Training is as training does, sometimes

[Harrison Owen]

At 09:28 AM 4/28/00 -0400, you wrote:
>Hi,
>
>I picked up a few things to think about today.  Here's the story...

>And training.  What do we think about sending folks into the center of the
>circle after one long conversation and watching a couple of run-throughs?
>But I never went through a training program either, so who knows.  Have you
>ever trained anybody in truncated fashion like this?  Did you get to witness
>the result?  Come to think of it, this is the third time I've done it, and
>all three did well.  But I still don't recommend it, but why the hell not?
>
>
>Ralph
***********************************************
It is all pretty hard on the old ego, to say nothing of deep seated prejudices
and biases --which you, Ralph seem to have, and I share. But there it is, and
it keeps happening again and again. OST works -- sometimes in the most weird
circumstances. I can remember one time in South Africa where a fellow sat
through a two day event, went home and tried one with his local PTA that night.
He called me in the morning at 6:00am, and all he could say was "It works, It
works, It works..." When I finally got myself awake, I asked him who he was and
what worked. You could have fooled me.

I guess what we have to remember is that Open Space was "here" before any of
us, and certainly before it had a name or I wrote the book. Opening Space is,
as far as I am concerned, a natural act. Anybody with a good head and a good
heart can do it. In fact, I'd go further and say that opening space is what we
as humans do when we are at our very best. It is the way we enable community,
creativity, relationships and most of the other good things that make life
worth living. Things get complicated and break down when we fill the spaces of
our lives up with pre-conceived notions (which never quite fit) detailed plans
(which never quite work) and finely turned processes for enhanced human
performance -- which seem to drag on and on until the life is just sucked out.
Always reminds me of falling love by text book. Hell, even the mistakes in love
are better than the text.

All True. And...

It is also true that 2 and 1/2 days is better than 2 and 1/2 hours. That
practice enables us to learn to be in Open Space in fuller and deeper ways.
That some knowledge of the mechanisms and modes of self-organization enrich the
experience for our selves and for those we work with. That being in Open Space
twice is richer than once, and it only seems to get better. Of course, there is
a real problem here. Any other way of being tends to be a drag. Worse -- you
find yourself with a nagging question -- if being in Open Space feels so good
and is so productive -- why not be that way all the time? Why not?

thanks for the story, Ralph.


Harrison






Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, MD 20854
USA
phone 301-469-9269
fax 301-983-9314
website
www.mindspring.com/~owenhh
Open Space Institute websites
www.openspaceworld.org
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