Reporting back...Open Space for a track within a Conference

Harrison Owen owenhh at mindspring.com
Mon Jun 3 14:45:31 PDT 2002


At 01:54 PM 6/3/2002 -0300, Judith Richardson wrote:
>Hi Julie — wonderful to hear you are offering OST in the classroom —
>such a trendsetter!!  As I mentioned to you, I experienced in the
>beginning that after I had opened space a few times I chose to
>abbreviate the opening and noticed a lack of participation in the way of
>few topics being posted, no one wanting to leave their seats, side
>conversations taking place anyway!  I was making the assumption that we
>had done this a few times, so why repeat and repeat and .....
>
>The participants recognized that there was a difference when we did not
>officially open the circle — students mentioned things such as — not
>recognizing the circle, not feeling motivated, same old.... same old,
>they even made an assumption that I was less than interested if I didn't
>open the space!  I made the commitment to do a full opening, recognizing
>the circle, inner wisdom, four principles, and law of mobility — twice
>a week!  practice.... practice..... <grin>

It is a hard lesson, and I learned it the way you did Judy... In one of the 
early OSONOS I figured that everybody had certainly been "there" before so 
why bother with the details. Just cut to the chase.  Here's the paper, 
there's the Wall. Go! How wrong I was. They all sat there and looked at me 
like the proverbial skunk at a garden party. Not nice. Anyhow outside of 
the power of "expected ritual" there is also the matter of what I would 
call "cooking time." People may come real passionate to do something, but 
they need a little time to let the good stuff come to the top, or 
something. So, I guess it is back to the standard drill.

ho

>Harrison Owen

7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, MD 20854 USA
phone 301-365-2093
Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com
Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
Personal website http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm

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