My reflections on the Goa OSonOS (longish)

Mon Oct 4 11:23:47 PDT 2004

Alex -- Before anything I want to thank you (and all the "readers") for the
audio version of "The Practice of Peace." It was truly a labor of love, and
deserves wide distribution and good listening. Of course, I think my words
are immortal :-) -- but truthfully the real charm and impact is the many
voices from all over the world each one giving his or her special
interpretation. To be honest, I found myself in tears as I listened to
friends from around the planet. I am frankly disappointed that my publisher
has not been more forthcoming in terms of providing a web-home. However, I
think there may be an opportunity here. The total file is a large one (75
meg?), and I suspect it would be more accessible to folks if it were on a
CD. Perhaps the several Open Space Institutes could make copies available
for an appropriate fee that would cover costs and make some money for good
causes -- like supporting folks who want to come to OSONOS . . . ?

Speaking of OSONOS -- I applaud your candor and willingness to dive in, and
for sure there is much to be learned from this Open Space, as indeed every
Open Space. That said, I am not quite sure what exactly we might do
differently at least in a proactive (pre-planned) sort of way.

Take the matter of a theme. As a matter of fact, one year we did have a
theme. I think it was something like, "Opening Space in our lives and our
World: Issues and Opportunities." As near as I could figure out, nobody paid
any attention to it -- or it might be more accurate to say that the theme
represented what we were going to do anyhow, so why talk about it. I would
bet anything, however, that nobody came (or didn't come) based on the theme.
They came because they wanted to be with friends and colleagues in Open
Space, share stories, deepen their understanding of the approach and
applications, and I am sure many more things. Which is pretty much what we
did.

Group size and depth of listening are always matters for concern, but
personally I have never quite been able to figure out what might be the
"right size" or the proper set of ears. I have found myself in groups of 40
or more that were vital and stimulating. And then there were those groups of
two that were deadly dull. And just when I thought -- My God, everybody is
talking and nobody is listening -- somebody would come out with an astute
comment indicated total, acute awareness (real listening). Go figure! And
when all else fails, there is always the law of two feet (or should I say
Law of Mobility???).

But I really loved was your admission that in spite of everything you had a
great time when not in the "formal sessions." (". . .all the conversations I
had outside of the sessions really made my coming there worthwhile, so my
time there was certainly not wasted.") Man after my own heart! A true
Butterfly!! I have to confess that there have been a number of OSONOS's in
which I did not go to a single session. But, did I have a blast talking to,
and being with, great people? Or just sitting quietly by myself?  YES!!! And
everybody else seemed to be doing exactly needed or wanted, and I didn't
have to do a thing or worry a bit. Just enjoyed myself, and grow with the
flow.

As for the weird parts -- I would guess that weirdness is in the eye of the
beholder. Certainly there were a few things going on that I would not have
done. But nothing occurred from which I did not learn -- if only a learning
not to do that particular thing/chant/meditation/whatever. I did think we
might have been a little more circumspect when it came to the use of
ceremonies specific to a particular group of people -- but even there I took
it as a gift to be received and not an offence to be taken. I remember
several years ago in Australia we were greeted by an indigenous person with
the traditional Welcome to the Land ceremony. It was powerful. And besides,
we might do well to remember that "Those who live in Glass Houses should not
throw rocks." Which is just another way of saying that any group of people
who routinely sit in a circle, create a bulletin board, open a market place,
and then proceed to have a nap and/or go fiercely to work -- all the while
violating virtually every principle of meeting management and organizational
theory, to say nothing of having a lot of fun -- should be very careful
about playing the "weird card." You want weird? We do weird!! But don't tell
a soul.

Anyhow, Alex, it is just great to know that you are on the planet!

Harrison

Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, Maryland   20845
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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-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Alexander
Kjerulf
Sent: Monday, October 04, 2004 5:34 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: My reflections on the Goa OSonOS (longish)

Hi

I just got back from India, and here are my reflections on this years
OSonOS.

First of all there were lots of things I enjoyed about the OSonOS:

    * I met some wonderful people, some for the first time; some again
    * The place was absolutely wonderful - See for yourself, I posted
      some pictures here: http://www.positivesharing.com/Goa
    * I had many great and inspiring conversations outside of the sessions
    * And best of all, we (the Happy at Work Project) may now have a
      shot at creating the Happy at Work Project, India

BUT :-)

Those of you who were there know that I was frustrated with the
conference itself. This was also true at last years event in Denmark
(the first OSonOS I attended) but at that time I chose not to express it.

During the evening news on the second day, I presented my observations
on what frustrated me. I realize of course that these are only my
experiences. Other people may have (and indeed did have) totally
different experiences. Anyway, here's what frustrated me at the OSonOS:
*Not much listening.* People seemed more eager to speak than to listen.
*Not much depth.* Few conversations achieved any real depth, since many
comments didn't seem to build on what was said earlier in the conversation.
*Too large groups.* Many (most?) groups had 10 - 20 people in them,
which of course makes deep conversation and listening more difficult.
For my taste, I prefer groups with at most 8 people.
*Too much weird stuff.* Every day of the OSonOS opened with singing,
chanting, laughter exercises and other "weird stuff" :-) . I have
nothing against that in itself (and indeed use some of it once in a
while), but it didn't really add to my experience.
*Experienced OS'ers don't seem open to input*. The experienced OS people
in the crowd were wonderfully willing to share their experiences, but
seemed less willing to listen to new ideas.
*Evening circle takes too long*. The evening circle went on for a long
time - too long in my opinion.

I say this without any intention of blame or indictment. Please also
remember that this kind of thing always looks worse in worse in writing.
And as I said at the conference, I only say this, because I think the OS
community can deal with it, and should be given a chance to do so -
rather than just me dealing with it on my own by not coming to any more
OSonOS'es.

The paradox here is, that all the conversations I had outside of the
sessions really made my coming there worthwhile, so my time there was
certainly not wasted. It's just that I KNOW that OS conversations can be
so much more than what I saw at both this and last years OSonOS'es.

Now, I'm not going to throw something like this out there, without also
thinking about what we can do about it, and so we did a session on that
on the third day. We saw some ideas brewing as to what we could do to
improve the OSonOS, while at the same time maintaining (and maybe even
strengthening) all the good things the OSonOS does for the OS community
already. This is not about revolution, it's about taking an appreciative
approach to what already works in the OSonOS, and how we can build on that.

But before we start that, there should be some sort of buy-in from the
OS community. If the prevailing mood is, that "the OSonOS is fine, don't
mess with it", then we'll leave it at the. If the mood is "The OSonOS is
fine, let's make it even more fine", then we might start with an
appreciative inquiry right here on the list - I'd be happy to get it going.

What do you think?

Cheers

Alex

--
Alexander Kjerulf
alexander at kjerulf.com
http://www.positivesharing.com

+45 2688 2373
Tagensvej 126, lejl. 613
2200 København N

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