OS in dark places

Jody Orr jorr at worldchat.com
Mon Nov 24 17:32:20 PST 1997


Birgitt,

I know we are going to see each other on Friday, but your questions have
worked their way into my heart and I need to initiate a response now...we
can talk about this on Friday...

Knowing, Birgitt, the path you were venturing on and knowing first hand how
truly dark the place is, my heart says thank you for sharing the dilemma
and exhaustion which has been and continues to be attached...dancing with
elephants is a powerful metaphor, and most of us doing O/S have, I suspect,
had our toes stepped on at one point or another. What is different is that
this particular elephant is larger than most of us usually encounter, and
it is not just toes that are vulnerable in this particular dance...

There are many questions you have posed....what follows is still all over
the map...connects everywhere, but I am still struggling to find
them...thank God/dess for the opportunity to now speak from a place where I
have some experience...it is beyond theory and, finally, into
practice...still a baby, mind you, but now walking instead of
crawling...YEAH!

Is it a kindness to even introduce Open Space? To begin with, I think you
are right: ?it is better to do even a small Open Space and bring a little
light?...I know you, and I know that you will have done everything you can
to ensure that you created safe space for Open Space...you will have framed
appropriately and carefully and bounded effectively with givens clearly
articulated...if you have done these things, and I know you have, then the
issue is NOT one of endangering Open Space, but becomes one of whether or
not introducing light into dark places should even be contemplated...by its
very nature light (read truth) illuminates....it challenges the darkness
and illuminates the face of fear...should the determining criteria of
whether or not to introduce Open Space be the test of kindness? Should it
be illumination? Are they mutually exclusive? What are the  times when
enabling truth and kindness cannot co-exist? If we are trying to operate
out of love, how do we weigh truth against kindness? Is the ultimate
kindness truth? Is the ultimate truth kindness? I don?t have an answer for
this, but I think that you have posed a question which runs very
deep...struggling to find an answer will not be easy...given both our
histories over the years and the shared demand to speak in prophetic
voices, your voyage with Open Space appears to be demanding, at some level,
that you, my dear, dear friend, continue to walk a path which demands this
prophetic voice, and, as always, in corridors of power, prophetic voices
may be reviled...

There is a related issue here....I am not absolutely sure where the connect
lies, but I know it exists...once you have enabled truth to be told, there
is a requirement (often unacknowledged or at least un-named by
participants) that the participants own their own responsibility for
hearing, seeing, experiencing and actioning the truth...no-one else can be
responsible for other peoples? reactions to the truth....you can hold
yourself responsible only for doing everything you can to make safe space
for Open Space. In organization after organization, system after system, I
see refusals to take personal responsibility...when people operate out of
fear, one of the last things they are prepared to do is to own their own
contribution to the problem OR their own capacity to take action....how
else does one break the logjam except by providing opportunities for the
truth to be named? And you try to do it in a way which is kind but which
is, nevertheless, relentless in illuminating the corners of the darkness...

This gets at the very real issue you raised of Open Space being ?stomped on
and wiped out?. As I said earlier, I know you will have created as safe a
space as possible for Open Space. Insofar as Open Space invariably permits
truth to be told (even if people do not take advantage of this
opportunity), I am uncertain whether it is Open Space itself which is
vulnerable or whether it is Open Space as the carrier of truth. Perhaps
despite everything we do at one level to try and create safe space for Open
Space, it is impossible at another for Open Space to be held safe because
it does enable truth. In ?dark? organizations, this could be seen as the
litmus test of safety for Open Space: Open Space might be protected (or
held safe) only as an inverse relationship to the truth telling it permits.
It is, I think, truth that is scary to/for power, not Open
Space...certainly as I have talked to people and organizations about Open
Space, it is about O/S as a crucible for creativity, team-building, etc.
(all nice innocuous words, right?) ...I rarely talk about it as a crucible
for truth-telling...is there a learning here? And, my personal passion,
there is still a compelling need to find ways to support those who are
naming or enabling truth...It is also, I guess, important to recognize that
Open Space in dark organizations may be  threatening only insofar as those
who are participants are prepared to name truth. Maybe it won?t happen the
first or second or third time...but it might...and if not now, maybe later.
Open Space may provide/assist in generating the first stepping stones on a
pathway which leads to truth down the line.

I am not sure that I would put opening and holding space in dark places
under ?random? acts of kindness...it is, I would think, much more an
?intentional? act of kindness...and it is in the very intentionality that
the dilemma is born...one creates as ?safe? a space as possible for Open
Space, but the act of opening the space is intentional, and you choose/move
into the moment with clear understanding of the risk taking attached...what
a difficult place to be...what a remarkable amount of courage to move into
it and a significant testament to ?being? rather then ?doing?...you are
remarkable!

Yesterday, I heard another metaphor used which helped me as I thought about
what you are experiencing...I worked with a faith community yesterday, and
was struck by the power and energy which one of their small groups invested
in the old parable/metaphor of ?hiding lights under bushels?...(also raised
some interesting stuff for me around a five year old girl already
challenging conventional wisdom in Sunday School...another story at another
time!)...they were struggling not with the candle but with what happens to
those who are standing around the bushel when it is lifted off...some will
reach for the bushel and attempt to hide the light again (sounds like
something some elephants might do), others bask in its warmth and radiance
but do not do anything with it other than admire, while others can be so
entranced that they kindle their own candles and take them back to wherever
it is they live and work..It is an image which proclaims strongly that acts
of kindness in the dark do kindle other acts of kindness...

I understand and feel the pain of the personal risk in all this for
you...in thinking about this, several things came to mind...one of these is
the growth and momentum surrounding Open Space right now (I am reminded of
the story you told in regard to the concurrent Open Spaces in the facility
which had also been enabled by Open Space)...I am finding now that when I
chat with people, they have either heard of Open Space, or when they hear
about it, they are catching on much more quickly to its potential (except,
perhaps, in the area of truth-telling)...I believe that the elephant is
already awake...the Open Space you did was probably the opening step in the
dance...Although I know you know this, I would simply want to underscore
the potential to be derived from viewing this as a
learning/guiding/teaching/modeling experience as you work though your steps
in the dance...Since it is a new dance step, it is natural to expect that
the response will not necessarily be kind, although, to a degree, this will
likely be mitigated by the quality of the results of the O/S (perhaps you
can fill me in a bit more on this when we talk)...Your rich repertoire of
experience in guiding and coaching others, exposing them to new ways of
being, is a treasure trove...even elephants can dance!...and I also wanted
to suggest that as you lead the elephant out onto the dance floor, that it
is a lot more crowded than it used to be...many people out there, most with
much smaller elephants, trying to lead them all in a new dance (what a
mental image that invokes!)...

Before closing, an interesting story about Open Space and
truth...yesterday?s work developed because of a connection with a woman in
my community who works as a consultant in a very different field. She is a
fair bit younger than I (I see some of my younger self in her) and she
introduced me to her community who then decided to go ahead with the O/S
(it went exceptionally well, by the by). During the morning, she was fully
engaged, but by early afternoon had clearly lost energy and pulled me aside
to talk about why the process wasn?t working and why we should end it
early, etc. As I indicated why this was not possible, she shared the fact
that she wasn?t ?totally? there (big surprise!:)) and, as I listened, she
started to fall apart in front of me...about her relationships and her
feelings about her community...there were huge truths she was not naming
and felt in no position to name right then...I will be meeting with her (as
friends) later this week to talk, but what was remarkable was how Open
Space, even for an individual, was able to provide a mirror for seeing - if
not yet naming - truths. She ended up staying for the whole thing, and in
closing, simply cried a bit. I continue to be in awe of the work of
Spirit...am terribly humbled and a little afraid, at times, of the trust
which has been given to me as I do this work...In the middle of this
personal crucible, the group, as a whole, had a profoundly moving day and,
once again, I am humbled...

Wonderful things happening for me...about "being"...gifts in abundance and
a constant state of awe...the whatever it was I was waiting for finally
seems to have wanted to happen...although I may not be able to articulate
it at all very well, I look forward (as does Brennagh) to seeing you and
yours on Friday...red wine or white?

Until then, Spirit be with you...take strength from those that love
you...and move from your heart!

Love,

Jody




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