Participant Driven Open Space Principles and Laws

[Harrison Owen]

At 03:21 PM 11/27/00 -0500, you wrote:
>I am wondering if any of you out there on the list serve has ever
>facilitated an open space event where the participants themselves determine
>the principles/laws that will govern their open space event. 

Well that would certainly be something to experiment with -- but in the process it may be useful to recall how it was that the Four Principles and The Law of Two Feet came into being. Contrary to what it might seem -- given the names (principles and a law), neither the principles nor the Law emerged as a matter of design or  prescription, but rather as a result of observation by myself and many others over a period of years. Put more plainly -- both the principles and the law simply gave expression to what it appeared that people were doing anyhow. In short, they were  blinding flashes of the obvious. But if obvious, why state them? Good question. The reason I think was -- that all too often, particularly in Open Space, the obvious is overlooked. For example, when most people first hear about Open Space their eyes cloud over -- 'cause they know it simply couldn't happen. Then, of course, it does happen -- but by that time folks are having so much fun, that they can't remember ever having doubted. But it is very useful to remember that the group did what everybody knew to be impossible. For when folks do the impossible, that usually results in no small amount of empowerment. So anyhow, the four principles and the one law were intended simply as "guides along the way" -- or things to notice. 

Then one might ask if there were other things to be noticed? And doubtless there are -- and as a matter of practical fact, I have written four books trying to point some of them out. But God forbid that everybody be required to read (listen to) four books before entering into Open Space. They would never take the trip. All of which is to make the point, I think, that what is said at the beginning (the first 15 minutes) is not about completeness, but rather sufficiency -- And in this case, less is definitely more. The objective, after all, is not to give a full description of Open Space (or anything else) but rather to get the folks off an running.    


Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, MD 20854 USA
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Open Space Institute website www.openspaceworld.org
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