Transfer in Process

Harrison Owen owenhh at mindspring.com
Mon Jun 24 05:05:46 PDT 2002


At 08:37 PM 6/23/2002 -0400, Doug. Germann wrote:

>Harrison, you do seem to use a transfer in process--for you it is silence
>and time to look at the people around the circle. That seems true, at least
>if what I suspect is going on in a transfer-in, *is* what is going on: you
>are breaking the preoccupations people bring to the meeting and getting
>their minds and spirits in the same place as their bodies.
>
>The difference is that the stories bring people there for others to see,
>and the silence brings them there in a potentially deeper, less visible,
>way.

Sure --- and I suppose you could think of the whole Open Space as a
"Transfer-In Process" But my real point is to minimize the number of things
I add or do which have the tendency to keep the people from the central of
getting on with their business. Over the years I have practiced a single
design principle when working with Open Space: Think of one more thing NOT
to do. My effort was to keep stripping away all the things that could be
done, or might be nice to do -- in order to leave the bare essentials,
whatever they were. At the beginning, it just seemed like a good thing
(not) to do. But from my present perspective, in which Open Space is really
all about the power of self-organization, one of things we have learned is
that self-organization slows or stops when you add a bunch of stuff. Less
stuff, more power.  I am sure there are a few more things I could throw
out, but I guess I feel pretty comfortable with the little that I do. Added
to that, I have yet to see any "add on" (beyond Walk the circle, announce
the theme, explain the mechanics/principles, and go to work) that added
anything substantive to the total experience.

Harrison

Harrison Owen

7808River Falls Drive
Potomac, MD 20854 USA
phone 301-365-2093



  Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com
Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
Personal website www.mindspring.com\~owenhh

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