self) reported by the participants ? But they worked faster and better than ever. Almost to the point that it seemed the distinction between ?planning? and ?doing? had dissolved. Wow! I can see another heresy just coming into view. Everybody ?knows? that Planning comes first. Neat, orderly, rational, deliberate ? considered over and over again. THEN... Action. But what would it mean if it happened all at once? ... That there really was no meaningful distinction between planning and doing? Not as an ideal, but as an experienced reality? Some might say that this is a clear indication of mental aberration ? Mad in a word. On the other hand... were the experience real (as in repeatable, non-drug induced, whatever) we might just have to take another look at what we mean by ?Planning.? Harrison Winter Address 7808 River Falls Dr. Potomac, MD 20854 301-365-2093 <(301)%20365-2093> <(301)%20365-2093> Summer Address 189 Beaucauire Ave Camden, ME 04843 207 763-3261 <(207)%20763-3261> <(207)%20763-3261> Websites www.openspaceworld.com www.ho-image.com _______________________________________________ OSList mailing list To post send emails to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org Past archives can be viewed here: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] -- Birgitt Williams President & Senior Consultant of Dalar International Consultancy, Inc. http://www.dalarinternational.com Co-founder of the Extraordinary Leadership Network http://www.extraordinaryleadershipnetwork.com Co-founder of the Genuine Contact?program and author of The Genuine Contact Way: Nourishing a Culture of Leadership http://www.genuinecontactway.com Co-owner of the Genuine Contact Co-owners Group Ltd. http://www.genuinecontact.net *Supporting leadership development for leading in a culture requiring agility and flexibility in a performance environment of constant change.* Leadership development at your own pace? Become a member of the Extraordinary Leadership Network http://www.extraordinaryleadershipnetwork.com to participate in an online leadership development program designed to increase the leadership skills and capacity you need to perform in a performance environment of constant change. PO Box 19373, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA 27619 phone: 1-919-522-7750 <(919)%20522-7750> -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: < http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20170216/31c14231/attachment-0001.htm > ------------------------------ Subject: Digest Footer _______________________________________________ OSList mailing list To post send emails to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org Past archives can be viewed here: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] ------------------------------ End of OSList Digest, Vol 70, Issue 7 ************************************* _______________________________________________ OSList mailing list To post send emails to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org Past archives can be viewed here: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] -- Birgitt Williams President & Senior Consultant of Dalar International Consultancy, Inc. http://www.dalarinternational.com Co-founder of the Extraordinary Leadership Network http://www.extraordinaryleadershipnetwork.com Co-founder of the Genuine Contact™program and author of The Genuine Contact Way: Nourishing a Culture of Leadership http://www.genuinecontactway.com Co-owner of the Genuine Contact Co-owners Group Ltd. http://www.genuinecontact.net *Supporting leadership development for leading in a culture requiring agility and flexibility in a performance environment of constant change.* Leadership development at your own pace? Become a member of the Extraordinary Leadership Network http://www.extraordinaryleadershipnetwork.com to participate in an online leadership development program designed to increase the leadership skills and capacity you need to perform in a performance environment of constant change. PO Box 19373, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA 27619 phone: 1-919-522-7750
_______________________________________________ OSList mailing list To post send emails to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org Past archives can be viewed here: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
