Creating OS comunity in one`s country

[Peggy Holman]

Avner,

Your timing is interesting as in preparation for the "Heart of America" bus tour, Anne Stadler and I wrote something on creating a Spirited Work Learning community.  Below is what we put together:

SPIRITED WORK:

CREATING A LEARNING COMMUNITY

 

What is Spirited Work?

 

Spirited Work is an open space learning community of practice, engaged in deepening our commitment to personal and collective transformation though service in the world. Our purpose is building personal and collective capacity for healthy and productive relationships, organizations and communities for the sustainable evolution of earth, spirit and the human future.  Our intention is to welcome and be open to all who are attracted to Spirited Work, and to create the abundance necessary for their full participation.

 

We meet seasonally face to face and are linked thoughout the year in an on-line learning community supported by BigMindMedia (www.bigmindmedia.com).  Spirited Work now involves about 50 to 60 people each cycle. 



 

How did it start?

 

Spirited Work began as a Whidbey Institute program originating from a desire to experiment with a committed learning community dedicated to creating a better world.   
Spirited Work evolved from its initial form as a program offering of the Whidbey Institute into a learning community serving as a laboratory for co-creative collective leadership.  Our practice has been grounded in each of us taking responsibility for what has heart and meaning: for evolving our selves, the collective, and our service in the world.  We are learning to live Open Space principles and the Four Fold Way in our daily lives.  We are also opening space for organizational forms based on our practice.

 

 

What is Open Space?



It is a self-organizing way of facilitating communication/action which supports the inherent creativity and leadership in people.  Opening space establishes a marketplace of inquiry where people gather to offer topics they care about, reflect and learn from one another, engage in spirited work. Many complex organizations use Open Space to accomplish work. Users in the Seattle area include the Boeing Company, Leadership Tomorrow, Richard Hugo House, the Seattle Repertory Theater, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.



 

Who participates?


A diverse group of people have been attracted to Spirited Work--from the arts, from corporate life, educators, service providers, non-profit directors, old, young and in-between.  Our community includes a native American, Vietnamese, Chinese, African American, African, Bahamian, Indian, Caucasian--so we experience a multiplicity of life experiences as well as exposure to a variety of cultures and belief systems. Our commitment to openness and inclusion has welcomed whoever is attracted.  This has resulted in participation of people from overseas as well as visitors to the Whidbey Institute who happen to be there during one of our seasonal gatherings.  People bring their children and there are two young girls who have attended regularly with their parents.

The process of self-organizing using Open Space methodology has led people to express themselves creatively in all modalities: art, poetry, music, dance, theater, clearing trails, tending the land, making new additions to the material well-being of the Whidbey Institute.  We express spirit in practical action for the benefit of our community life as well as in our work in the world.  So we "chop wood, carry water", eg. do our dishes, cleanup after ourselves, and help set up and put away whatever we use, and we take responsibility for the exchange of money and material level of our group life as well.




Who leads the community?

 

Spirited Work emphasizes linking spirit to practical action on behalf of the collective as well as in the world.    Four of us, Anne Stadler, Fritz and Vivienne Hull, and Peter Donaldson were the founding convenors who took responsibility for the evolution of Spirited Work.  The next year (2000) a number of participants joined us as Co-Convenors.  During that year, some of the Co-Convenors and a group of volunteers became Stewards who began to take on the material level of our welfare.  Now, at the end of 2001, the Stewards, a circle leadership model, has evolved for convening and managing Spirited Work.  


We meet in "ritual space" several times each gathering for openings, closings,  attunements, talking-staff sharings and meditation.  The affirmation of Spirit is central to Spirited Work. There is always a strong emphasis on the land of Chinook as a source of wisdom and inspiration, and the reminder of our calling to responsibility for the whole earth.   



 

Has anything practical come out of this community?

 

Organizational initiatives such as Watershed Legacy, Bountiful Table, Peacetrees Vietnam have benefitted from the practice ground provided by Spirited Work.  The Heart of America Bus project and the web portal CONNECT arose out of Spirited Work.  The concept of a Radiant Bank has been a continuing focus of our attention as we've explored how to create abundance by sharing gifts and resources.  Participants have applied their learnings in other non-profits, in corporate life and in higher education, too.




How can another community create its own Spirited Work community?


We are eager to offer our experience of evolving an open space community in service to our common mission: cultivating creative leadership for earth, spirit and the human future--and hope to learn from others for the benefit of spirited work everywhere.

 

We have recently documented some of our agreed upon understandings of how Spirited Work operates.  We offer them to help you get started.

 

Statement of Commitment

Spirited Work participants are asked to commit to being part of a community of practice which gathers seasonally and whose members are linked in an on-line learning environment.  We ask participants to familiarize themselves with the work of Angeles Arrien, author of The Four Fold Way, and Harrison Owen, creator of Open Space Technology.  

 

Statement of Principles 

Community practice of Open Space  (Harrison Owen) 

The Law of Two Feet asserts that we all take responsibility for what has heart and meaning for us. The Law of Two Feet means that each of us is fully responsible and expected to exercise personal choice about who we are being; our views and mental models; what we intend; what we say; what we do; what we explore; and how we live and work together.  We are each responsible for our own learning, and the learning of the Community.

 

The Four Principles declare that: 

  a.. Whoever Comes are the Right People. (That could mean just one person, or it could be one hundred people-it doesn't matter) 
  b.. Whatever Happens is the Only Thing that Could Have (Don't worry about the process OR the outcomes.  Just go with what is happening - in the moment) 
  c.. Whenever It Starts is the Right Time (Remember that connection, innovation, creativity, and breakthrough DO NOT happen according to a schedule) 
  d.. When It's Over It's Over (That could mean a 10 minute meeting, or a four hour conversation-both are encouraged.  If there is nothing more to be said, go do something else.  AND likewise, if there is more to be said-it ain't over)
 

Community practice of Seasonal Archetypes within the Four-Fold Way  (Angeles Arrien) 

Winter Season - The way of the Warrior 

"Show up and choose to be present." Being present allows us to access the human resources of    power, presence and communication.

 

 Spring Season - The way of the Healer   

"Pay attention to what has heart and meaning."    Paying attention opens us to the human resources of love, gratitude, acknowledgment and validation.

Summer Season - The way of the Visionary   

"Tell the truth without blame or judgment."    Non-judgmental truthfulness maintains our authenticity, and develops our inner vision and intuition.

 

 Fall Season - The way of the Teacher   

"Be open to outcome, not attached to outcome"   Openness and non-attachment helps us recover the human resources of wisdom and objectivity.

 

Community practice of Dialogue (David Bohm)  

  a.. Listening and speaking without judgment    
  b.. Reflection Reflection Reflection   
  c.. Speaking when "moved"   
  d.. Acknowledgment of each speaker    
  e.. Respect for each other and for our differences    
  f.. Role and status suspension    
  g.. Balancing of inquiry and advocacy    
  h.. Avoidance of cross-talk    
  i.. A focus on learning    
  j.. Seeking the next level of understanding    
  k.. Releasing the need for specific outcomes
 

 

Recommended Reading

 

The Four Fold Way by Angeles Arrien (Harper San Francisco, 1993), 

 

Expanding our Now: The Story of Open Space Technology, by Harrison Owen (Berrett-Koehler, 1997). 

 

Open Space Technology: A User's Guide by Harrison Owen (Berrett-Koehler, 1997).

 

 

How can I learn more?

 

Two of our Stewards have offered to talk to anyone interested in learning more:

Anne Stadler                annestad at home.com 

Peggy Holman              peggy at opencirclecompany.com

 

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: AVNERH 
  To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU 
  Sent: Monday, November 19, 2001 2:25 AM
  Subject: Creating OS comunity in one`s country


  Dear members and friends

  As some of you might know we are starting soon a training course in Israel (Harrison, Tova averbuch and myself), and we are quit exited and anxious. We would like to learn from your experience around the world how to create a self-organized comunity in Israel, with a collegial spirit of generosity and grace inspite of the competition. Or maybe, what kind of mistakes we should avoid?

  Thank you

  Avner Haramati
  Jerusalem
  avnerh at inter.net.il 
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