access

Lisa Heft lisaheft at openingspace.net
Wed Apr 13 17:13:40 PDT 2005


Hello, all -

John, you wrote of those people who may not (my words) be able to choose
to get into the room for an Open Space.

Thank you so much for your gentle presence as you once again share your
voice for others whose voices we cannot hear.

I feel that the pre-work is such a huge part of an Open Space, or any
other such process / invitation / consideration.  And that the pre-work
includes working with a client / host / sponsor to see who needs to be
invited, and to help with ideas on how to make it possible for people of
lesser means or minority culture to get there IF invited.

(It is one thing to invite someone and say 'we welcome you and want you
to be with us' - another thing to make it as easy for them to get there
as any other person.  Ah...now THAT is a true and welcome invitation, in
my eyes).

So I work with a client / host / sponsor to help them identify who needs
to be in the room to create the most sparkling diversity of thinking,
experience, viewpoint, life knowledge, and so on.  And I let them know
this when we decide to work together - that the 'burden' of invitation
is on them to invite, and keep inviting and keep inviting, and look at
who's coming, and to keep 'slicing the cake' in another direction each
time to see who's missing and how to get them there.

So for people who are at a disadvantage of power or resources or
majority numbers or other such things, I feel it is essential that extra
assistance is given to them to be able to accept an invitation.  I feel
the host has to 'bend over backwards' to provide whatever it takes to
make it easy for those individuals to come.  Be that child care,
nutrition, 'buddies', assuring physical access for people who may have
unapparent disabilities, giving pocket money to some individuals so they
can socialize with folks in the evening like everyone else gets to,
preparing a few materials in their language (be that regional language
or for example youth language), having some folks get to arrive earlier
to interact and feel as if they 'own the space' more, setting the OS in
a location that brings people with resources TO people without
resources...whatever it takes that is possible.  And please note that
these things do not require a sponsor having access to money - many of
these offerings are created by just a little extra work.

And having said that, there will always be people who are not in the
room, and I always try to hold them in my heart and hear those voices so
they can inform our work, to try to be better next time, to pledge to
continue to generate creative solutions towards getting whomever has the
passion and sense of responsibility towards the issue into the room.  A
promise to myself to not just talk about being connected, but to act on
it.

For things like our own OSonOS, we may not all have such things as money
to offer to each other.  But a little here and a little there, a sharing
of a room, paying for a dinner out for someone else, helping someone
with a travel visa letter, picking someone up at the airport when they
are in a new culture and country, offering to be a buddy should they
need one...it all helps.

As a friend of mine says (and this is I think a great measurement
system): Everything you do is more.

Thanks to you all,

Lisa
___________________________
L i s a   H e f t
Consultant, Facilitator, Educator
O p e n i n g  S p a c e
2325 Oregon
Berkeley, California
94705-1106   USA
+01 510 548-8449
lisaheft at openingspace.net
www.openingspace.net


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