OST as a halfway technology and other thoughts/questions

Fri May 14 09:52:42 PDT 2004

Raffi Wrote: Harrison, when you unexpectedly spilled the phrase 1/2way
technology I understood that to mean that it gets us only part of the way.
Great ideas are generated, probably great plans, but OST by itself is no
guarantor that the "planned" change will happen. It was as if you were
hinting that maybe the next step is another technology, maybe like OST or a
logical extension of it that takes us all the way, something that allows us
to be the planned change already. That's the letdown that I think some feel
who have participated in OST: maybe there's Herbalife-like excitement
(indeed one Russian colleague compared the excitement generated by OST with
the worked up state of those who have gotten into selling Herbalife
products; for those who are unfamiliar with Herbalife, it's a multi-level
marketing scheme. Curiously, after putting down OST, a year or so later he
admitted it indeed has value.) Or does such a technology already exist and
I/we are not aware of it?

As I confessed in my little piece, I was not at all sure why I said what I
did about a halfway technology, nor what I really meant. Me and my big
mouth! But I think I am catching on. You catch the point neatly when you
say, "OST has helped me see that the answers are inside all of us already,
it's about phrasing the question right."

OST, for me is all about empowerment for the group and the individual. I
think we would all agree that such empowerment occurs during the process,
which probably goes a long way towards explaining the highs that people
experience. But OST is also a teacher - enabling us to see that we are
already empowered, we simply have to claim the title. But there is a catch.
Participants may assume that the empowerment they feel is a result of the
process (OST), the facilitator, or (God forbid) both. Given what usually
goes on in peoples' lives, seemingly informed by the "expert syndrome" (You
don't know nothing - get an Expert!) such a reaction should probably be
expected. However if it really takes root, we are in real trouble. The
seductive part is that it feels really good (for a moment at least) to be
the Guru.  The antidote to creeping Guruism (as near as I can figure out) is
to keep opening space, backing away, leaving the people on their own -
faster rather than slower, sooner rather than later. Now obviously there are
situations with a group newly to Open Space where as facilitators we will
have to play a more central role. I can also think of situations where the
group has become the facilitator - and it really is time to go home, or
perhaps play a different role. Part of my wondering is how do we move from A
to B quickly, effectively, and strategically?

Harrison

Harrison Owen

7808 River Falls Drive

Potomac, Maryland   20845

Phone 301-365-2093

Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com <http://www.openspaceworld.com/>

Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org

Personal website http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm
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-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Raffi
Aftandelian
Sent: Friday, May 14, 2004 8:25 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: OST as a halfway technology and other thoughts/questions

Harrison, when you unexpectedly spilled the phrase 1/2way technology I
understood that to mean that it gets us only part of the way. Great ideas
are generated, probably great plans, but OST by itself is no guarantor that
the "planned" change will happen. It was as if you were hinting that maybe
the next step is another technology, maybe like OST or a logical extension
of it that takes us all the way, something that allows us to be the planned
change already. That's the letdown that I think some feel who have
participated in OST: maybe there's Herbalife-like excitement (indeed one
Russian colleague compared the excitement generated by OST with the worked
up state of those who have gotten into selling Herbalife products; for those
who are unfamiliar with Herbalife, it's a multi-level marketing scheme.
Curiously, after putting down OST, a year or so later he admitted it indeed
has value.) Or does such a technology already exist and I/we are not aware
of it?

OST has helped me see that the answers are inside all of us already, it's
about phrasing the question right.

***

I was vindicated recently. A colleague of mine who runs an NGO that runs
victim-offender mediation programs participated in an OS I had written
about. I ran an OS for his wife's NGO, which deals with teenagers with
substance abuse issues. He was not at the OS in the beginning, came late.
But he was full of irony about the technology: "what a great job. You just
walk in, announce the space is open, you sit around. then pronounce the
space closed and get paid for it."

Later I learned he did see the value of OST (he did not share this with me
directly) and plans on using OS at an international restorative justice
conference to be held in Moscow in June...This will be an opportunity for
everyone to at least spend a little time discussing other issues at the
conference. 

He has scheduled 2 1/2 hours for this OS, to be held towards the end of the
conference. The rest of the multi-day conference will be in traditional
format, with plenaries and other assorted (yawn) old paradigm goodies.

I am curious, those who have scheduled or seen mini-OS's within a larger
event, how necessary do you think it is to necessarily do the whole circle
walk, attention to breath, and other things to open the space? Is it
necessarily to even sit in a circle? My hunch is if people have already
worked together for more than a day that the space is already open. I have
already participated in a fully open OS before within a multi-day conference
(this was with Intertraining, the professional association of trainers and
consultants that Michael Pannewitz and Jo Toepfer trained in OST. Almost
everyone had at least participated in an OS, if they hadn't led one
already.)

Sending circles of clarity from a cool and overcast Moscow,

Raffi (Aftandelian)

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