Keepin' Busy

Harrison Owen hhowen at verizon.net
Tue Jan 10 07:21:39 PST 2006


I guess I fibbed a wee bit. Yes I am working on a book (or the book is
working on me) - and there are a few other things coming down as well. I
have also been working with a really neat organization which is seeking to
open some space in a very critical area. And they are more than a little
worried about really opening space. We have been going on and on until I
felt constrained to send the following message. I share it here because I
thought it might be of interest. As I was writing this about 5 this morning
I thought fondly of Lisa and her speech about "only the highly evolved..."
But I didn't think that would work in this case. Needless to say I have
scrubbed all the identifying details.

 Dear XXXX -- I am glad that you still think Open Space is the way to go --
but I must confess that I am having some reservations. These reservations
have nothing to do with the capacity of Open Space enable this group, or
indeed any group, to engage in meaningful conversation and come to useful
conclusions. The issue for me is two fold -- First, Do the sponsors feel
sufficiently trusting and supportive to let the process run? There will be
moments of high tension, and experience has shown that the people themselves
can and will handle it all by themselves. The bottom line is that I just let
it go. Once underway, we are gone, and there is no place for intervention,
mid-course correction, the conference management committee doing a
re-design. It is all up to the people.

My second area of concern is whether or not what I might call "competing
interests" create conditions that are, to some real extent, antithetical to
real Open Space. I am thinking particularly of the Press. I clearly
understand the need for press coverage -- just to get the word out. The
problem is that deep conversations can rarely be reduced to sound-bites.
Even worse, deep conversations which are only partially concluded are even
less susceptible to being sound-bites. I think it is quite possible that we
will reach the end of the first day in Open Space and there is nothing to
report -- or at least nothing that anybody wants to report. It is equally
possible that we will reach the end of the conference in the same condition.
Several thousand years (well almost) of understandings, misunderstandings,
ignorance, misperceptions, to say nothing of mis-trust and anger will not be
resolved in three days. We can make a good effort, and things may well move
along much further than we have any right to expect -- but expectations of
any sort can be very problematical. The hard lesson of Open Space (and I
think life as well) is that firm attachment to specific outcomes is usually
disastrous. When you don't get what you expected the temptation is to think
that you achieved nothing at all. And if the expectation is that by the end
we will have a neatly tied up body of conclusions combined with action
plans, all of which may be "briefed" to the Press, I think that is quite
unlikely. Possible for sure -- but unlikely. And should any of this occur
(or actually NOT Occur) the press will leave frustrated and might well
report total failure. The fact that subtle, but important movement took
place in the building of relationships, the definitions of issues and
opportunities for future conversations (but not immediate resolution) will
escape them because they were not part of the conversations. That would not
be, I would judge, a desirable outcome.

An even worse scenario would be if we were to drive the whole conference
towards a final, definitive document with neat conclusions, recommendations
and actions. That would effectively shut the space down, and the only way to
assure such an outcome would be to have all of the conclusions,
recommendations and actions defined in advance. Obviously there are multiple
international conferences that do just that. Such conferences have the
advantage of meeting expectations and maintaining the semblance of control.
But that is not open space (or Open Space).

The crux of the matter, I think, is that everybody (certainly the organizing
body) must be willing to exist in that wonderful Great Cloud of Unknowing.
Something for sure will happen, but there is absolutely no way to predict or
assure what that "something" might be. Personally, I have always found that
the "something" we didn't expect was so much better than what was predicted
as to make everything worth while. But you can never tell in advance.

I have written at such length because I think it is absolutely critical that
all the responsible parties are totally clear about what we are getting into
-- which paradoxically is that we really don't have a clue, and certainly no
guarantees. Hope, desires for sure -- but we will not know what is achieved
until it has happened, and even then we may not be too sure.

Personally, I also want to make sure that nobody mistakes me for a salesman
or even an advocate for Open Space. I am delighted to share my experience
and pleased to offer my services, but the choice on how to proceed is not
mine to make. Truth to tell, I guess I am an advocate, not for Open Space
Technology -- but rather for the people and their capacity to make sense out
of the confusing and progress out of difficulty. But you can never tell how
it will all work out.

Harrison


Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, Maryland   20854
Phone 301-365-2093
Skype hhowen
Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com <http://www.openspaceworld.com/>

Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
Personal website www.ho-image.com 
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