Positive space invaders

[Harrison Owen]

At 05:03 PM 3/8/00 -0500, you wrote:

>That has stuck with me for so long.  I think that the real mission (in a
>spiritual sense) is to do what is right for our clients -- to provide them
>with a space of some sort to get where they need to be.  If it is pure open
>space, so be it.  If not, so be that too.  :)
>
>They are all, in the end, tools to a larger, more important service.  If we
>become slaves to the tools, it seems to me we have lost focus.
>
>Just my thoughts.
>Cathy
**************************************
Good thoughts Cathy -- especially the part about becoming "slaves to the
tools." But then again, I never really thought of Open Space as a tool amongst
other tools. For me it is closer to a way of life or a point of view. After
all, what's an Open Space? Just a time and space in which each person can
follow their passion (what they truly care about) with responsibility. Sure
there are certain minimal things we do in terms of creating the space and
holding it open, but at the end of the day, there is very little doing. And a
tool, after all, is something you do something with. Open Space, at least
as far
as the facilitator is concerned, involves very little doing -- which makes it a
very strange tool.

To be sure all sorts of things get done in Open Space, and doubtless a variety
of tools are employed. Great ! -- But that is for the participants. It is their
passion, their responsibility, their action.

For me it all begins with the prior belief and firm conviction that everything
essential for the group's successful completion of the task at hand lies with
them. But certainly not with me. When it comes to the definition of the
"successful completion of the task at hand" -- that is always an evolving
mystery.  Often they do exactly what they set out to do. Sometimes they
discover that what they had in mind to do was a bad idea, and they go off and
do something different -- which often turns out to be better. Occasionally they
discover that what they had in mind was a bad mistake and they just go home.
Were they successful? I think so.

There has been another learning for me, which has been more than a little
humbling, not to say painful. I have never found any situation where the group
did not invent a design, approach, or tool that was not better (sometimes
infinitely better) than any thing I might have suggested. Of course, this may
say much more about my own limitations than the wisdom of the group. But to
this point, there has never been a situation where the wisdom of the group was
not vastly superior to my own. They just had to find their wisdom, and I just
had to hold the space until they did. White knuckles -- sure. Anxiety (theirs
and mine) DEFINITELY! But it has always worked. And best of all -- whatever the
solution, it was theirs. And they won twice. First they solved the problem --
themselves. And secondly (and probably most valuable) they learned that they
could solve the problem.

Is Open Space the only way? Well, for me -- Yes. I have never found anything
that worked any better. And for other people ... ? They certainly have to pick
and choose. I do know that should somebody ask me to design and run a carefully
planned, tightly controlled planning process (and I actually used to do that
quite well) I would gently suggest that they find somebody else -- even give
them some names. For myself, any time I see a situation characterized by: 1) A
major issue of genuine concern. 2) High levels of complexity  3) High levels of
diversity in terms of participants. 4) Lots of conflict. 5) A decision time of
yesterday  -- I just know that Open Space can do the job. Or more exactly the
people can -- given the time and space to get on with the business.


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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