Reflections of a Bumblebee

[Viv McWaters]

Hello all

After OSonOS (Open Space on Open Space) in Goa (12th conference) , I
bumblebbed off to the Improv in Business Conference in San Francisco
(3rd conference), and then to the Australasian Facilitators' Network in
Wellington, New Zealand (7th conference). After all that travelling,
it's a relief to be home at last and I'm enjoying the spring sunshine.

Here's some observations/reflections. Each of the conferences I went to
attracts people who don't necessarily belong to an 'obvious'
professional group eg Society of Engineers. As a result, I think, many
people are looking for a professional 'tribe' or group that they can
relate to. At each conference there was talk about 'community' - what
community is, it's role and whether not <this group> constitutes
community. There was also talk at each conference about 'why we meet',
what our purpose is, and how we should organise ourselves, and support,
each other into the future.

OSonOS used Open Space for the whole three days, Imrov in Business used
Open Space for one day, and AFN used Open Space for half a day. In each
case, Open Space provided opportunities to explore, deepen and
improvise :-) At all three conferences there were people who had never
participated in an Open Space event before. In San Francisco and
Wellington, the opening was pretty much 'by the book' providing an
opportunity to experience the process (especially) for those who hadn't
seen it before. In Goa, the opening was more 'organic'.

The day of Open Space at the end of the Improv conference provided
opportunities to explore issues/topics that had emerged. Interestingly,
there seemed to be a bit of 'will you do a session on such-and-such?'
With the Open Space concluding the conference (except for a fantastic
Playback Theatre wrap up), the closing circle provided an ideal
opportunity to also close the conference, with people able to express
their thanks etc. In Wellington, the Open Space closing circle felt
like a conference closing (although there was still a free night and
another half day to go), maybe because it was focused on future
commitments whereas it could have simply been a reflection on the
process of using open space. In any case, open space provided people at
all three conferences to take personal responsibility for their own
passions, and added an exciting and spontaneous dimension.

For me, Open Space is improv in action. During the Improv conference
itself, I learnt some really neat ways of using improv games to explore
the principles and Law as well as  the concept of 'letting go' as a
facilitator. But a major learning was when we did Team Rhythm with Paul
Cicco where he uses  a vast array of music-making implements (tubes,
bells, drums, rattles etc) to explore M Scott Peck's community
framework that is in his 1987 book 'The Different Drum: Community
Making and Peace'.

I had a major Ah-Ha! moment when it occurred to me that this framework
also can help explain people's reactions to Open Space. Forgive me if I
oversimplify this (or get it wrong) but here's how the framework goes:
there are four stages to community-building. Stage one is  Organisation
where people happily go along with rules, structure and being told what
to do; Stage Two is Chaos where there's uncertainty, exploration and a
sense of purposelessness; Stage Three is Emptiness that Peck describes
as 'letting go of the need to heal, convert, fix or solve; the need to
control; expectations and preconceptions; prejudices; and idealogy,
theology and solutions. The final stage is Synergy.

As well as describing the experience of Open Space, this also explains
for  me (or provides a metaphor at least) for the diversity of
reactions and my own journey in OSonOS over the years. It also throws
some light on the struggles occurring in three diverse, yet amazingly
similar, communities - the International Open Space community; the
Applied Improvisation network; and the Australasian Facilitators'
network. All are struggling (to a greater or lesser degree) with
identity, purpose and future directions, while providing fantastic
opportunities for learning and sharing and doing leading edge work. I
look forward to being a part of these amazing communities as we
improvise our way forward, accepting the offers the universe throws at
us.

Cheers

Viv

PS Sorry for any cross postings

***************************
Viv McWaters
Beyond the Edge Pty Ltd
PO Box 665 Torquay 3228
Australia
(03) 5261 9498
0417 135 406

"Thus the task is not so much to see what no one yet has seen, but to
think what nobody yet has thought about that which everybody sees. "
Schopenhauer

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