Bringing it all together

Viv McWaters viv at theReef.com.au
Sun Nov 23 14:50:35 PST 1997


Hello everyone,
Greetings from Oz. First I must thank you all for the wonderful dialogue on
open space which I have greatly enjoyed over the last few weeks. As an
'apprentice' open spacer, I haven't yet felt that I could contribute but I
know that will change over time as my experience and confidence grows. It
truly is wonderful to be a part of a worldwide movement of people making a
difference (however small) by opening spaces and seeing the joy, excitement
and surprise that emerges.

Later this week I will be opening space for about 80 people working in the
environment with farmers to manage and look after our land and water and
vegetation. These people are mainly young and enthusiastic but are often
dragged down by the bureacracy of the organisations they work for. I am
really excited about this open space - it feels right, the location is
fabulous (in the country surrounded by the sounds and smells of the
Australian bush), the weather is going to be hot - and I was asked by the
organisers to use open space rather than having to convince them of the
merits of the process.

To bring this event to a close I am planning to use the process developed
by Christopher Schock and J.F. Marechal in France that helps organisations
see what on-going work emerges out of an open space event.

In a nutshell, a rectancle is divided into four quadrants with the
boundaries labeled as follows: right boundary is 'us/internal'; the left
boundary is 'outside/external'; the top is 'spirit/meaning' and the bottom
is 'practical'. Each title from the open space is placed in the appropriate
quadrant. A circle in the centre links all four quadrants and a sentence or
phrase is generated which reflects the ESSENCE of all four quadrants. It is
the 'intention' common to all the divergent outcomes. I am planning to
generate this on the wall along side the agenda and use it in the final
closing to provide a focus and direction for on-going dialogue and action
amongst the participants.

Has anyone used this process and do you have any learnings/insights which
you could pass on to me?

Cheers,
Viv



Viv McWaters
Integra Pty Ltd (Vic)
45 Valentine Street, Ivanhoe 3079
Victoria Australia
Ph: 61 3 9499 9300
Fax: 61 3 9499 9300
E-mail: viv at thereef.com.au




More information about the OSList mailing list