Found Poem -- May 10-14, 2006 -- The Mystery of Open Space

[Lisa Heft]

Hello, dear colleagues.  I just cut off all my hair - so now I am wearing
many hats.  Among others, I have a tiara (as Access Queen) and a crown of
oak leaves (as the current Poet Laureate for OSLIST).  I write to you today
as Poet Laureate.  I am not a poet - or rather, we are all poets.  As we all
are healers.  As we all are brave and wise.  We just don't know it all the
time.  But I suspect that each of us is amazing.  For today's piece of
poetry, I submit to you another 'found' poem.  Our wonderful colleague
Laurel Doersam (Canada) first brought a found poem to our OSLIST when she
herself was Poet Laureate.  I love the idea (you can see another found poem
if you look in the archives for "Found Poem - March 1-4, 2006 -- Touch the
Now").   A found poem takes bits and phrases and puts them together in a way
that pleases the poet.  Perhaps you remember the recent conversation about
the Mystery of Open Space.?

__________________________________________________________________________ 

 

The Mystery of Open Space

"Found" Poem, May 10-14, 2006

 

Mystery: [Middle English misterie, from Latin mystrium, from Greek mustrion,
secret rite, from musts, an initiate, from mein, to close the eyes,
initiate.] 

The American HeritageR Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition--
Copyright C 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.

 

 

  

Close your eyes. 

and begin.

 

 

Twenty one years ago, the first Open Space took place 

Since then 

60,000 times          120 countries       millions of people

groups of 5 to over 2000 people 

local environmental planning       designing new polymers

redesigning manufacturing processes      sharing knowledge across
disciplines 

understanding each other across differences        weaving peace

 

21 years in Open Space 

one wonderful, continuing, natural experiment

the results have been consistent 

across facilitators, cultures, organizational types 

 

 

you would think that Open Space 

is the newest     riskiest     most avant-garde 

way of doing business. 

 

Something is definitely strange! 

Even the name sounds a little weird 

            

People speak of doing an Open Space 

with a sense of mystery 

and wonder 

usually associated with 

walking on the moon, 

raising the dead, or

eliminating gravity 

 

There are lots of mysteries.   

 

Mystery.  

Eludes understanding.

Unexplainable.

 

What supposedly happens when you use it 

defies imagination. 

 

Just couldn't happen!   

But it does. 

 

More than that,  

it has happened thousands of times

  

It continues to happen 

every time a group of people are invited

to gather in a circle 

around a major issue 

of common concern

 

Order happens, 

all by itself. 

 

They simply go to work. 

No fuss, no bother, no organizing committee, no facilitators

nothing but                  people 

doing what they care to do relative to a subject of genuine concern.

 

 

Mystery.  Secret rite.  As if anything in Open Space is secret.  It is all
there for you to see.  And feel.

 

Literally anyone can participate 

to fully bring ourselves to              any             and all
conversations

 

A space where we as participants

feel we can easily 

choose to be           ourselves.

 

 

The real mystery is - 

Why is Open Space a mystery?

 

The clues for solution 

lie right there in plain sight 

We stumble over them every day

which only deepens the sense of mystery!

 

Mystery.  Miss the trees.

Maybe we are trying hard to see a forest and we are missing the trees.

  

Humans.  They have this need to know.

To explain the unexplainable.

To define the indefinable.

 

Something is definitely going on 

What does it mean?  How does it work?? (we need to know)

 

To some, it feels.unsettling.

If nobody is in charge, maybe we all are 

Paradigm shift is a most painful and traumatic event. 

But what is the new paradigm?  What is the new theory?  What does it all
mean anyhow? 

Some see it as pure magic 

that what happens 

could even happen.  

Some see no "magic" at all.  

Just the working out of complex systems which self-organize.

For some of them, it's no big deal 

and in fact is just what complex systems do 

For some social network theory gives evidence and explanation of what
happens.  

For some, the ability to allow 

the emergence              of spirit 

                           and new collective consciousness 

blows them away.

Other people, 

with different experiences, 

are going to tell 

other stories.

 

What is a "mystery" is based on how you interpret your experience.

When your theory is at odds with your experience, 

that would be some reasonable indication 

that a change in theory 

might be a good idea.

 

I love the many mysteries.

 

It is all questionable, 

It is all conversable. 

 

And in the mean time, the Space rolls on!

 

Maybe if we just                close our eyes

and breathe

we know

without naming defining analyzing verbalizing

  

it's okay to just                know 

   or to just                 not know

 

 

  

Close your eyes.

and begin.

 

 

  

 

 

-- by Harrison Owen, Raffi Aftandelian, Larry Peterson, Joelle Lyons Everett
and Lisa Heft

May 14, 2006

 

 

___________________________

L i s a   H e f t

Consultant, Facilitator, Educator

O p e n i n g  S p a c e

 <mailto:lisaheft at openingspace.net> lisaheft at openingspace.net

 <http://www.openingspace.net> www.openingspace.net 

 


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