What have we learned?

[Chris Corrigan]

Harrison:

In September 1995 I sat in a circle of something like 400 people at a
conference centre in Whistler and watched as Ann Stadler, Angeles
Arrien, Chris Carter and others opened space.  I convened a session on
storytelling.  Since then my life has not been the same.

When I first saw OST in action I knew that I had come home.  Something
resonated deeply in me about the process, something spoke to me of a
very old way of doing business that has been smothered in a flood of
newness.

It's impossible to put into a few words what I have learned as a
result of practising open space for coming on ten years now.  It's
fair to say that my entire life stands as a learning journey propelled
by passion and responsibility, being guided by the four principles and
the law and I've also noticed a few things about facilitating groups!

So here's something of what I have learned:

* it's possible to live a life around principles that some guy
assembled in a bar.
* the hardest thing in the world to do as a facilitator is to do nothing at all
* OST has re-connected me with my indigenous roots.  Elders know their
culture when they see it and the wide eyed astonishment I get from
Elders in open space tells me we're on to something...that our deep
traditions and wisdom about leadership and process ARE alive after
all, and have survived the cultural and historical slaughter like
grass seeds in a prairie fire and now it's popping up all over the
place.
* that there is no stopping people who discover that passion and
responsibility are the only two things you need to begin asking
questions that change everything.
* that anything you come up with should be freely given away in the
hopes that it will be used and abused by the world.  In this respect,
Harrison has set a standard of sharing that we are obliged not to fall
short of.  You cannot put this genie back in the bottle.
^ that whoever comes are the right people means that we can look at
one another in in the most remarkable ways, as teachers, leaders and
co-learners and that we are able to take our inspiration from
anywhere.
* That robustness and sustainability live in the connections in a
self-organized network and not in the nodes that acquire the power and
authority at the expense of everyone else.
* That the only questions we really need to as are how open am I?  How
inviting am I? How much more can I hold?  How grounded can we be?
* tricksters and fools lie in the most interesting places and in some
of the dead and dull places too and that regardless we ignore them at
our peril.
* that life lived as a practise of invitation has the power to
transform anything.
* that it is possible to raise children and facilitate their learning
in open space, and that should be a lesson to us all about where we
expect our living to come from.

Thank you Harrison for prompting the question and getting us into this
pickle in the first place...I'm not done answering, not by a long
shot.  I continue to live my life and learning about Open Space openly
on my weblog and on this list and elsewhere...it's just an evolving
state.

Meegwetch,

Chris

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