Open Space -- The Credible incredible

Harrison Owen owenhh at mindspring.com
Thu Mar 7 13:01:56 PST 2002


I have been following the discussion initiated by Kerry with interest and
from afar -- recently opening some space in Serbia. Anyhow, I have been
mulling over the notion of the credibility (or lack thereof) of Open Space.
On the one hand it amazes (and sometimes amuses) me that some folks talk
about OS as if it were this wild, new, risky, presumably untried approach.
As most of us know, it has been around for a while and always seems to
work. So where is the novelty and risk? I believe the key to the conundrum
lies in paradigm shift -- or God forbid, Transformation. Seen from the
point of view of the paradigm all of us grew up with, and most (in the west
or Western influenced world) still hold -- Open Space should not work.
Indeed, it can't work. And if it did, the impact on the predominant view of
organizations would be disastrous, to say nothing of expensive for an awful
lot of folks who earn their living in service to those organizations. Small
wonder that Open Space has not found ready acceptance in the world at
large, to say nothing of credibility. A friend once said, Harrison, You
have developed the ultimate scam. The client does all the work and even
writes the report.   Funny, but i guess that is true -- especially when
viewed from the reigning paradigm. So anyhow, I rather suspect that if we
had detailed reports from all the thousands of Open spaces that have
occurred -- data up the kazoo so to speak -- I sincerely doubt that Open
Space would be any more credible. I think the stories we share on this list
are great -- and very instructive. But as sources of credibility they are
pretty useless. To the best of my knowledge, nobody ever decided to do Open
Space on the basis of argument and/or data. The decision comes from a
different place, be that desperation (no other options) or a profound faith
in the capacity of the Human Spirit to rise to the occasion -- or both.

And then we come to the Status of Open Spacers. Personally, I rather fancy
the title of Imperial Grand Master. I just hope I can run fast enough
before you guys puncture my balloon, rain on my parade, or worse. The
title, however,  does have a certain ring to it. But it is worth while to
remember that there was a point when this Imperial Grand Master had done
only one Open Space. I can't say that experience is not important, but I
think there are other qualities that are infinitely more important.
Integrity and authenticity, for two. As we all know full well, the process
is so simple that virtually anybody can carry it out. It is also extremely
forgiving to the point that parts can be skipped, words mis-said -- and
everything just works fine. But if there is a problem with integrity and/or
authenticity, we are in deep kimshee. The most obvious case is when some
one stands up to proclaim the space to be open, but everybody knows the
agenda has been set, and the plans made. Nasty taste! So I find myself
retreating to my old position. Anybody with a good head and a good heart
can do it well, and not much else is required. Thank God.

Harrison

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 www.mindspring.com/~owenhh

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