my story of the Open Space Organization part 3 of 4

Thu Jan 25 16:58:13 PST 2001

Dear Birgitt
Thank you for sharing your deeply personal, highly relevant, professional
process!  What a treasure!  I look forward to the 4th installment.
Glory Ressler

Birgitt Williams wrote:

> Dear Colleagues and Friends in Open Space,
> following is the third of my four part story regarding the Open Space
> Organization. This one focuses on what I have learned between 1995 and 2000,
> culminating in the development of the current training program that we have
> called the Genuine Contact Program. I share this story including my
> learnings in the hope that you find something useful in it. I beleive there
> is enough information for you to find your way with the Open Space
> Organization, based on your own experience with Open Space Technology. Of
> course, I would be pleased if you came and learned with us in one of our
> programs in the world. We have been meeting wonderful people around the
> world who go forward from our workshops doing their own pioneering work. And
> the world certainly needs a lot of this type of work. I have a great great
> love of leading these workshops and encouraging and mentoring wonderful
> consultants and leaders.
>
> Birgitt Williams
>

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>From  Sat Jan 27 00:03:03 2001
Message-Id: <SAT.27.JAN.2001.000303.0800.>
Date: Sat, 27 Jan 2001 00:03:03 -0800
Reply-To: corcom at interchange.ubc.ca
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: Chris Corrigan <corcom at interchange.ubc.ca>
Subject: Part three OST with children and families
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Colleagues:

Memories of buying a goat farm and retiring have flown from my mind.

I opened space today for our third of three public legal education
workshops with the Aboriginal community in Vancouver today.  The
workshop was targetted at Aboriginal parents, advocates and service
delivery organizations involved in the children and familiy services
sector.  Many of the people who were there today attended one or both of
the previous workshops.

We used the same format as the previous workshops, including the
transfer in exercise, presentation of various pieces of legal
information and then an afternoon of opened sapce where people were free
to discuss issues related to the overall theme of the day.  Today's
theme was "What is the role of the community in the guardianship of our
children?"  This theme touched some deep emotions in people, as many
Aboriginal children who are in foster care are in non-Aboriginal homes
wher ethey often have no access to their culture, traditions and
communities.  This is what people were asked to relfect on today.

There were 32 people there today who proposed 13 topics.  I noticed two
types of topics: those that are related to the theme in a more
implementation sense ("How can we arrange for out of town visits with
grandparents?") and those that were bigger questions, transcendant, even
("Why does our community accept the apprehension of our children?")

I have noticed this second type of topic in many of the OST events i
have done.  In some ways these topics get at the root of the problem,
but in other ways they are the engine that drives the evolution of the
group.  Maybe I have been reading too much Ken Wilbur lately, but it
seems to me that these topics "include and transcend" the theme of the
event, and therefore transcend and include where the group is at,
resulting in accelerated evolution.  And these topics always get big
crowds, and they always seem to contain the highest degree of group
breakthrough learning.  To me these topics seem to drive the group to
the next stage of their life.

i sensed this in the closing circle.  For the first time, several of the
folks in attendance commented on the meaning of the process.  Comments
people made about the process resulted in conclusions like:

   * I know now that we are all experts
   * I know now that we don't need government to solve our problems, and
     we don't need to look elsewhere for solutions.
   * I am empowered
   * The help I have been looking for came to me today

What I am saying is that, after three OST events with this basic group,
there has been a shift in awarenessbecasue of the process.  The
community has discovered it's resources, has realized that it has itself
to look to for the future.  It has become something.  It has developed.

For me, this is hugely profound in its implications, because what it
says is that community development is most effective when one simply
opens space for the community to develop.  It doesn't require elaborate
planning strategies and particpatory initiatives aimed at, in my
opinion, establishing who has power and how much of it gets parcled
around.  Instead it simply requires the task of opening and holding
space be performed so that people can access their passions, and find
ways to take responsibility for them.  Forgive me if I seem to be
pointing out the glaringly obvious, but I am going to continue to write
about and think about this approach to community development.  I think
in many ways it grows out of a lot of the work that has been done on the
Open Space Organization.

Over three meetings, I can see that this little community has begun to
lay down a foundation for itself.  There is talk of some of the larger
Aboriginal family services organziations sponsoring a one day OST
meeting for the whole community to continue the learning and the
growing.

As is standard practice for all of our meetings, we had an Elder in
attendance for the whole day.  She is a wonderful woman who brings a
lifetime of experieince to sitting still and attending to the spiritual
space.  Today she brought an eagle feather for us to use in the closing
circle.  Passing an eagle feather around is a profound talking stick in
a lot of Aboriginal cultures.  It is said that you can only speak from
your heart when you are holding a feather.  The eagle is the bird that
flys the highest, has the longest seeing vision and is a messenger
between humans and the creator.  At the conclusion of the meeting the
Elder gave me the feather which to me represented a profound
acknowledgement of what OST has meant for our community.  She asked that
I use it in other circles that I facilitate, and indeed I will.  It will
certainly be on hand at OSonOS IX.  It was a very very moving gift.

It has been just over a year since I ran the Urban Aboriginal OST event
for 250 people in our community here in Vancouver.  And it has been a
year of tremendous growth for me, with the realization that with OST we
have a profound tool for decolonizing our communities, organizations and
lives.

And so I spread around the thanks again as I did a year ago, on behalf
of those who continue to thank me for the process.  To Harrison and
Birgitt, my mentors and teachers, to Michael Herman and Chris Weaver, my
inspiration and to all who contribute on this list for your amazing
support, teachings and sharing.

Meegwetch.

Chris

--
CHRIS CORRIGAN
Consultation - Facilitation
Open Space Technology

http://www.chriscorrigan.com

108-1035 Pacific Street
Vancouver BC
V6E 4G7

Phone: 604.683.3080
Fax: 604.683.3036
corcom at interchange.ubc.ca

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<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en">
<html>
Colleagues:
Memories of buying a goat farm and retiring have flown from my mind.
I opened space today for our third of three public legal education workshops
with the Aboriginal community in Vancouver today.  The workshop was
targetted at Aboriginal parents, advocates and service delivery organizations
involved in the children and familiy services sector.  Many of the
people who were there today attended one or both of the previous workshops.
We used the same format as the previous workshops, including the transfer
in exercise, presentation of various pieces of legal information and then
an afternoon of opened sapce where people were free to discuss issues related
to the overall theme of the day.  Today's theme was "What is the role
of the community in the guardianship of our children?"  This theme
touched some deep emotions in people, as many Aboriginal children who are
in foster care are in non-Aboriginal homes wher ethey often have no access
to their culture, traditions and communities.  This is what people
were asked to relfect on today.
There were 32 people there today who proposed 13 topics.  I noticed
two types of topics: those that are related to the theme in a more implementation
sense ("How can we arrange for out of town visits with grandparents?")
and those that were bigger questions, transcendant, even ("Why does our
community accept the apprehension of our children?")
I have noticed this second type of topic in many of the OST events i
have done.  In some ways these topics get at the root of the problem,
but in other ways they are the engine that drives the evolution of the
group.  Maybe I have been reading too much Ken Wilbur lately, but
it seems to me that these topics "include and transcend" the theme of the
event, and therefore transcend and include where the group is at, resulting
in accelerated evolution.  And these topics always get big crowds,
and they always seem to contain the highest degree of group breakthrough
learning.  To me these topics seem to drive the group to the next
stage of their life.
i sensed this in the closing circle.  For the first time, several
of the folks in attendance commented on the meaning of the process. 
Comments people made about the process resulted in conclusions like:
<ul>
<li>
I know now that we are all experts</li>

<li>
I know now that we don't need government to solve our problems, and we
don't need to look elsewhere for solutions.</li>

<li>
I am empowered</li>

<li>
The help I have been looking for came to me today</li>
</ul>
What I am saying is that, after three OST events with this basic group,
there has been a shift in awarenessbecasue of the process.  The community
has discovered it's resources, has realized that it has itself to look
to for the future.  It has become something.  It has developed.
For me, this is hugely profound in its implications, because what it
says is that community development is most effective when one simply opens
space for the community to develop.  It doesn't require elaborate
planning strategies and particpatory initiatives aimed at, in my opinion,
establishing who has power and how much of it gets parcled around. 
Instead it simply requires the task of opening and holding space be performed
so that people can access their passions, and find ways to take responsibility
for them.  Forgive me if I seem to be pointing out the glaringly obvious,
but I am going to continue to write about and think about this approach
to community development.  I think in many ways it grows out of a
lot of the work that has been done on the Open Space Organization.
Over three meetings, I can see that this little community has begun
to lay down a foundation for itself.  There is talk of some of the
larger Aboriginal family services organziations sponsoring a one day OST
meeting for the whole community to continue the learning and the growing.
As is standard practice for all of our meetings, we had an Elder in
attendance for the whole day.  She is a wonderful woman who brings
a lifetime of experieince to sitting still and attending to the spiritual
space.  Today she brought an eagle feather for us to use in the closing
circle.  Passing an eagle feather around is a profound talking stick
in a lot of Aboriginal cultures.  It is said that you can only speak
from your heart when you are holding a feather.  The eagle is the
bird that flys the highest, has the longest seeing vision and is a messenger
between humans and the creator.  At the conclusion of the meeting
the Elder gave me the feather which to me represented a profound acknowledgement
of what OST has meant for our community.  She asked that I use it
in other circles that I facilitate, and indeed I will.  It will certainly
be on hand at OSonOS IX.  It was a very very moving gift.
It has been just over a year since I ran the Urban Aboriginal OST event
for 250 people in our community here in Vancouver.  And it has been
a year of tremendous growth for me, with the realization that with OST
we have a profound tool for decolonizing our communities, organizations
and lives.
And so I spread around the thanks again as I did a year ago, on behalf
of those who continue to thank me for the process.  To Harrison and
Birgitt, my mentors and teachers, to Michael Herman and Chris Weaver, my
inspiration and to all who contribute on this list for your amazing support,
teachings and sharing.
Meegwetch.
Chris
  
  
--
 CHRIS CORRIGAN
 Consultation - Facilitation
 Open Space Technology
<A HREF="http://www.chriscorrigan.com">http://www.chriscorrigan.com</A>
108-1035 Pacific Street
 Vancouver BC
 V6E 4G7
Phone: 604.683.3080
 Fax: 604.683.3036
 corcom at interchange.ubc.ca
  </html>

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*
*
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view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu
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===========================================================
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2.  Sign up -- provide an email address,
    and choose a login ID and password
3.  Click on "Subscribe" and follow the instructions

To unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at egroups.com:
1.  Visit: http://www.egroups.com/group/oslist
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