Fwd: Re: Open Space a la carte (long)

[Harrison Owen]

>Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2000 07:46:13 -0500
>To: bjpeters at amug.org
>From: Harrison Owen <owenhh at mindspring.com>
>Subject: Re: Open Space a la carte (long)
>
>At 04:34 PM 12/10/00 -0700, you wrote:
>>Have the originators of the cafe process published any books or articles
>>that would provide "how to" information as Harrison's User's Guide does?
>
>I gather that Alan has linked with the Cafe Website -- and if you want to
>go to the "horse's mouth, try Juanita Brown <JuanitaBrn at aol.com>. Juanita
>is an old friend who does marvelous work, and as near as I can figure out,
>Cafe came out of an evening Soiree at her abode. Folks just started doing
>it as sort of a party game, and then discovered that they were doing
>something useful. I guess that is the way most folks discover useful
>things. It is indeed fun, and compared to whole mess of other ways of
>getting people engaged in fruitful conversation, it comes out close to the
>top.
>
>Having said all that, my personal experience with Cafe has been that it is
>frustrating and restrictive. Just about the time the conversation really
>got good, the facilitator was saying "change tables."  I must also confess
>to a degree of annoyance  -- brought on I am sure by my irascible nature.
>Somewhere in the middle of the affair, I found myself saying (to my self
>thank God) "I really don't need some facilitator telling me when I should
>start or stop a conversation -- and with whom I should converse." I guess
>I felt it was quite manipulative (although nicely) and to some degree
>demeaning. But I am sure that is just me.
>
>At a slightly deeper lever -- I couldn't help but feel that if we were
>going to spend all that time -- why not just open the space and get on
>with it. There was nothing (at a substantive level) that happened in Cafe
>that doesn't almost immediately happen in Open Space -- but more to the
>point -- there is masses of stuff that happens in Open Space that never
>has a chance to get started in Cafe...
>
>The Old Curmudgeon
>
>
>
>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 website www.openspaceworld.org

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 website www.openspaceworld.org
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