Take any newspaper, any day..........

Gerard Muller gm at openspace.dk
Tue May 23 07:22:21 PDT 2006


For example “Politikken” of this morning, already the first two pages 
there are four important spaces to be opened.


How can we keep offering the same - or a better- level of service to 
citizens in spite of having fewer employees ?

How do we withdraw from Irak creating as much value - and with as 
little damage as possible ?

How do we dramatically improve quality in our homes for the elderly /

How do we save our poultry sector ?

And I notice it is like that, each day. Probably the same in other 
newspapers, other countries.


How do we create enough capacity to do all that ?

Another interesting issue, which maybe - only maybe -  will be 
discussed at the 6th Scandinavian Open Space on Open Space. Come and 
join us !




Gerard Muller							Thomas Herrmann
OSI Denmark							OSI Sweden
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>From  Tue May 23 10:53:57 2006
Message-Id: <TUE.23.MAY.2006.105357.0400.>
Date: Tue, 23 May 2006 10:53:57 -0400
Reply-To: hhowen at verizon.net
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net>
Organization: HH Owen and Co.
Subject: The Da Vinci Connection -- Open Space and the Feminine
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

I, along with many other folks, have just finished wandering through "The Da
Vinci Code" in preparation for seeing the movie. Hardly great literature,
but definitely a good read - exactly the sort of thing one needs as a warm
up for the summer-lite reading. It is obviously marvelous fiction in terms
of most of the plot, organizations and characters - but I was surprised just
how deeply I became involved for reasons having nothing to do with all the
plots and counter plots.

Who knows how it happened exactly, but it is pretty clear that sometime
around the 3rd-4th centuries the presence of the Feminine took a distinct
nose dive in the West. A long time ago, when I actually thought I would be a
REAL academic, I spent a lot of time reading and thinking about the multiple
religious bodies in what used to be the Roman Empire. One of my favorites
was Magna Mater - or the Great Mother, also known as The Earth Mother, The
Goddess. Turns out, She was real popular with a number of folks in the Roman
Legions along with many others. As such Magna Mater constituted more than a
minimal threat to the Empire and the Emperor, who rather liked being God
himself. It also turned out that the Great Mother was not quite the nice
lady all of us might hope for, but that is a different tale. To make a long
story very short, and oversimplified, The Great Mother was run out of the
Empire, and although a lot of folks might blame the Christian Church, I
think the truth of the matter is that those early Christians and
Christianity simply provided a handy alternative. If you couldn't have The
Great Mother, what were you going to do?

However it happened, the Feminine has been largely absent/repressed in The
West, an observation which is hardly novel at this point. Perhaps one of the
best statements comes from Riane Eisler in her notable book, "The Chalice
and the Blade." Which, incidentally, should be required reading before
seeing the "Da Vinci Code." :-) I might argue that Riane had a little too
much "Chalice" and not enough "Blade" - but that is obviously a male
speaking and for sure serious correction, even over-correction was in order.

So what does all this have to do with Open Space? Starting perhaps a dozen
years ago I noticed that when we were doing training programs, a significant
proportion of the participants were women. Initially the ratio might have
been 3/1 (males to females), which might not seem like much now, but even a
dozen years ago, professionals in the field (of OD, Facilitation etc) were
predominantly male. More recently the ratio has switched almost completely -
3/1 females to males. I even had one program where the ratio was 15/1!
Watching this tend I came to a conclusion - Women Get it! But what about the
Guys? 

Over the years it has become apparent the male of the species is by no means
excluded, but I think there may be an extra loop of learning, at least for
some of us. It is all about consciously accessing our Feminine. Of course,
what is sauce for the gander is sauce for the goose, and I believe that my
female colleagues improve their capacity to open and hold space to the
extent that they consciously access their Masculine. Which brings me to a
central point - Balance, or better yet, a dance of male and female energy.

Perhaps this could be part of the answer to the ongoing conundrum - how
could something so simple (OS) be so powerful and simultaneously feel so
good? In Open Space the continuing dance of male and female insures that the
whole of humanity is present. Not just male. Not just female. But both -- in
constant conversation. 

There might also be another clue to a continuing mystery - How could it be
that something with the track record of Open Space (easy, economical, and
effective - with massive experience) still be perceived as weird, far out,
"touchy-feely," and definitely not to be used HERE? The answer might be
that, when seen from the testosterone laced executive suite (where the
inhabitants are mostly male, but females are infected as well), Open Space
becomes a definite threat. It is not just that the Feminine shows up - but
she shows up as an equal partner in the dance. That would be sufficient to
threaten any Emperor! 

Now back to the Da Vinci Code!


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 
OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives
Visit: www.listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
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>From  Tue May 23 10:59:44 2006
Message-Id: <TUE.23.MAY.2006.105944.0400.>
Date: Tue, 23 May 2006 10:59:44 -0400
Reply-To: hhowen at verizon.net
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net>
Organization: HH Owen and Co.
Subject: Re: Take any newspaper, any day..........
In-Reply-To: <e553c01b55633070d7f8272cb5f199e8 at openspace.dk>
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

Gerard -- You are HOT! I mean with your words :-) Take any the headlines
(main and column headlines) of any good news paper anywhere in the world and
you can't help but find at least a dozen juicy spaces to be opened. Actually
this is an old technique called trend analysis, practiced most famously by
intelligence analysts in World War II, and more recently by John Nesbit of
Megatrends fame. 

Harrison

Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, Maryland   20854
Phone 301-365-2093
Skype hhowen
Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com 
Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
Personal website www.ho-image.com 
OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the
archives Visit: www.listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html


-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Gerard
Muller
Sent: Tuesday, May 23, 2006 10:22 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Take any newspaper, any day..........

For example “Politikken” of this morning, already the first two pages 
there are four important spaces to be opened.


How can we keep offering the same - or a better- level of service to 
citizens in spite of having fewer employees ?

How do we withdraw from Irak creating as much value - and with as 
little damage as possible ?

How do we dramatically improve quality in our homes for the elderly /

How do we save our poultry sector ?

And I notice it is like that, each day. Probably the same in other 
newspapers, other countries.


How do we create enough capacity to do all that ?

Another interesting issue, which maybe - only maybe -  will be 
discussed at the 6th Scandinavian Open Space on Open Space. Come and 
join us !




Gerard Muller							Thomas
Herrmann
OSI Denmark							OSI Sweden
*
*
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