thank you

[Birgitt Bolton]

I have found the conversation on "modified open space" incredibly rich with
learning for me and for that I thank every one of you who contributed. I
also love it when we have a really good conversation on the list, certainly
giving me the sense of "virtual community".

For me, at this point in the conversation, I think I would be preferred to
be thought of as a "purist" (only because no one has ever called me "pure"
before and I kind of like to try new identities :-) --actually my best
friend Michelle once gave me a wonderful dreamcatcher that had two white
beads on it. There had been three. They stood for purity. Her husband said
that she shouldn't get this dream catcher for me because one of the beads
was broken. She smiled and thought it was quite alright---it was for
Birgitt after all :-))

Okay, humour aside. The following is where my own thinking and being is at
regarding "modified open space", the position I will come from for now,
until some learning or other causes me to think differently. I will hold
tight to a position that Open Space Technology is or is not---there is no
modified Open Space Technology.

This whole wonderful universe is Open Space. Within that is chaos and the
formation of order. It is my belief that at some point in our future, as a
human species, we will really be able to be emergent in our way of
organizing ourselves and we will be able to not only cope with vast amounts
of chaos, but to actually embrace it. Highly evolved beings today, in
increasing numbers can already do so. Some beings are still at a stage in
their evolution of needing a lot of order in order to survive and live.
There are a growing number of human beings who no longer need this, and yet
who are not yet evolved to a point where they can free-float in chaos for
long periods of time. I personally am expanding my ability to free-float in
chaos for ever increasing periods of time, but I recognize that I am not
able to do so for these long periods of time without "a touchstone" to
ground me. I am recognizing that the amount of "touchstone" that increasing
numbers of us need is definitely not a bunch of rules and definitely not a
command and control situation of organization, but IS STRONGLY CONNECTED TO
SACRED GEOMETRY. Okay, that is my personal opinion based on my personal
experience. So, what is SACRED GEOMETRY to me in this??? Some archetypal
need being met??? For me, this is where Open Space TECHNOLOGY comes in at
this point in our evolution as a human species. If we assume that
everything IS in OPEN SPACE, then what we are doing with Open Space
Technology is NOT CREATING OPEN SPACE (how arrogant I was when I had those
thoughts---only yesterday) but simply bounding some of that great wonderful
juicy universal open space with a circle, which is an element of sacred
geometry. With that simple bounding of the circle, we as human beings that
need a "touchstone" in the midst of the chaos can GROUND ourselves enough
to stay out of FEAR mode and allow our inherent creativity, innovation,
wonder, imagination, zest for life unfold and emerge.

Looked at this way, the circle is created with the "givens" including theme
for that particular space, the four principles, and the one law. Period.
The circle may be quite large or quite small, it matters not. Only that the
givens that help to bound the space are reflective of the truth of the
organization. And when the givens are truthfully stated, the space bounded
for wonder, creativity, imagination, and innovation has the chance of being
a container for Safe Space----only because it is about truth (and truth is
such a rare commodity in our organizations and yet truth is a significant
component of the way of Spirit). For me, there is integrity (a whole) in
this. It IS. It cannot be modified. Integrity IS.

So, is there room for great diversity and creativity? For sure!!! The
number of "givens" about doing Open Space Technology are kept to their
simplest form. So long as we stay true to the integrity of Open Space
Technology, we will each have our own style and use it in creative
ways.With the integrity in place, it is still Open Space Technology, for
which Harrison Owen should be given credit.

Is there room to learn from Open Space Technology and use those learnings
to create something different. For sure!!! Just don't call it Open Space.
Or, if you really are using all of Harrison's development and just naming
it differently, courtesy calls for acknowledging Harrison's work and saying
you revamped it. Just because it isn't copy righted doesn't mean that the
rules about plagarism don't apply.

There is just enough chaos within the circle bounded by Open Space
Technology for us to get really "juiced" with creativity and hope, but not
"fried" by too much chaos. There is more chaos immediately surrounding the
circle bounded by Open Space Technology. We can also go there and create
and birth the new, including the new bounding for another Open Space.

So....how does that sound??

With great gratitude to each of you for being you,
Birgitt