Open Space and Open Space Technology

[Harrison Owen]

At 10:41 PM 3/13/00 -0500, Birgitt Williams wrote:
Now, this has me thinking that on this list, we may not differentiate between
this Open Space of life, and Open Space Technology. I feel that the
differentiation is critical. Harrison Owen created Open Space Technology. Seems
to me that God invented Open Space. And, in the Open Space that God created, it
is fine to be hugely different in our practices, our fun (nerf balls), our
personal growth and the right to meet our individual personal growth needs
(whether we be facilitators or not) and to play and grow and evolve. And then
there is this creation of Harrison Owen's (as outlined in Open Space Technology
: a user's guide) which some of us like to work with and use as much as
possible in this world of ours.

*****************************
Well said Birgitt!!  A little history might be useful in support of your point.
As I have mentioned before, Open Space Technology was literally a Two Martini
Idea. It grew out of frustration and laziness on my part. Frustration with the
way I had organized a conference, and laziness in that I resolved never to work
that hard again. I was surprised that OS worked, and hadn't a clue about  why,
or its possible applications. Open Space, on the other hand been with me for
some time as a core concept and a central experience in my life.

For me, Open Space was simply my way of talking about that moment in our common
experience when something appeared out of nothing. I suppose you could think of
the moment before the Big Bang as the primal Open Space, and if you want to
bring God into the action, that certainly works for me. But regardless of what
happened (or didn't happen) when the big firecracker went off, it appeared to
me that subsequent experience had a lot of Open Space. Or more exactly Open
Space kept showing up when the chaos of our lives cleared the ground so that
something new could emerge -- and that emergence has apparently been an
ongoing  phenomenon. My first book, which was called "Spirit: Transformation
and Development in Organizations" (now out of print)  tells this story in some
detail. The book was written in the very early 80's, well before Open Space
Technology showed up in the bottom of my Martini glass. I have tried to tell
that story again with some (hopefully)  new and useful details in  my
forthcoming book bearing the title, "The Power of Spirit: How Organizations
Transform" (Berrett-Koehler July 2000)

The connection between my ruminations on Open Space and Open Space Technology
was largely happenstantial. It just dawned on me that much, if not all, of what
I had experienced in other environments under the heading of Transformation in
Organizations appeared to be happening right before my eyes every time space
was opened. Weird, but powerful.

Anyhow, if you have been wondering why Open Space seems to work as it does, and
where the technology fits in to the larger and much more important enterprise
that is our life experience, my current version of the tale will hit the
streets in July. Your local book store or any of the several .coms should get
you together. This book will complete what I have thought of as The Open Space
Quartet. Expanding Our Now  introduces Open Space, Open Space Technology: A
User's Guide provides the practical details. The Spirit of Leadership explores
what to me is the fascinating and critical question of leadership in the open
space of our lives where command and control has gotten a little tired. The
last volume attempts to put it all together ending up with the very practical
business of what I have called "Open Space organization" Just suppose that what
we experience in an Open Space event could become a 365 day reality. I think it
can, and in fact I rather suspect that we are well on our way. But that, after
all, is just my story. (All of the above are published by Berrett-Koehler and
are pretty much available worldwide.)

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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