Death, Life and Open Space

[Harrison Owen]

Opening Space for Death and Life


The recent conversation about the use of Open Space at the time of death 
may have appeared odd or aberrant here on a LISTSERVE apparently devoted to 
the advancement of a meeting methodology known as open Space Technology. 
All of which goes to show that Open Space is only minimally about having 
better meetings, I think.

That meetings do go better in Open Space is a matter of record, now 
repeated thousands of times, but the essence of its impact has little to do 
with the fundamental brilliance of the methodology (smile), and everything 
to do with what I take to be the fact that in Open Space the basic 
realities of life (and death) are confronted, or may be confronted. At its 
best, Open Space is Truth Time, a moment in the life of any organization 
when things as they are,  are faced as they are. In that moment of 
truthfulness, pretense vanishes and we can honestly get on with the 
business of living and dying.

Talk like this is not usual in organizational circles. Indeed it is not 
usual in many other circles as well. It is all very well to speak of life, 
but death is not supposed to be part of the conversation. At least polite 
conversation. And yet, as Gregory Bateson has remarked, every school boy 
knows quite well that what goes up will come down, what begins will end, 
and what lives will die. It is just the way things are. Perhaps if the 
ruler of the universe had consulted with us prior to the creation we would 
have been able to suggest a better way, but that was not to be.

It is often remarked by those who frequent Open Space (and even by those 
who have just dropped in) that the level of Spirit present is significant 
and sometimes overwhelming. Somehow the everyday turns into a marvelous 
tapestry of High Learning, High Play and Genuine Community. Even under the 
most unlikely circumstances. All true. But what may sometimes be overlooked 
is that the “highs” become high only in relation to the “lows” – the light 
increases in intensity only in relation to the shadows.

The core of the Open Space experience to me is all about endings and 
beginnings. The significantly new and innovative only appears when the 
space is cleared and what was before is no longer. It is about life and 
death, and Bette Middler had it just right in The Rose. “Those afraid of 
Dying will never learn to live.” And the same might be said about that 
nemesis of Open Space, CONTROL. If you have to have it, and can’t let it go 
– The space will never open. The heights and the depths will not be reached.

No wonder Open Space is pretty hard on the Executive Mindset, at least the 
sort that perseveres in the notion that I am in charge... Really? And it is 
no less difficult for those consultants and organizational technicians who 
offer better ways to be in control. Unfortunately the promised nostrum of 
total control and perpetual life never quite seems to work out as advertised.

So here we are in Open Space – with lots of life, and plenty of death as 
well. No wonder we find it necessary to learn a little bit about the 
Griefwork cycle in order to comprehend the sometimes mysterious happenings 
in Open Space. And on a good day we come to know that the value of life 
lies not in the little (or big) things we pick up along the way – but in 
the journey itself. It is not the things that matter, but the process: 
life, death, and new life. At least that is what I think.

Harrison

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

OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu
Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20010422/4077a436/attachment-0016.htm>